Law Practice Management
Sonnenschein Closes 11-Lawyer Office in Charlotte, N.C.
Posted Feb 27, 2009 3:50 PM CST
By Martha Neil
Partners at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal today voted to close the Chicago-based firm's less than two-year-old office in Charlotte, N.C.
It isn't clear how many of the 11 lawyers affected will be able to move to another firm office, according to American Lawyer. There are also eight staff members at the Charlotte office.
In an internal e-mail sent this afternoon, firm chairman chair Elliott Portnoy cited "local marketplace realities, the declining demand for legal services in the Charlotte legal and financial markets, and the needs of our financial institution clients" as reasons for closing the office.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "100 Thacher Lawyers Don’t Satisfy Sonnenschein’s Growth Ambitions"
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Comments
Tarheel31
Feb 27, 2009 4:06 PM CST
Charlotte is in North Carolina. Not far from Chapel Hill, home of the 2009 ACC men’s basketball champions…and that other less significant team from Durham.
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Molly McDonough
Feb 27, 2009 4:17 PM CST
Indeed…the error has been corrected.
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Been There
Mar 1, 2009 1:50 PM CST
This raises the Sonnenschein “see what sticks to the wall” growth ambitions to a new level. After losing their NY captial markets work, they declared Charlotte to be the center of that practice. Now the Thacher Proffitt crew are the saviours, and Charlotte is eliiminated. Haven’t seen this since the London office was jettisoned and a few real estate lawyers in Brussels and Zurich hailed as Sonnenschein’s “global reach”. Kudos to their PR people and lobbying practices for managing the communications on these developments.
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tim
Mar 2, 2009 9:18 AM CST
Charlotte is a dying city. It had its few years of glory and now its done.
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