Polsinelli’s 47-Lawyer Hire Challenges Rivals With Rapid Growth

Polsinelli’s splashy hire of 47 Holland & Knight lawyers shows the firm is taking on Big Law competitors in major markets beyond its Kansas City, Missouri roots.

The mass hire announced last week marked the firm’s entrance into Philadelphia, its third new city this year after opening in Fort Worth, Texas and Park City, Utah. Polsinelli is close to the top 50 firms by revenue—a surge from No. 113 in fiscal 2012, according to data from The American Lawyer.

The firm achieved the Holland & Knight haul because of its upward trajectory and record of bringing on partners who go on to grow their practices, said Gary Miles, a legal recruiter who brokered the move. “Polsinelli is a rocket ship right now,” he said.

The 47-lawyer hire by Polsinelli, which was the largest in the firm’s 52-year history, adds to its record of being one the fastest growing Big Law operations over the past decade, typically by adding individual partners and groups of them while avoiding mergers.

“We really are having a strong growth year outside of that transaction,” chief executive Chase Simmons said in an interview, adding that he expects a record performance in 2024. “This will set us up for a great year next year as well.”

Built around practices including health care, real estate and middle-market corporate transactions, Polsinelli has grown revenue nearly 165% over the past 10 years to $856 million in 2023. The firm’s average equity partner has seen profits rise 178% to $1.9 million over the decade, American Lawyer data show.

The roots of the Holland & Knight hire go back roughly five years, when the firm decided to pay top salaries for associates and partners in coastal markets rather than attract talent with a “Missouri-centric” compensation model, Simmons said. “We have a lot of firepower to do things like this,” he added.

Kansas City-based Simmons took the reins of the firm in 2019 from Russ Welsh, who served in the top role since 1998. The firm adopted its strategy of matching the top rates for associates and generously compensating business-generating partners as it branched out from its Midwest roots into larger cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“We made sure those folks are both very well paid and they are in our platform,” Simmons said. “They need a seat at the table and a say in the strategic direction of the firm, and they can’t just be treated as a cog in the wheel.”

Non-Equity Partners

Polsinelli’s growth has coincided with an industry-wide spike in the number of non-equity partners—lawyers who earn less than 50% of their compensation from a profit payout. A larger share of nonequity partners can give firms greater flexibility to pay their top performers.

At Polsinelli, the non-equity partner tier last year numbered 415 lawyers, up 65% over the past decade. That far outpaces the growth of its equity partner headcount in AmLaw data, which consisted of 128 lawyers last year.

Simmons said the firm’s growth in non-equity partners is a result of adding leverage to business lines that have grown with the firm, and, in more recent years, adding lawyers to support strong demand in transactional practices. He said the firm was comfortable with its ratio of partners, but that its equity headcount would rise this year.

“We felt like we needed to demonstrate to our partners that we’re doing everything we can to have high quality lawyers come in and not be turning work away,” he said.

Integration

The Holland & Knight hire was led by Philadelphia-based shareholder John Martini, an executive compensation and employee benefits partner who has a long history advising on benefits and compensation plans in the healthcare and life sciences industries, which are among Polsinelli’s major practices.

The hire included 30 shareholders in total, spread across Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York. While hiring such a large group is new for the firm, it comes with some built-in advantages.

In such large group moves, the lawyers often work closely together for shared clients, said Divya Bala, founder of Avance Partner Search who brokered a move of 17 lawyers from Munger Tolles & Olson to Baker McKenzie in April. Those groups will prefer to move to firms that already work with those clients, she said, making for a more natural integration process.

“One theme between many of these large group moves is typically there are shared clients and synergies between those lawyers even if in different practice areas,” Bala said. “The integration becomes much easier if 50 people already know each other and there’s connectivity with their clients and a new firm.”

Lawyers in the group move already took over work being done by Holland & Knight on behalf of Tesla Inc. in a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to court documents.

As the firm matures into one of the country’s largest, Simmons said leadership will focus on maintaining what got them there: a “growth mindset” and an entrepreneurial spirit among its lawyers.

“We try to make sure our high performers,” he said, “whether they’re a first-year associate or a very senior equity shareholder, feel connected to the firm, has my cell phone, and is comfortable coming to the offices of myself and other leaders.”