SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse–based law firm of Smith Sovik Kendrick & Sugnet, P.C., which focuses on civil litigation, has opened a new office in the Buffalo market. The office, located in a two-office suite at 651 Delaware Ave. in downtown Buffalo, enables the firm to “further expand” its client base into Western New York […]
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse–based law firm of Smith Sovik Kendrick & Sugnet, P.C., which focuses on civil litigation, has opened a new office in the Buffalo market.
The office, located in a two-office suite at 651 Delaware Ave. in downtown Buffalo, enables the firm to “further expand” its client base into Western New York and will afford “easier access” to its existing clients in Buffalo, Rochester, and areas west of Syracuse, the firm said in a news release.
Smith Sovik opened the Buffalo office opened on Sept. 2. Buffalo native Thomas Cannavo has joined the firm to lead the team in Western New York.
Cannavo most recently served as the principal law clerk for Erie County Supreme Court Justice Henry Nowak. He has defended civil lawsuits for insurance companies and self-insured entities across New York.
Smith Sovik describes Cannavo as a “seasoned trial lawyer and appellate advocate” handling all types of litigation including automobile, trucking, premises, construction, labor law, products liability, and medical/ professional-malpractice defense.
Smith Sovik does a “lot of work” in the Buffalo area and as that business grows the firm plans to hire more attorneys and staff to accommodate the needs of its clients in Western New York, Kevin Hulslander, managing partner at Smith Sovik, said in an email. “It is anticipated that we will hire one to two attorneys over the next year or two and expand to an estimated 10 lawyers by 2020,” he said.
The law firm, which is headquartered at 250 S. Clinton St. in Syracuse, also operates an office in East Meadow on Long Island.
“After successfully debuting our downstate office in East Meadow, Long Island three years ago, many of our clients have asked us to expand west to more conveniently handle lawsuits in Rochester and Buffalo,” Hulslander said in the news release. “In order to handle those as well as new cases more expeditiously, more efficiently and more cost-effectively, a Buffalo office made sense for us and for our clients.”
Founded in 1946, Smith Sovik Kendrick & Sugnet describes itself as a “litigation boutique law firm.” Its 30 lawyers defend individuals, professionals, corporations, and other entities when they are sued in personal injury and commercial cases in the state and federal courts across New York state. The law firm works in areas such as medical-malpractice defense, product liability, labor and employment law, construction litigation, environmental law, and workers’-compensation cases.
Smith Sovik Kendrick & Sugnet placed number 10 on the Law Firms List, ranked by number of Central New York attorneys, in the 2014 Book of Lists publication produced by the Business Journal News Network
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com