McKenna’s Smart Move: Hiring More Bankruptcy Lawyers Before Downturn
The chairman of McKenna Long & Aldridge said leaders of the law firm had a feeling the real estate bubble would burst.
Chairman Jeff Haidet told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that McKenna Long anticipated the problems in 2007. As a result, the firm hired more bankruptcy and corporate restructuring lawyers to handle the expected increase in demand for those services.
“Our overall strategy is about anticipating changes and developing services for our clients whether those changes are threats or opportunities for them,” Haidet told the newspaper. The strategy is evidently working; the firm has moved up the start dates of half of its incoming associate class from the fall to late summer, the story says.
The firm’s ahead-of-the-curve strategy has also led it to beef up its government practice in anticipation of government stimulus spending, the Journal-Constitution story says. The law firm represented Canada in its bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.
What does Haidet’s firm see in its crystal ball for the future? It anticipates more local and state government bond activity, and has hired the public finance group from Kilpatrick Stockton as a result.
“The government is the best customer you can have right now, but the government is a very complicated customer,” Haidet said.
The firm intends to continue expanding. At the end of 2007, it had 450 lawyers. By the end of 2009, it hopes to have a roster of 470 lawyers. McKenna is Atlanta’s seventh-largest law firm. It has nine offices in the United States and an office in Belgium.
