HSLD&G law firm diversifies into private-practice work

JOHNSON CITY — For more than three decades, the law firm of Hogan, Sarzynski, Lynch, DeWind & Gregory (HSLD&G) has provided legal services to school districts and municipalities across the Southern Tier.

However, changes such as New York’s recently approved 2-percent cap on property-tax increases have prompted the law firm to add a new private-practice segment to diversify its business and revenue sources.

“We’re going through a flux in Albany,” says Wendy DeWind, a managing partner at HSLD&G. The property-tax cap is putting a lid on school budgets, she says, to the point where she believes there will be a larger number of school-district consolidations across the state as the state’s more than 700 districts look to pool resources and save money.

That’s a problem, she says, when the majority of your clients are school districts. Faced with the future possibility of the law firm’s number of potential clients being cut drastically, DeWind says she and the other partners decided to take action now to expand the firm’s services and begin building an additional client base and revenue source.

“We’ve been kicking around the idea for a while,” she says of adding a private practice, and then the firm heard from William L. Gibson, Jr. Gibson had just retired as an attorney for Broome County and was looking for part-time work with a local law firm, DeWind says. It seemed the perfect match, she notes, as Gibson brings a broad range of experience to HSLD&G.

With the arrival of Gibson in February, the law firm began finalizing plans for what additional services it would offer, DeWind says. Ultimately, HSLD&G narrowed down the focus areas for its new private-practice group to real estate, trusts, estate planning, wills, contract negotiation and administration, business formation, and litigation.

Over the years, the law firm received requests to perform such work, but was never able to do so with a staff of lawyers skilled primarily in municipal and educational law, DeWind says. Many times, those service requests were from employees of some of the school districts with which the law firm works, she says. Those districts include Broome Tioga BOCES, Delhi Central School, Greene Central School District, and Maine-Endwell Central Schools.

HSLD&G formally launched its private-practice group, with Gibson at the helm, on Aug. 1 and hired the Syracuse–based advertising agency Pinckney Hugo Group to develop a media plan to spread the news. HSLD&G is in the process of updating its website as well as letting existing clients know about the expanded services. Within the next several weeks, the firm will also send out a mailing to potential business clients in the Southern Tier. 

“We do have some private clients now,” DeWind notes, although she declined to provide a number. The goal, she adds, is to keep expanding that number steadily over the next several years. The firm should be able to build upon its good reputation for providing solid legal advice to school districts and municipalities, she contends, and may target the employees of those clients as potential private-practice customers. 

While it’s hard to say what an ideal number of clients would be, DeWind says, a good mix of clients will keep Gibson busy with numerous smaller transactions such as real-estate closings along with several larger transactions, such as helping a business start up, each week. Within a year or two, DeWind says she hopes the practice has grown enough to make it feasible to add an associate attorney or two to assist Gibson.

Gibson has more than 30 years of experience, including 15 years as an attorney for Broome County. Gibson served as Broome County attorney from 1997-2004 and again in 2011, served as special counsel to the Broome County attorney from 2006-2011, and has practice experience in family law, real estate, municipal law, wills, trusts, and estates. Prior to entering law school at age 40, Gibson worked for the family business, Gibson and Gibson: The On-Time Printers in Johnson City. Gibson received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1980.

Gibson is admitted to the bar of New York, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the state Bar Association and a member and director of the Broome County Bar Association.

Founded in 1977, HSLD&G (www.hsldg.com) provides legal counsel to more than 50 public school districts and numerous municipalities. The firm has six attorneys, including managing partners DeWind, Edward Sarzynski, John Lynch, and James Gregory and associates Gibson and Amy Lucenti. Founding partner John Hogan retired earlier this year. The firm is headquartered in 4,600 square feet at 520 Columbia Drive in Johnson City.        

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tgbbj.com