Mid-Atlantic-based midsize firm Offit Kurman has expanded its footprint into the Southeast U.S., bringing on 27 lawyers from Charlotte, North Carolina's Horack, Talley, Pharr & Lowndes.

The lawyers and staff of Horack Talley, numbering 51 in total, will become part of Offit Kurman effective Sept. 1, continuing to work out of their office at One Wells Fargo Center in Charlotte.

Offit Kurman CEO and co-founder Ted Offit said opening in the Southeast builds upon the firm's regional expansion strategy, which it kicked off about a decade ago to “capitalize on the vacancies that existed in representing privately owned businesses.” He said Offit Kurman was thinking about how to expand into the Southeast when Philadelphia-based legal recruiter Frank D'Amore reached out about Horack Talley.

“They've been operating for 80-plus years in Charlotte and they have deep inroads in the community. We knew we had to be aligned with the right people who understand the Southeast,” Offit said.

Clayton “Smithy” Curry Jr., who has been Horack Talley's managing attorney for more than two decades, said the firm has been approached about potential combinations many times over the years and wasn't tempted. But Offit Kurman was intriguing for its practice mix, as well as the opportunity to be a hub for the firm's new Southeast presence, he said.

“The legal industry in and of itself is becoming more competitive,” Curry said, and the combination with Offit Kurman “gives us an advantage to be on top of all that.” Specifically, combining with a larger firm provides the opportunity to expand relationships with existing clients, he added.

Offit Kurman has done much of its geographic expansion through similar arrangements, which it calls affiliations. These combinations are not mergers in the legal sense, but result in the lawyers of the smaller firm joining up with Offit Kurman. The latest combination is its largest yet.

Horack Talley has been in business since 1937. Its practices include business and corporate, community associations, family law, litigation, personal wealth services and real estate.

Offit and Curry both noted the overlap in practices—Offit Kurman has 26 family law attorneys and 13 real estate litigators, according to a firm spokesman. “The practice areas match up very well. Unusually well,” Offit said.

D'Amore, the recruiter, said he has been familiar with Offit Kurman for a few years, and recalled its family law depth specifically as he became better acquainted with Curry and Horack Talley. During and after the Great Recession, he said, “there were some other firms that really capitalized from a growth standpoint, and Offit Kurman is one of them.” Horack Talley, meanwhile, provides longtime Charlotte roots, as well as connections across the Carolinas, he added.

Charlotte has been a hotbed for large law firm expansion in recent years. According to data collected by ALM, 24 Am Law 200 firms now have an office in the city, and the number of Am Law 200 lawyers there has increased by 21% in the last decade.

Firms flocked there initially because of the city's prominence in the banking industry, D'Amore noted, but as the local economy continued to grow, the opportunities for law firms expanded beyond banking-related work.

Charlotte is Offit Kurman's 13th location, and its southernmost office yet. The firm was founded in Maryland and has expanded into Philadelphia, as well as Harrisburg and Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania; Delaware; Washington, D.C.; Northern Virginia; New York; and New Jersey.

Offit said the Charlotte combination will bring the firm's head count to more than 200. And, he said, if financial projections for the end of 2019 hold up, Offit Kurman will have grown 50% in two years.

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