- IBusinesses are tipping th~iudki~lscale in favor of law firms on his side of the Hudro~~and De By Dan Schlossbq ew Jersey law firms are no 20-25 years of experience, Instead of a petitive when compared with a New longer the poor man's ver- second or thud-year associate m New York or Philadelphia h." Nsion of thelr b~gbrothers York " The big-city firms might not admit from the big city A full-semce fmm that has 165 auor- they're getting competition from New Accohg to a phalanx of managmg neys, dmded among its headquarters, Jersey, he says, but doubt no longer partners surveyed by New Jersey Bwn- plus satelhte offices m Trenton and remains. ess m June, potennal chents can actual- New York, Rker 'We've done deals with these guys, ly get more bang for the~rbuck bom Damg is one of and toe-to-toe litigation," Clark notes. law fmns based m the Garden State the oldest firms "They may try to distinguish them- 'We offer our dents a beuer pnce and m the state It selves and say they're better, but the better semce," says Glenn Clark, a 50- was estabhshed fact is we recruit from the same law year-old commerual hngator who serves m 1882 schools and we get the same people. as managmg paruler of Momstown- "Corporations Attorneys basically make a location or based Rib, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland who do buslnes liestyle cholce to be in New Jersey" & Per@ LLp "We're much more m New Jersey or Competition comes more in the liti- po&d have a legal mat- chrk gation area than the transactional one, "By commg to us Instead of a New ter m New Jersey look to us because of he suggests. York fmm, you're gomg to get - for the our reputauon We have a costlpnce Riker Danzig has a New York office same dollar - a partner fie me, wrrh structure that makes us exaremely com- for two reasons. One is to serve a par- NEW JERSEY BUSINESS 49 ticular client group, while the other is "If there was a major htigation or Dame law School graduate. to serve foreign-based clients. some son of polincal/gove~nmental There's definitely a niche for the 'We do a lot of banldng work and a affairs issue m New Jersex a major cor- mid-size Em, which has a cost stn~c- lot of banks have a significant New poration might come to us," he says. me and synergy that gives it definite York presence," he says. 'Wre looking "When we go to court, we know the competitive advantages," he says. to take advantage of that. We can do ~udges "About seven yean ago, there was things more cost-eflectively and give "There's an old saying' a good lawyer tremendous momentum toward these dients the same caliber of work knows the law, a great lawyer knows regionahtion and nationahtion of they used to get in New York," the judge There5 another side to that la& firms. A lot of gurus and consult- While a New York location helps, it too: it's great when the judge knows the ants were going around saying 'the is not necessarily better. Experience lawyer" mid-size firm is a dinosaur' and wam- and reputation are far more critical Itb also great when chents realize the ing firms to get big or cease to exist. than location, according to Clark. value of a nxd-srze firm,says the Notre N~Wthat pendulum is going the other ....................." " ,,..........,. ?. way, i "If I had 10 omces nationally I'd have I so much omhead that my hourly rates i would be sign16cantly higher. I'd be at a I differentrate structure for compensation for associates and wen for partwr~'' Price is hdly the only consideration I! when clients picka firm, however, Trust j is often a more imponant decision. 1 "ltb that personal trust and relation- , ship that really decides where work i goes," says Clark. / A full-se~cefirm, Riker Da~ghan- / dles eveqbing from state planning, 1 ml estate and corporate law to lobby- / ing, governmental affairs and even iI high-end matrimonial matters. i "Anything you can get in New York, we can do here," Clark Wits. "Aslong j as I've been practicing since 1980, this i firm has been representing major Fortune 500 institutional-type clients. And that existed befop 1 got here." Though much of its business stems 1 from wordof-mouth, Riker Danzigalso I does considerable adv-ing. It also depends heavily upon e-mail, which it E-COMMERCE / I considers a mixed blwing. PRIVACY &tD LLCENSLNG 1 Bringing new ideas to market is risky business. i E-mail has reduced the focus on GH&CSstechnology Group specializes in pr~teeting i location. "If you're sitting in Europe critical assets and proprlemty information from / sendmg an e-mail, it doem't matter whether the attorney is in New York or mdayS most menacing business threats. CONTRACT NEGOTIA~ONS New Jersey," Comolly says. "That's VENTURECAPITAL i GIORDMO,HALERAN a CIESU P.C I where our cost shuuure vis-a-vis New MERGERS&ACQUISIIIONS ! 1 York is an advantage." PUBUCOFFERINSS I www.ghclaw.com lgWE842-1lAW ! At Newark-based SiIls Cummis ! Epstein & Gm,EC., managing part- ! i ner Steven E. Grmshares those feeling. / "E-mail works better than mytbmg I else when you'^ dealing with people in i different time-zones," he says. 'With e- i mail, blackberries and things fie that, it do& matter where you mt You could the center of transactional work in the corporate base. kmgtheir fanuhes in mt m New Jersey, you could mt m New U.S. and probably the world " New Jersey, they saw a chance to prac- York, you could s~tin CkMomia, or you Expanslonhas also been mcurnng at hCe the mythey had In Manhattan - could at m Europe and all do your the firrnk Essex County headquarters. only mthout erosslng through the tun- d& I& a wonderful equalwr of ume- "Twenty years nels or over the bndges As a result, zones " ago marked the firm IIke oursstarted to budd a corpo- Founded by five anorneys m 1971, start of a demo- rate pract~ce'' SIUS Cum now employs 160 graphc s@ of Gross, a 1962 Haward Law School lawyers, some of them based m a New corporate head- graduate who pracuced m Manhattan York office it has operated for more quarters out of for 15 years, was one of those expafn- tban 10 years. New York and ate New Yorkers who moved acros the "ImuaUy, we opewd it because cor- mto new head- Hudson, animng m New Jersey 24 porate clients that came into the U.S. mrters m New y- ago would stay m New York, at the Waldorf Jersey, plus Con- Gross "1 learned I could do just as well m or Plaza," he recalls We needed a nectlcut and Westchester to some New Jersey wthout the horrendous place to meet and haw conlerences ID dew," Gross says As that happened. commute," he says. Both he and the New York l~uguon,you need depm- NewJersey law k,whch were then firm prospered uon mom and you want to have it prerty small, started to get a httle larger Sdls Cumnus' strength is bumw where your other attorneys are. and have more firepower. and indw mth heavy molvement "Over the la.% heyears, weke been 'Very b&t lawyefs who went to m pharmaceuncals, me&cal devlces expandrng our NewYork office, addmg very good schools and orignally would and health care, runnmg the gamut attorneys, because we're domg more only work m New York started to he from hgahng in a product liab&ty dmct NewYork work New Yorkls sull m New Jersey because of the strong defense to worlung an ~ntellectual propeq deal that involves a hcznsed product "New Jersey gves us one major ben- GIBBONS DEL DEO SAYS LAW FIRMS efit otherjunsd~ctionsdo not have," he says. 'We are known as the Medtune MUST DEVELOP A REPUTATION Chest of the World That gives those of us who prachce here a greater m-depth ibhona. Del Deo, Dolan Grlffinger & Vecch~one,Newark, says that most of it clients are G'looking for the same th~ngsquality legal wok, compatrUve pnnng, efficfency and excel- knowledge of the health care mdustty, lent sewlce. "Gibbons bellevesthat lawflrms must stsstablish reputat~onsforthemselves by con- pharmaceuhd ~ndustryand memcal stantly delivering these components," says Patrick C. Dunican. Jr., managlng director devices That's also why a ~IIIU We Being located so close to New York CIV, Uw firm often deals with competition One way it has ours, working for the mdusq spans so held its own agatnst Manhamn cornpentors is by hinng topqualty lawyer8 k an mmple, Gibbons many Mferent areas of pracuce " recently added a director from a well-known New York law firm to its corporate department Clients are also willing m gethe firm opportunit~esbecause of the persnnal service it provides, Sdls Cumxn~shas no need ta sohcit which can not be found in many large, crty firms "Glbbons stands out because its lawyers are busma through advernslng. aiways ava~la!Jleforourcliemt'sphonecalis,andthey do not have any unnecessary levels ofremew," "The key for us is reputauon, quta- says Dunitan uon, reputahon," Gross says, "wk Thecompany has a large intellectual property departmentthat has helped to dlstlngu~shthe firm real estate, whch is locauon, Iocauon, "Cl~entswill come to receive seMm from this department and w~llend up seeing all that Gibbons has to offer as a full sewlcefsm.