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July 29, 2010 |
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| September 09, 2008 |
By: Alana Roberts |
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he Miami office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney is offering to sublet its space at a downtown landmark while recovering from a mass defection and dealing with a firmwide identity crisis.
Departures have reduced the number of South Florida attorneys to 15 from a height of 24. Eight are in Miami, and seven are in Aventura.
But despite that, litigator Rick Morgan, co-managing partner of the two offices, said the firm is seeking to grow in Miami to as many as 20 attorneys by the end of 2009.
But it may shrink its footprint in the meantime.
The firm already has subleased a small portion of the 21,000 square feet it leases on the 34th and 35th floors of the Bank of America Tower at International Place in Miami to outside lawyers.
Donald Cartwright, a Cushman & Wakefield leasing director, said law firms typically rent 575 to 750 square feet per lawyer.
Applied to Buchanan’s Miami office, that would translate to a need for 4,600 to 6,000 square feet.
“A lot of it depends on the practice and the preference of a law firm itself,” he said. “You might have a large concentration of very productive lawyers or rainmakers that prefer larger offices. You may prefer a standardized size that allows you to recruit and expand without getting into conflicts of office size.”
Buchanan is looking to sublease a portion or all of its remaining space in Miami, said the firm’s real estate adviser, Lance Benson, a Grubb & Ellis vice president.
“The firm has a long-term plan to grow and rebuild,” he said. “As it relates to some of the short-term goals, we’re looking to sublease.”
But the option is not an indication of a lack of commitment to the South Florida market, Morgan said.
“Just because there’s a contingency plan to sublease or look at where the market is isn’t inherently contradictory to our desire to grow and expand in Miami,” he said.
If Buchanan subleased its Miami space, it would look for temporary space in the city, Morgan said. The current lease expires in 2011.
The firm needs less space now in part because former Buchanan litigator William Davis took a group of eight attorneys with him in December to help launch a Miami office for Foley & Lardner. He became managing partner of the 16-lawyer office.
The move may have been a symptom of bigger problems for the Pennsylvania-based firm. The departing Miami attorneys are among 35 who have left Buchanan from offices around the nation since last year.
The 500-layer firm is ranked 96th on the Am Law 100 list based on gross revenue, which was up nearly 4 percent to $282 million last year.
Former Buchanan attorneys say the firm is at a crossroads in terms of its direction, and an internal report suggests the firm is struggling financially.
A June 25 shareholder business report obtained by Daily Business Review affiliate Legal Times said few Buchanan attorneys met their billable hour goals for the first five months of the year, and the firm was $10.5 million short of its billing goals.
Some attorneys who left say the firm has focused so much on its Pennsylvania base that it failed to channel enough resources to satellite offices in Miami, New York and California.
“There’s an issue with Buchanan as to its identity,” said a source familiar with the firm’s Miami operations. “Is it a national firm or a strong regional firm? That’s a common denominator in a lot of firms that don’t have a huge national footprint. Buchanan is a strong firm in Pennsylvania and very strong in the Washington, D.C.-Alexandria area, and they have a great Tampa office.”
Morgan, who also is a member of the firm’s board of directors, rejected the assertion that the firm hasn’t supported its satellite offices and said the firm is focused on growth.
The firm entered the South Florida market in 1988, opening an Aventura office primarily to serve developer and longtime client Turnberry Associates. The office focuses on real estate, trusts and estates and corporate work.
The Miami office opened in 1995. It has been more litigation-oriented.
Davis said he decided to leave because Foley & Lardner offered him a better opportunity to expand his general commercial and intellectual property litigation practice with a wider national and international platform.
“Foley for a long time had wanted to be in the Miami geography, and they provided a very attractive strategic plan for us,” he said.
Leaders of Buchanan’s eight-lawyer Miami and seven-lawyer Aventura offices say the firm has a solid commitment to growth, and they are actively recruiting candidates for both offices.
“We look at the two offices as one office,” said Jack Kessler, co-managing partner for Buchanan’s Miami and Aventura offices who also practices in the firm’s home office in Pittsburgh. “More recently the Aventura office has become strategic for us in allowing us to position ourselves to enter Broward and Palm Beach counties more effectively.”
The firm has doubled its 5,000-square-foot lease in Aventura with an eye toward further penetrating the markets of Broward and Palm Beach counties. Jack Kessler said the firm is targeting the region’s expanding biotechnology field.
Rose LaFemina, a trusts and estates shareholder in the firm’s Aventura office, said her practice has been robust in a low-interest environment, and she is helping the firm recruit a probate litigator to assist in her practice.
“This year for me has been an exceptional year,” she said. “My business has been up probably about 40 percent.”
The firm’s South Florida litigation attorneys have been busy this year and are on target to log 2,000 hours each this year, Morgan said.
“We have a nice inventory of work. We’ve had a growth in clients and in work in the Miami office,” he said.
Alana Roberts can be reached at (305) 347-6648.
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