Bond Schoeneck to expand in Buffalo with acquisition of nearly 40-attorney firm
Most of the lawyers from a smaller Buffalo law firm will soon be joining another New York-based competitor, more than tripling its roster in Buffalo.
The melding of nearly 40 attorneys from Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel with 230-attorney Bond Schoeneck & King is to take place on Jan. 1, reports the Buffalo News. It is not technically a merger, because the Jaeckle firm will be dissolving at the end of 2015. The Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel name will also be retired as part of the deal.
The newly expanded branch of Bond Schoeneck will be housed in Buffalo in what are now Jaeckle Fleischmann’s offices, as well as the firm’s nearby Amherst offices, and the melded firm will have 51 attorneys in the Buffalo area. Bond Schoeneck currently has 15 lawyers in Buffalo, and some of the Jaeckle firm’s lawyers will be retiring, the article notes.
Leaders of both firms said the combination makes sense because each has strength in practice areas that the other hoped to bolster.
“They had tax, trust and estates, corporate, environmental and real estate, none of which we had in Buffalo,” Richard Hole, who chairs Bond Schoeneck’s management committee, told the newspaper. “We certainly had that all across the state, but not here.”
Meanwhile, Jaeckle had been looking to partner with a firm that had health care and intellectual property strength, said managing partner Joseph Kubarek. “As we looked at our strategy, which is about three years old, we thought that the only really effective way to implement that strategy was to partner with a larger organization.”
Bond Schoeneck has nine New York offices, as well as a presence in Florida and Kansas. The firm is based in Syracuse, New York.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Two upstate NY firms tie the knot; 275-attorney shop is largest in Northeast outside of big cities”
