Started in 1929 in New York City, “it was founded primarily to service the energy and utility industry and it has grown from there,” said Karl Hanson, managing partner. The firm has 750 lawyers, staffing 14 offices in the United States and 10 overseas.
WHY HAVE SO MANY OFFICES?
“The idea was that we wanted to be able to have an international practice. We wanted to have as many regional offices as possible so that we could attract top legal talent across the country who could not only service the local clientele, but also be able to work on national and international projects, too.”
WHAT DOES HANSON DO?
“I spend about half my time managing the office, which includes business development and administrative functions of the office. The other half of my time I am a commercial real estate lawyer.”
PRACTICE AREAS
The Jacksonville office is active in all areas of business, commercial taxation, compensation and employee benefits law, environmental, insurance, intellectual property and technology, labor employment, litigation and real estate.
LOCATION
The office first opened in the Greenleaf building in 1986 and moved to the Bank of America tower in 1991. The office was run by Tom Gibbs, an expert in insurance law. He grew the practice by adding local talent, recent law school graduates and lateral hires.
WHO WORKS THERE?
There are 25 lawyers, nine of whom are partners. They also have five paralegals, a pool of secretaries, a full-time legal administrator and a full-time receptionist.
DID YOU WIN A MILLION DOLLARS AND OTHER BIG CASES?
“We are involved in a number of large class action litigations. For instance, we were part of the lead defense counsel team in the class action suit against American Family Publishers.” The case was based on allegations of misrepresentation and non-disclosure in its sweepstakes solicitation. A recent case involved the sale of Winn-Dixie stores in Texas. “We also just closed on the new Publix shopping center that is going up behind Copeland’s on Southside Boulevard.”
CLIENTS?
Winn-Dixie, Modis, Wachovia, Hallmark Stiles Ventures, Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the International Longshoremen Pension Fund.
FOREIGN APPEAL?
“That is one of the neat things about our practice; we are able to get involved in matters that we would not be able to otherwise get involved in. We are currently representing the postal service in South Africa. We have an office there, but we had the expertise here. Our lawyers would have to get up in the middle of the night in order to be in here to call Johannesburg to handle the transaction. We have one associate who will be coming back to us after spending six months in Saudi Arabia representing the Saudi Arabian government. Those are the sort of neat things we are able to do here. A purely local firm wouldn’t be able to get beyond the horizons of Jacksonville.”
WHAT DOES YOUR FIRM OFFER YOUR CLIENTS?
“I think we offer the same things all the premier firms do; we are a service business. We are measured by the quality and the timeliness of the service. We have very capable and very talented lawyers as do many firms in Jacksonville. It comes down to providing that service — and with e-mail and fax —clients demand instantaneous service. We are very focused on the expertise and the service we bring and the service we provide.”
ARE YOU PLANNING TO GROW THE FIRM?
“Yes we are. We would like to grow and we are somewhat a product, as all businesses are, of what is going on in the economy. With all the investors sitting on their hands there is not much merger and acquisition activity which has always been a major part of our company, so we have been sort of biding our time waiting for the economy to pick back up. We actively recruit from law schools and we have a active summer associate program, but whenever an opportunity presents itself to hire a lateral attorney that is a good fit, we do that also.”
WHAT MAKES YOUR FIRM UNIQUE?
“What makes us truly unique is that we have national and international projects that gives us experience that we would not otherwise have if we were just working on local and regional matters. Our lawyers have had the opportunity to see, and be a part of, cutting edge and very sophisticated transactions. They can then bring that experience to the benefit of the clients in this part of the country. From an employee’s perspective, it gives a lawyer who wants to have the experience of working on those types national and international transactions a place where they can be exposed to that.”
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
Its lawyers are members of the Jacksonville Bar Association, American Bar Association, The Florida Bar and active with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT?
“We encourage each individual to get involved in civic and charitable organizations and pro bono participation and pro bono work.”
WEBSITE
www.llgm.com
— by Michele Newbern Gillis