In ‘outward expansion,’ Gray Plant lawyers open firm

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It could be said that another large out-of-state law firm has come to town and scooped up a group of Minnesota lawyers in the latest example of law firm merger mania.

Or it could be said that a group of 10 (so far) Minnesota lawyers have joined forces to reach out to a large firm in order to provide a deeper bench to their clients.

The second version is what Alfred Coleman, the new managing partner of the Minneapolis office of Saul, Ewing Arnstein & Lehr prefers. “If anything, this is an outward expansion,” Coleman told Minnesota Lawyer.

Last week, Saul Ewing announced that it was opening a new office in Minneapolis, its 16th, which would be staffed by eight partners from Gray Plant Mooty. Joining the firm in addition to Coleman are Maxwell J. Bremer, Samuel W. Diehl, Stephen R. Eide, Kermit J. Nash, Nancy Quattlebaum Burke, Douglas M. Ramler and Andrew J. Daly.

In his new office only a few days, Coleman has already been working with his new partners in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Baltimore.

“This is what clients are looking for,” Coleman said. His clients are Fortune 500 and other strong revenue companies with tens of thousands of employees. That coincides with Saul Ewing’s practitioners in a broad range of industries in its offices across the country. One of Coleman’s clients is Kevin Warren, chief operating officer of the Minnesota Vikings, who was quoted in a firm press release as saying, “Having a deeper bench of attorneys with the savvy and strong business acumen of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr will be invaluable to us.”

The Minneapolis office will concentrate on its areas of strength, including corporate finance, food and beverage, health care and higher education, Coleman said. But that does not take litigation off the table. “We can utilize litigators that are on the platform, we will add depth [in Minneapolis] in litigation,” he said.

Coleman calls this approach a “more defined strategy.” When a law firm says it can do anything and be anywhere, the client may not know where to turn. He said the question for the law firm is, “What do you excel at? What are you known for?”

The separation from Gray Plant was “very cordial,” Coleman said. The lawyers at the new firm had been with Gray Plant for long periods and considered them friends. “We’re sad to separate and we wish the best for them,” he said.

At about the same time the Saul Ewing deal was announced, Gray Plant Mooty announced that Michael Sullivan Jr. is its new managing officer.

The firm’s press release says, “Sullivan assumes this role at a time of momentum for Gray Plant Mooty, a Minneapolis-based firm with a national reach. 2018 was the firm’s best year financially in its 153-year history.

“While the firm is focused on growth, core elements of what has sustained Gray Plant Mooty for generations will not change. This includes an unrelenting focus on client relationships and service, a commitment to the community, and an emphasis on maintaining a collegial and fulfilling workplace.”

The new firm brings some American history with it. Maurice Bower Saul and his brother, Walter Biddle Saul, started the firm with Joseph Ewing and Raymond Remnick in 1921 in Philadelphia.

Partner Earl Harrison served as U.S. Immigration Commissioner under President Franklin Roosevelt and later reported to President Harry Truman on the status of survivors of Nazi concentration camps.

Henry Ruth, then head of the firm’s litigation department, spent 28 months in the Watergate prosecution office and led the office following Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox, who was fired by President Richard Nixon, and Leon Jaworski.

In 2013, the firm was involved in the $135 million settlement between Cantor Fitzgerald and American Airlines over Cantor’s losses in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.