Thursday, January 16, 2003
Page 5
Chicago/Baltimore-Based Piper Rudnick Opens Massachusetts Office
By DON PARRET, Staff Writer
Piper Rudnick has entered the Boston legal market with the addition of 33 attorneys from the former law firm of Hill & Barlow.
Hill & Barlow, founded in 1895, had a total of 195 attorneys before its membership decided to dissolve the firm in December.
Piper Rudnick, which is based in Chicago and Baltimore and has an office in Century City, entered into discussions with attorneys from the firm shortly thereafter.
The move is designed to boost the firm’s real estate practice.
Most of the Hill & Barlow attorneys that joined Piper Rudnick are real estate lawyers.
Piper Rudnick said yesterday that the former Hill & Barlow attorneys, including 17 partners, joined Piper Rudnick.
“Entering the Boston market has long been a strategic goal of our firm, and this group of attorneys fills the bill perfectly,” Piper Rudnick co-chairs Francis B. Burch Jr. of Baltimore and Lee I. Miller of Chicago said in a joint statement.
Piper Rudnick says it wants to expand the Boston office in the future to capitalize on the city’s wealth of finance and new technology businesses. Company officials said they plan on recruiting attorneys with experience in mutual funds, venture capital, biosciences, intellectual property and emerging companies.
In September Piper Rudnick, Baltimore’s largest law firm with roughly 190 lawyers, merged with the Washington law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand — former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s firm.
It also formed a “strategic alliance” with the Cohen Group, a consulting firm run by former U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.
Earlier this month, former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey also joined the firm.
Piper Rudnick now has 900 lawyers in 13 offices in the U.S.
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company