One of the nation’s biggest law firms — it was ranked seventh largest in America last year by American Lawyer magazine — Holland & Knight has over 1,300 lawyers worldwide. Buddy Schulz, head of the Litigation Department, Linda Kane, the executive partner who runs the Jacksonville office, Larry Hamilton, a partner in the Litigation Department, and Mal Graham, a partner in the Business Law Department met recently with Daily Record staff writer Sean McManus to discuss the firm.
HOW MANY ATTORNEYS ARE IN THE JACKSONVILLE OFFICE?
Over 60 attorneys and about 130 employees total.
TELL ME ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE JACKSONVILLE OFFICE?
“The Jacksonville office was started in 1989 when 13 Holland & Knight attorneys combined with the firm Gallagher, Mikals & Cannon. We continued to expand by combining with the firm Selber & Selber in 1994 and then Kirschner, Main, Graham, Tanner & Demont and Gabel & Hair, both in 1998. Holland & Knight began in 1968 when a firm in Bartow merged with a firm in Tampa. We have expanded through internal growth as well.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FOUNDING ATTRIBUTES OF HOLLAND & KNIGHT?
“We began as an agriculture, phosphate and banking firm. According to H&K lore, the chairman of the firm, Chesterfield Smith, used to look up deeds to find out who the largest property owners in Florida were, and then try to represent them. He was president of the American Bar Association when [Richard] Nixon was president.”
HOW MANY PRACTICE AREAS?
“Four, but that covers over 100 kinds of law. Litigation in the largest. We also have REELU, that’s real estate, environmental and land use; business law and public law, which includes government affairs. REELU covers dirt and business law covers non-dirt.”
SO MAL GRAHAM IS IN THE NON-DIRT PRACTICE GROUP?
“That’s right.”
WHAT IS GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS LAW?
“They help keep government off your back.”
WHEN HOLLAND & KNIGHT WAS LOOKING FOR FIRMS TO COMBINE WITH WHAT QUALITIES WERE YOU LOOKING FOR?
“Certainly a similar culture and similar goals. Holland & Knight has a ‘No Jerk’ rule, in another words, we only want lawyers to like each other and like practicing law together. Chesterfield Smith said that he thinks that lawyers in his firm should, ‘Be somebody.’ That means that they are active in the community and in the Bar. In addition to Chesterfield, Holland & Knight had another American Bar Association president, Martha Barnett.”
CAN YOU TELL ME SOME OF YOUR BIG CLIENTS?
“Sure. And this doesn’t mean that we are always their only counsel. Expansion has permitted us to grow relationships with major clients like Marriott, Harris Corporation — the big defense contractor — Georgia Pacific, UPS, New York Life, Fannie Mae and Fidelity National. Locally, we represent Atlantic Builders, Julington Creek Plantation, Summer Beach Resort, etc. We handle a lot of major Venture Capital work in the area, both on the funding side and the institutional and start-up side. We handle white collar work as well as family law and we represent major educational institutions in the state.”
BIG CASES?
“We represented Bridgestone/Firestone recently. Buddy [Schultz] was responsible for prisoners gaining access to devices to help them quit smoking in the famous case about a guy who wanted the patch in jail. Of course, Holland & Knight handled the Rosewood case in Florida.”
HOW DOES HOLLAND & KNIGHT DECIDE WHICH LAWYERS TRY WHICH CASES?
“The great thing about having a firm our size, and as many resources, is that we can put the right people with the appropriate experience on the right case. Right now we’ve got a patent infringement case pending in Los Angeles and we’ve got lawyers from all over the country with specific knowledge working on it.”
HOW ABOUT INTERNATIONAL WORK?
“We’ve got seven office outside the U.S. We always hear that on any given day there are at least 10 partners doing something in South America. We’ve also got a presence in Finland, Israel and Japan.”
FINLAND?
“Sure. And George Gabel is what they call a counselette, representing the country of Norway. We’ve got a plaque downstairs. Tom Bishop is a barrister. Larry Hamilton is going to the Netherlands in March.”
HOW DOES RECRUITMENT WORK?
“We have a head of recruitment who does a lot. We’ve been fortunate to grow along with Jacksonville and have never had a problem attracting top talent. There used to be a strong prejudice in favor of Florida schools. Now, I’d say that there is equal weight applied to schools all over the country.”
BEING THAT CHESTERFIELD SMITH WANTS HIS LAWYERS TO BE SOMEBODY, WHAT DOES HOLLAND & KNIGHT DO CHARITY-WISE?
“Locally, we’re very active in the Johnny Ford Elementary School, the PACE Center for Girls, the Sulzbacher Center and the United Way. In fact, we have won the National Summit Award from the United Way. Of course we do a lot of pro bono legal work and many of our attorneys sit on non-profit boards. Nationally, the Holland & Knight Foundation invests heavily in the Opening Doors of Children charity and runs the Holocaust Remembrance Project.”
— by Sean McManus