Our Firm
We are a 30 lawyer firm with offices in New York and Chicago. Founded in 1969, we represent businesses ranging in size from Fortune 20 public corporations to smaller public and privately held companies, partnerships and individuals. We concentrate our legal services in the areas of complex litigation and dispute resolution, employment counseling and defense, real estate, antitrust and compliance, professional liability and investigations, restructuring, corporate transactions, and trusts and estates.
Our lawyers are nationally recognized in their fields. Some of our lawyers have doctoral degrees and MBAs. Our firm includes former federal and state court clerks, former federal and state prosecutors, and partners with extensive trial and appellate experience. We are on the cutting edge of emerging legal issues, and are frequent authors of professional publications and speakers at CLE events. Our lawyers are members of the bars of New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, D.C., and other state and federal courts throughout the Midwest and East Coast.
We are leaders in the legal community. Our firm includes past and current leaders of the National Association of Women Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and other local and regional bar groups. Our lawyers currently serve as President of the NAWL Foundation the Second Circuit Representative to the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, and on the Section of Litigation Council of the American Bar Association.
Our Approach
We aim for the best business result that makes sense for your deal, lawsuit or business challenge. Our partners have national reputations for the quality of their work. We welcome long-term relationships with our clients. We invest the time and effort needed to learn the company's culture and business goals, so that our work best fits what our clients require.
We value early assessment, strategic planning and practical advice that achieve the business results that our clients want. We staff matters with seasoned partner-level lawyers at the same billing rates as many large firms charge for associates. We operate under the "no surprises" rule, starting with an early assessment of the range of results and costs. We offer billing arrangements to fit client needs including hourly, flat fee, sliding scale, partial contingency and blended rates.
Our staffing model is an important reason why we bring value to our clients. We follow the inverted triangle model, so that our clients have the benefit of working with highly experienced lawyers at unusually reasonable rates. In addition to our regular full-time professionals, our teams include specialty lawyers and paralegals who work on a flex-time basis. Our clients welcome the opportunity to add seasoned, efficient professionals to matters on an as-needed basis and our lawyers welcome the absence of minimum billable requirements. Many of our flex-timers are lawyers from large firms who joined us to practice law in the context of a reasonable work/life balance.
Certified Women - Owned Firm
We are a women-owned law firm certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and The National Association of Minority and Women-Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). Our firm includes men and women at all levels of the partnership. The firm received the 2010 Economic Empowerment Award, awarded by InsideCounsel, as part of its first Transformative Leadership Awards for firms and individuals. We are committed to diversity and advancing women and minority lawyers as leaders in the profession.
