Blank Rome Charts New Expansion, Eying Both Coasts and the Midwest
With a new managing partner in place and nearly three years after absorbing 100 lawyers from now-defunct Dickstein Shapiro, Blank Rome is looking to grow again.
The Philadelphia-based Am Law 100 firm spent the first three weeks of 2019 adding lawyers in highly competitive legal markets. According to managing partner Grant Palmer, much more is to come in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and possibly Chicago.
“The Dickstein Shapiro group, it’s taken two to three years to integrate them. We are now ready” to expand again, said Palmer in a recent interview. He officially took on his new role Jan. 1, joining chairman Alan Hoffman in leading the firm.
Blank Rome has already added a number of small groups in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., this year. They include a trio of energy lawyers from Cadwalader, a corporate partner from midsize firm Carlsmith Ball, a transactional partner from DLA Piper, a corporate partner from Baker McKenzie and a two-partner real estate team from Thompson & Knight. The firm also absorbed a small family law practice in Los Angeles, and it is planning to announce additional partner laterals in New York and Pittsburgh in the near future, Palmer said.
While the latest additions are all over the map in terms of geography, practice area and the lawyers’ backgrounds, Palmer said they’re all part of a plan.
Blank Rome is developing its strategy for the next three to five years, Palmer said. The main goal, he said, is to make the firm’s offices across the country “equal to or greater than Philadelphia,” in terms of brand and reputation.
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“Blank Rome Charts New Expansion, Eying Both Coasts and the Midwest,” by Lizzy McLellan was published in The Legal Intelligencer and New York Law Journal on January 23, 2019.