ROME — In April 2014, after spending nearly two decades in the corporate law litigation arena, Louis Viviani opened his own practice, Viviani Law Firm PLLC, in Rome. The firm, located at 416 N. James St. in Rome, is a general practice firm that brings Viviani back to his hometown. The Rome Free Academy […]
ROME — In April 2014, after spending nearly two decades in the corporate law litigation arena, Louis Viviani opened his own practice, Viviani Law Firm PLLC, in Rome.
The firm, located at 416 N. James St. in Rome, is a general practice firm that brings Viviani back to his hometown. The Rome Free Academy graduate started his law career in Rome at the O’Shea McDonald and Stevens law firm. Viviani worked there for about five years until joining Costello Cooney & Fearon, PLLC in Syracuse.
“Great office. Great people,” Viviani says of his time at Costello Cooney & Fearon, where he was a partner in the litigation department. However, he said, the time was right for him to branch out and start his own law firm.
“It was always sort of in the back of my mind to have my own practice,” he says. Last spring, the time was finally right. “I felt like I was both old enough and young enough.” At 48, he says, he has the right mix of experience and energy.
He was also eager to get back to a more personal atmosphere, a people’s practice where he has more interaction directly with clients, Viviani notes.
While at Costello Cooney & Fearon, Viviani says his specialty was personal-injury law on the plaintiff’s side. “Here I’m doing more,” he says. “Crime cases, more real estate.”
In a smaller community like Rome, he says, it makes more sense to have a wide practice area instead of focusing on just one thing. “I’m doing a little bit of all of it, and I enjoy it,” he says. Viviani Law Firm offers a variety of legal services including will preparation, real estate, criminal defense, and vehicle and traffic law.
However, his emphasis remains on personal-injury plaintiff cases and trial work.
“There aren’t a ton of plaintiff firms around,” he notes, so there is definitely a void he can fill with his experience.
Viviani is leasing 1,100 square feet on the first floor of the building on North James Street from the Main Street Alliance.
“They did a ton of work on the interior of the building,” he says. The building once housed a bar and restaurant, but the Main Street Alliance did a great job of creating a space that he could finish to suit his needs, Viviani notes.
Though he’s renting now, Viviani says he will have an option to buy after he’s been there a year. The second floor of the building houses an apartment.
The law firm currently employs one legal assistant along with Viviani, but there is space to add more employees as the firm grows. So far, Viviani says he’s been gaining new clients through word-of-mouth and “that’s been really good for me.” The firm does not currently have a website or social-media page.
Viviani is living in DeWitt and commuting daily to his office in Rome, but says now that he’s settled in at the office, he may consider moving to the area where he still has family.
Viviani graduated from the State University of New York at Albany in 1988 and Albany Law School in 1991.