Hancock Estabrook boosts real-estate practice with deal

SYRACUSE — A Syracuse law firm known for its commercial real-estate practice will combine with Hancock Estabrook, LLP, effective May 1.

Hancock Estabrook, which is also based in the Salt City, didn’t release any financial terms of its agreement with Shulman Grundner Etoll & Danaher, P.C.

Attorneys C. Daniel Shulman, Charles Grundner, Stephen Etoll, and Christian Danaher are joining Hancock Estabrook as partners, the firm announced March 4. 

The two law firms have worked together on many different matters over the years, says Timothy Murphy, managing partner at Hancock Estabrook.

“It really got finalized in the last quarter of 2018. That’s when things really came together,” he tells CNYBJ in a March 7 phone interview.

With the addition of the new partners, the number of attorneys at Hancock Estabrook will increase to 64 as of May 1, says Murphy. 

Besides the lawyers, three support staff members will also join the law firm to bring its total employee count to 117, he adds. The attorneys and support staff will be moving to the Hancock Estabrook office inside Axa Tower I at 100 Madison St. in downtown Syracuse.

Shulman Grundner Etoll & Danaher currently operates in space at 250 S. Clinton St. in Syracuse, per its website. The building’s owner is listed as 250 South Clinton LLC, according to Onondaga County’s online property records.

What Shulman brings

The Shulman firm “really has been the leading real-estate firm in upstate New York for the last 30 [to] 40 years,” Murphy contends. 

“They really complement our existing practice and lot of our institutional and corporate clients need real-estate services … and bringing lawyers in of their caliber just really complements the real-estate practice that we already have,” he adds.

Working with Hancock Estabrook’s real-estate practice group, the new partners will focus on “all aspects” of commercial real estate. That includes land acquisitions and sales, construction loans and permanent financing, retail and office leasing, title insurance and “various other matters” related to real-estate development.

“I believe our firm’s expertise will complement [Hancock Estabrook’s] diverse practices, and we look forward to their attorneys being able to assist our firm’s existing clients in any number of practice areas outside of our core expertise of real estate. In considering the move, the fit between the two firms in this regard became obvious and we feel will be beneficial to both of us,” C. Daniel Shulman, senior partner of Shulman Grundner Etoll & Danaher, said in a Hancock Estabrook release. 

In addition to its downtown Syracuse office, Hancock Estabrook has a location at the Gateway Center at 401 E. State St. in Ithaca. The firm provides legal services and representation for large corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, nonprofit institutions, governmental entities, and individuals.