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September 2, 2010 |
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| March 08, 2010 |
By: Julie Kay |
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kerman Senterfitt is hoping to turn around its fortunes by opening a new office Monday in Las Vegas.
Florida’s largest law firm opened its 15th office despite declining revenue in 2009 that it blamed on the recession. The launch marks the third western outpost Akerman has opened in the past 16 months, joining Denver and Dallas.
“Nevada is one of the epicenters of the mortgage crisis,” Akerman chairman and CEO Andrew Smulian said. “We’ve had many client relationships there.”
The office opens with one partner, Ariel Stern, who came from Ballard Sparr Andrews & Ingersoll, and will grow to a dozen, Smulian said.
Rick Spees, the firm’s managing shareholder in Washington, who has numerous Las Vegas clients, and John Porter, a former Nevada congressman who serves as Akerman’s director of public policy, also will spend part of their time in the office.
A large area of concentration for the office will be consumer finance — defense of lenders in individual and class-action mortgage-related and foreclosure cases, as well as credit-card litigation. Akerman has a 60-lawyer national consumer finance practice, and hopes to gain gaming and hospitality clients, Smulian said.
“There are opportunities for us to grow in that market,” he said.
The decision to open new offices out West during the downturn was in response to client demand, Smulian said.
“They said, ‘We have more business for you if you are here,’ ” he said, adding the firm likely will not open any additional offices but concentrate on filling out the three locations.
With 473 lawyers, Akerman reported a 5 percent drop in gross revenue in 2009 to $242 million. The decline in business was largely borne by equity partners, whose average profit tumbled 12 percent. The firm expanded its non-equity partner count by 50 percent last year by de-equitizing some partners and hiring more non-equity partners. Smulian said he did not know how many partners were de-equitized.
Julie Kay can be reached at (305) 347-6685.
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