Hiscock & Barclay adds Elmira office with Davidson & O’Mara deal

SYRACUSE —  Hiscock & Barclay, LLP has added an Elmira office after combining with an area law firm. The move positions Hiscock close to the natural-gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania and continues its growth strategy of adding experienced attorneys from other firms.

Effective Jan. 1, Syracuse–based Hiscock & Barclay combined with Davidson & O’Mara, P.C., a law firm based in Elmira. Neither firm released financial terms of their combination deal.

Davidson & O’Mara was formed in 1977 and represents corporations, municipalities, and individuals in the areas of litigation, public law, labor and employment, real estate, commercial law, and health care. The firm includes 11 employees, of whom seven are attorneys. Davidson & O’Mara will replace its nameplate with that of Hiscock & Barclay.

Thomas F. O’Mara and Bryan J. Maggs are joining Hiscock & Barclay as partners, John O’Mara and Rance P. Reynolds, Jr. as “of counsel,” and the other three attorneys as associates. John, the O’Mara father, served as the district attorney for Chemung County, as a judge of the New York State Court of Claims, as county attorney for Chemung County, general counsel for the New York State Association of Counties, and commissioner and chair of the New York State Public Service Commission.

Reynolds, a trial lawyer, served as counsel to the New York State Social Services Committee, Chemung County attorney, chief trial attorney for the Chemung County district attorney, and as a member of the Judicial Nominating Committee for the Appellate Division Third Department.

Thomas, the O’Mara son, is a New York State senator representing the 58th district. Maggs is the Chemung County attorney and a JAG officer in the U.S. Army reserves.

Opening an office in the Elmira market is a timely move, according to Hiscock & Barclay’s leader.

“Elmira is a good fit for us,” says John P. Langan, the firm’s managing partner. “They [the Davidson & O’Mara team] are great lawyers, well respected in the Southern Tier. Part of our sustained growth has come from our energy practice. Two years ago, the firm explored opening a Pittsburgh office to expand our energy-clients list. Elmira is positioned [just] five miles from the Pennsylvania border where pipeline and drilling companies are extracting and transporting natural gas. [In addition], the activity in energy boosts our environmental and other practices. Elmira also puts us in a strong position if and when New York state lifts its ban on fracking.”

Recruiting strategy

The Elmira announcement is just the latest in a series of “lateral recruiting” deals employed by Hiscock & Barclay.

“Hiscock was formed in 1855, but I like to say that, in another way, the firm is only 17 years old,” muses Langan. “In 1994, our biggest account, KeyBank, merged with Society [Corp. of Cleveland] to form the 10th largest bank in the U.S. A lot of our work went away, along with a lot of revenue. One of our operations guys drafted a report that demonstrated how we needed to increase our revenue to stay financially viable. While it was traditional to grow law firms organically, we decided in 1998 to reach outside and attract attorneys, groups, and entire firms to join us. That’s what we [euphemistically] call ‘lateral recruiting.’ What can I say; it was an act of desperation,” Langan explains. (See side bar for a complete list of lateral recruiting moves by the firm since 1998.)

Langan readily admits that this was a risky tack. “Attracting practicing attorneys is … [problematic.] There are no conventional yardsticks, such as retained earnings, for measuring the ‘value’ of an attorney or firm. In group deals, you may discuss and evaluate billings and work-in-progress, but not much else. A ‘new’ lawyer is a working timekeeper and what you are really buying is their expertise and presumed future success. The acquiring firm can’t even protect itself with a non-compete agreement, because a client has an absolute right to choose a lawyer. When Hiscock first began its lateral recruiting, I felt that I was walking around with a scarlet ‘L’ [on my forehead], because I suspected that some of our competitors weren’t too happy with us. Fortunately, over the years, lateral recruiting has become an accepted practice, and we have become very good at our due diligence in recruiting attorneys.”

Lateral recruiting has propelled Hiscock & Barclay from 50 lawyers in 1998 to 210 today, including 93 partners, practicing in 30 different areas. The Syracuse and Elmira offices have a combined staff of 166, of whom 87 are attorneys (including 37 partners). The addition of Elmira boosted the number of offices to 10: Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Elmira, Newark (N.J.), New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. Hiscock leases a total of 160,000 square feet of which 54,000 is in Syracuse.

As for annual revenue, “We’re somewhere in the $50 million to $100 million range,” says Langan, noting that the partners’ profits have been at record levels in the last four years despite flat revenues.

Langan, who has been the firm’s managing partner since 2000, has steered Hiscock & Barclay through a changing economic climate. “We have positioned the firm to have a strong presence in all of the major Upstate cities. Our current focus is on keeping the Upstate platform strong, while expanding the New York and Boston offices and focusing on a number of key practices such as energy, IP, and health care. We’re in a good position to compete on price: In the metro areas, partners are billing at $800-plus, while our Upstate rates are less than half of that. Our strategies for the Toronto and Washington offices are long-term: we’re positioning the firm for cross-border business. Our Toronto office is headed by Jerry (Gerald M.) Meehan, who specializes in immigration-law as well as sports-business. We also are successful in competing, because we’re flexible when it comes to billing [for our services]. We consider a number of options, including quoting a flat cost and joining in the upside of a settlement or decision.”

Hiscock & Barclay rode a wave of lateral recruiting between 1998 and 2008. “After the 2008 recession, lateral and revenue growth flattened,” Langan stresses. “What we found in the metro areas was that the market for high-end legal services was shrinking. Corporate clients have gotten stingy, and some have shifted their legal work to in-house staff. General counsels seem to transition more frequently now than in the past, so it takes a lot more time to build a long-term relationship. The new normal is a shrinking demand and a more cost-conscious clientele. [Nevertheless], while the large metro law firms are shedding their legal staff to support partner earnings, it offers our firm the opportunity to step into the breach with our competitive pricing and depth of experience.”

Hiscock’s growth strategy includes more than geography. “We are playing to our professional strengths,” notes the managing partner. “Our fastest growth is coming in energy, IP, and health care. We have sought out attorneys with expertise to provide these practice areas with [additional] depth. Our focus on IP began back in 2004 with a single client. Today, we have the largest [IP] practice north of New York City in a general-services firm, with 30 attorneys. It’s interesting to note that the areas with the most growth are also the most regulated. Between Washington and New York, we’ll never be short of [regulated] business.”

Management approach

Some say that managing a law firm is akin to herding cats: Both the felines and the attorneys display acute individualism. Coordinating, let alone motivating, the 210 lawyers in 10 offices spread over 30 practice areas is, to express understatement, difficult. The fact that Langan’s performance has been approved by his partners, who re-elect him at three-year intervals, is testimony to his style.

“I come from a family of four generations of lawyers, so I think my respect for the law and its practitioners is part of my DNA,” opines Langan. “I believe in a team approach to serving our clients. Hiscock has no corporate headquarters; I just happen to have an office in Syracuse. Instead, each office has a managing director responsible for the office’s operation … I have sat on the management committee for 17 years, and I’m the guy who takes the minutes every Friday and ensures there is follow through … My job is to surround myself with people a lot smarter than I am and to celebrate their successes.”

Langan, a Colgate University graduate, joined the management committee at age 34 and was elected Hiscock’s managing partner at age 37. He is an experienced trial lawyer, who began his career with a New York City law firm. Now at age 51, he hopes to complete his last stint as managing partner in the next four years. “I have great expectations for the firm,” asserts Langan. “Law is a profession and a business, and we need to be entrepreneurial. We can continue to grow as a regional firm by seeing challenges as opportunities. That’s the key. Our staff needs to have the chance to advance, and we need to promote policies that recognize the changing marketplace. Hiscock needs to continue being a leader of change.”

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com

A list of lateral recruiting by Hiscock & Barclay between 1998 and 2014.

·      William Stevens firm — Buffalo (1998)

·      A portion of Sherrin & Glasel — Albany (1999)

·      A portion of Cohen Swados, Wright, Hanifin, Bradford & Brett — Buffalo (2001)

·      A portion of Helm Shapiro — Albany (2001)

·      Saperston & Day — Buffalo,  Rochester, and Syracuse (2002)

·      Bouck Holloway — Albany (2004)

·      Majority of Jaeckle Fleischman’s Rochester Office  — Rochester (2004)

·      Law Offices of James S. Grossman — Rochester (2005)

·      Stack Group from Hancock Estabrook — Syracuse (2006)

·      Girvin & Ferlazzo Public Finance Practice — Albany (2006)

·      A portion of Wall Marjama & Bilinski — Syracuse (2007)

·      McAuliffe Group from Green & Seifter — Syracuse (2008)

·      Davidson & O’Mara — Elmira (2014)