SYRACUSE — Tully Rinckey attorney Donald Kelly is no stranger to managing a legal office. But this time, he’s not the only lawyer in the office. Tully Rinckey PLLC, an Albany–based law firm that operates an office in Syracuse, has named Kelly managing partner of the local office. Tully Rinckey made the announcement […]
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SYRACUSE — Tully Rinckey attorney Donald Kelly is no stranger to managing a legal office.
But this time, he’s not the only lawyer in the office.
Tully Rinckey PLLC, an Albany–based law firm that operates an office in Syracuse, has named Kelly managing partner of the local office. Tully Rinckey made the announcement Feb. 12.
The firm believes Kelly has an “in-depth understanding of law-practice management,” it said in a news release.
Kelly, who joined Tully Rinckey in 2012, had previously operated the Kelly Law Office, a sole proprietorship in Syracuse, for about 11 years, he says.
Kelly spoke with CNYBJ at the Tully Rinckey office at 507 Plum St. in Syracuse on March 19.
Kelly, who has nearly two decades of experience in the legal field, has focused on criminal-defense law since 2001.
In his new role, Kelly will oversee the daily operations of Tully Rinckey’s Syracuse legal team.
The Syracuse office has 12 employees, including Kelly. The local employee count includes six attorneys.
In total, Tully Rinckey has 119 employees, including 60 attorneys, the firm said in response to an email inquiry from CNYBJ. The firm has 18 partners, according to its website.
Operating his own office, Kelly noted, involved a “business side” and a “law side.”
Balancing both can be a “little bit difficult” at times, considering the number of administrative tasks required to operate a law office, he added.
He joined Tully Rinckey in August 2012 to “have the backing of a larger firm.”
The managerial role involves reports, data, dealing with the relationships between the attorneys and support staff, and managing the attorneys’ performance and conduct, says Kelly.
“You have to deal with client complaints and consider … how to handle those and what type of actions should be taken in response those complaints,” he adds.
He admits trying to juggle all the duties can be “difficult” when he’s trying to address his own clients’ needs at the same time.
Plans for Syracuse office
Tully Rinckey’s Syracuse office recently added an attorney, enabling the firm to offer a bankruptcy practice in the Northern-Western districts of New York, says Kelly.
“That really was a big move for us,” he adds.
The firm is also recruiting two additional attorneys, which Kelly called the local office’s “chief goal” by the end of the second quarter.
He’s hoping to expand both the number of attorneys in the office and the types of practice areas that the Syracuse office can offer.
Reorganization
Kelly’s new role is part of the reorganization of Tully Rinckey’s management structure.
When Kelly joined the firm, he says it was aligned under a director of legal services, who was responsible for all the attorneys in the firm.
“That become overly burdensome [for that attorney],” says Kelly.
Attorney Thomas Carr, who is of counsel with the firm in its Albany office, held the position, according to Kelly.
Tully Rinckey then added a second, similar position to handle the Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia locations, or the firm’s southern offices.
The firm considers Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo as its northern offices, he adds.
But even that management structure became “overly burdensome,” Kelly noted.
The director of legal services’ position originally focused only on Albany and Syracuse, before Tully Rinckey added offices in Rochester and Buffalo, he says.
Tully Rinckey in early 2014 changed its management model to have a leader in each office instead of two directors of legal services in charge of a group of offices.
Kelly termed it a “boots on the ground” philosophy.
The firm developed the plan at the beginning of its “latest growth phase to decentralize key management functions and reach new levels of efficiency and client
service,” according to the news release announcing Kelly as a managing partner.
The firm has elevated “key” attorneys to newly created managing-partner positions at each office following the firm’s “exponential” growth, it added.
The launch of Tully Rinckey’s Syracuse office in August 2012 started the firm’s “latest growth phase.”
It then opened a Buffalo office the following January, which it then moved to a larger, newly constructed suite that was “some five times larger” than its previous location.
Tully Rinckey also opened an office in Rochester in July 2013. In between, the firm relocated its office in Washington, D.C.
The firm opened its first West Coast office in San Diego in September of last year, it added.
Mathew Tully launched Tully & Associates, PLLC from his ski home in Hunter, New York, according to the firm’s website. Tully, who had worked for the legal department at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), escaped the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in 2001.
Greg Rinckey joined the firm in 2004 after having served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, also known as the JAG Corps.
The firm became Tully Rinckey & Associates PLLC on Jan.1, 2005, and, with the addition of new partners and offices, changed its name to Tully Rinckey PLLC on Jan. 1, 2008, the website says.