Rogers Towers Bailey Jones & Gay is one of Jacksonville’s oldest law firms.
HOW LONG HAS THIS FIRM BEEN AROUND?
Since 1905.
HOW MANY LAWYERS?
Eighty lawyers and a support staff of 100.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FIRM.
It started as a real estate and financial services firm. Since then, it has diversified to include general tax and business law, land use, environmental, estate planning and other general corporate practice areas.
ANY OTHER OFFICES?
There is a general service firm in St. Augustine with five attorneys.
ANY PLANS FOR ANY OTHER OFFICES?
“Not specifically. But we will always continue to review opportunities as they arise and provide whatever services our clients need,” said Doug Ward, the managing partner.
WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST PRACTICE AREA?
“Litigation is. We’ve got 35 lawyers. Chris Hazelip and Bob Hyde head up that practice. Within that, we’ve just started a new construction litigation arm and there’s labor and commercial litigation as well.”
WHY CONSTRUCTION?
“We wanted to take advantage of the Better Jacksonville Plan. We looked at is a recession-proof area where we could grow with the City. We represent property owners, designers, contractors.”
ANY OTHER NEW PRACTICE AREAS?
“We just started the Asia-Pacific practice seeing that some of the larger players in Jacksonville were beginning to have a global outlook, especially toward China. Now that China is in the World Trade Organization, there is new opportunity all over the U.S. and in Jacksonville.”
SO ARE YOU GOING TO CHINA?
“In March. We are going along with five local businesses to explore opportunities and target specific deals. We have partnered with a large firm in Beijing to help guide our path.”
HOW DID YOU GET CONNECTED WITH A FIRM IN CHINA?
“One of the partners in the Chinese firm is the older brother of one of our attorneys, Don Wright.”
IS IT GOING TO BE TOUGH WADING THROUGH THE TERRAIN OVER THERE?
“Well, not if you know the right people, which we do. And we are meeting with governmental agencies to make sure that we are moving in the right direction and in the right ways. We have already done a great deal of research and come up with ideas for business deals, so we hope to get a lot accomplished. We also have included a new intellectual property practice at the firm. We’ve got three attorneys working on that. Jacksonville is finally getting to the size and sophistication level to support some varied practice areas.”
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST CLIENTS?
“One of the hallmarks of our firm is that no one client represents more than five percent of business, so we have a lot of clients. That said, Gate Petroleum, First Union, Stellar, Regency, SunTrust.”
SO ALL OF YOUR EGGS ARE IN DIFFERENT BASKETS?
“Right.”
WHAT’S ANOTHER HALLMARK OF YOUR FIRM?
“Stability. We haven’t really suffered any cataclysmic problems during our lifespan. At the same time, we haven’t been gobbled up by a national firm like many of our competitors.”
BESIDES GROWTH, HOW HAS THIS FIRMED CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?
“We are a very different place now than we used to be. Mostly that has arisen from our adoption, about a year and a half ago, of a new strategic plan. In the old days, the firm was run by a couple of guys only. We decided to model our corporate governance more on a business than a law firm. We moved to an elected, five-person executive board structure with two-year terms. It’s more democratic. It allows for every voice to be heard. We’re almost a 100-person firm now, so we’re on the cusp of some serious corporate growth.
WHERE DO YOU RECRUIT LAWYERS?
“All of the major schools in the Southeast: Duke, Vanderbilt, University of Virginia, Georgia. Of course,UF and FSU are big.”
ANY IVYS?
“We’ve got attorneys from Harvard, Yale and Columbia.”
WHAT ABOUT CHARITIES?
“Actually we just completed self-evaluations and we were amazed to see how active our attorneys are in the community. Our lawyers sit on boards of of local nonprofits. On the firm-wide level, we support the symphony, Legal Aid, Boy Scouts, United Way, JCCI and lots of others.”
— by Sean McManus