28 décembre, 2006 14:57
Ogletree Deakins Continues Growth Spurt With Another Pa. Acquisition
Gina Passarella
The Legal Intelligencer
12-28-2006
In its second acquisition in Pennsylvania in the last two days, labor and employment firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart has entered the Pittsburgh market.
The firm acquired six-attorney Polito & Smock in the Steel City just a day after announcing that it would acquire four-attorney Simon Moran in Philadelphia.
Thomas A. Smock, Michael D. Glass, John C. Artz, and Jack Owen III will join the firm as shareholders and Jean M. Simmonds and John H. Riordan Jr. will join as an associate and of counsel, respectively. The office will open effective Jan. 1 and Smock will serve as the managing partner.
That will make for three office openings in one day for the firm as it has also announced the opening of Cleveland and Philadelphia offices on Jan. 1.
Joining that office will be shareholders Dan Pace, Bruce G. Hearey and Wade M. Fricke.
Polito & Smock has focused its practice on assisting employers facing union representation campaigns, labor negotiations or unfair labor practice charges; handling employment discrimination litigation; defending wrongful discharge, wage and hour, workplace safety and health lawsuits; and negotiating employee benefit and ERISA issues.
The firm does handle some toxic tort defense work, but Smock said it is only for management and about 95 percent of the firm's work is labor and employment.
He said his firm began thinking of merging into a national platform around September. Smock had worked with a few attorneys in Ogletree Deakins' Washington, D.C., office and thought the firm would be a good fit.
Smock has a national practice representing several coal clients in Texas where Ogletree Deakins has four offices. He also represents CG Aviation, which has 50 or so offices across the country. Smock said Ogletree Deakins has a presence in about 20 of those locations.
Gray Geddie, Ogletree Deakins' managing shareholder, said Tuesday that the firm has several clients in Pennsylvania, particularly in the eastern part of the state. Some of those clients, which are mainly in the service and manufacturing industries, include Tyco and Weichert Realtors, he said.
The firm had been servicing those clients from its Morristown, N.J., office, and Geddie said he felt they would be better served by a Philadelphia presence.
Ogletree Deakins has been in growth mode over the last past few years. Aside from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the firm opened an office in Tuscon in August 2006, a Phoenix office in 2005 and added attorneys to nearly each of its other offices over the last year.
"This is an exciting time for Ogletree Deakins as we've experienced tremendous growth over the last five years. In that period of time we've doubled the number of our offices from 14 to 28 and have grown from 165 attorneys to 350," Geddie said in a statement. "Adding offices in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was a natural progression for us and has enabled the firm to better serve our clients with operations in these locations."
The firm was ranked 173rd on the 2006 Am Law 200 chart, moving up from 195th place the year before. Ogletree Deakins had a reported $119 million in gross revenues, a revenue per lawyer of $435,000 and profits per partner of $430,000. Those numbers were based on a total of 273 lawyers.
