Scolaro Fetter Grizanti & McGough adds Shafer, staff

Shafer joined SFGM as of counsel, says Jeffrey Fetter, president of the firm, who spoke with CNYBJ on June 18.

Shafer is a founding partner of the Riehlman, Shafer & Shafer law firm that had offices at 397 Route 281 in Tully and at 39 Church St. in Cortland. SFGM is now leasing those spaces from Shafer for the Syracuse firm’s use, says Fetter.

Shafer served as managing partner at Riehlman, Shafer & Shafer since 2001 and brings 36 years of legal experience in all general practice areas, including real estate, estate planning, estates and trusts, corporate with a concentration in agricultural law, and civil litigation.

The firms have “similarly aligned” practice areas, per the SFGM announcement. Fetter also says he’s worked with Shafer “for a number of years.” 

“We both represent family-owned, closely held businesses and their owners as well as individuals with estate planning, business planning, and other matters,” he adds.

Shafer brought three staff members (two full- and one part-time employee) with him to the firm. The discussions to have Shafer join SFGM started earlier this year, according to Fetter. 

“It just seemed to be a good fit,” he says. “It’s an opportunity we didn’t want to pass up.”

SFGM now has 37 total employees, including 17 attorneys, says Fetter.

Besides the former Riehlman, Shafer & Shafer offices in Tully and Cortland, SFGM also operates New York offices in Syracuse, Rochester, and Le Roy, along with an office in Stuart, Florida under the SFGM name. 

Shafer is dividing his time between offices in Tully, Syracuse, and Cortland.

Shafer’s previous firm

Of the original founding partners, Mike Shafer was the only one still practicing with the firm, he tells CNYBJ in a June 18 phone interview. 

“The two other name partners have been gone from the firm for at least 20 years,” Shafer notes.

Tim Riehlman retired from the active practice in the late 1990s, pursued a master’s degree, and became a librarian.

Rick Shafer, Mike’s brother, stopped his practice a few years later and pursued another opportunity in a small finance company. “[Rick Shafer] continues to maintain offices in our building here in Tully,” says Mike Shafer.

The firm had about nine attorneys in the latter part of the 2000s, Mike Shafer notes, but the numbers began to dwindle as colleagues had chances for other opportunities in the years that followed. 

“We were a firm of four attorneys when I decided that [joining SFGM] was perhaps a good thing for me to do,” says Shafer. 

Shafer, 66, was also concerned that if he had a health issue and couldn’t practice, “it certainly made sense to have a strong team to be part of and that certainly is what I’ve gained with my affiliation with the Scolaro firm.” 

As for his remaining colleagues, one went to work for a sister firm, Riehlman, Shafer & Shaw of Tully, which focuses on commercial-collection work, or recovery for banks and credit unions, according to Shafer. 

Two other attorneys, who also had a chance to join SFGM, decided that they wanted to remain independent and continue providing services in Tully from the same office, he adds. 

“The goal here was to provide some continuity for our clients because we have 40 years of history here in terms of wills and abstracts and files for clients,” says Shafer.