SYRACUSE — Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC — Central New York’s largest law firm, ranked by number of area attorneys — first entered the Buffalo legal market in 1997. It was a labor and employment law boutique and “that was fine. It’s a strong practice area for us,” Richard Hole, chairman of Bond’s management […]
SYRACUSE — Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC — Central New York’s largest law firm, ranked by number of area attorneys — first entered the Buffalo legal market in 1997.
It was a labor and employment law boutique and “that was fine. It’s a strong practice area for us,” Richard Hole, chairman of Bond’s management committee, tells CNYBJ in an Oct. 5 interview.
But around 2005, the law firm’s management at the time decided to start working on becoming a full-service office in Buffalo, upstate New York’s largest metro area. Bond added practice areas including litigation, employee benefits, and intellectual property.
Flash forward to February of this year: Hole called Joseph Kubarek, managing partner of Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel, LLP in Buffalo, to gauge his interest in a possible combination of their respective law firms.
“We’ve known each other for a long time,” says Hole, who has been practicing law for 40 years. In fact, Kubarek, who has been a lawyer for more than 30 years, worked as an associate in Bond’s Syracuse office earlier in his career. And Kubarek and Hole are both natives of Auburn.
The discussion went well. “It was fortuitous timing” that Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel had also made the decision to pursue a combination, says Hole. “We met constantly and we kept at it. It took until September, and knew we had something.”
On Sept. 30, Bond, Schoeneck & King announced it would be combining with Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel, effective Jan. 1. Actually, the first business day will be Jan. 4, Hole says.
“This opportunity presented itself and instantly makes us a full-service office. That really was the strategy from our standpoint. From their standpoint, they saw the need to add depth and experience in areas they had plus add new areas: health care, public finance, creditor’s rights,” Hole explains.
The combined law firm will use the Bond, Schoeneck & King name and a have a 51-lawyer office in Buffalo (36 from the Jaeckle firm and 15 from Bond), likely making it the fourth largest law firm in Western New York.
Buffalo would also become the second largest office for Bond, after its Syracuse headquarters. The firm has nine locations in New York state and 11 overall. It will have 265 attorneys total, following the link up. It has 230 now.
The combination with the Jaeckle firm is Bond’s biggest deal in its history, says Hole. Its past deals have mostly involved adding law practices with single-digit numbers of attorneys.
So, the firms have a lot of integration work to do before the New Year.
“We have to get our practice groups talking to each other developing plans. There is a whole bunch of training that has to go on. And technology integration that has to be done. All of the files… just a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work,” Hole says. “We’ll be in there and up and running on the first business day.”
Hole says the firms are still figuring out the staffing levels of their combined Buffalo office.
Bond’s Buffalo office will be located in Jaeckle’s office space in the Avant building — a mixed-use tower that spans one city block and includes offices, a hotel, and condos. Jaeckle has extra room in its office to accommodate the Bond attorneys and staff coming over and does not need to lease extra space, Hole notes. He
couldn’t specify the square footage.
Bond’s current Buffalo office is in an 11,700-square-foot space at Fountain Plaza.
Once Bond, Schoeneck & King completes this combination, Hole says he expects his firm “will continue to look for opportunities” around New York state. But he’s satisfied his firm is accomplishing a major objective in Western New York.
“Buffalo was high on our radar because we wanted to become a full-service firm there.”