Polsinelli’s ‘Goldilocks’ Run Has Firm Targeting Mid-Markets (1)

One of the fastest growing US law firms aims to expand its reach domestically by recruiting lawyers and building in key markets such as South Florida.

Polsinelli plans to grab more mid-market corporate deals work and provide a wide range of client services in areas including real estate, health care, and life sciences, CEO Chase Simmons said in an interview. It prefers to add lawyers through individual and group hires, rather than mergers, and has no plans to launch offices abroad.

“We’ve really focused on building out a full-service firm in financial centers throughout the United States and a few other places where we’ve found talent,” Simmons said. “We think of ourselves as a daily and weekly law firm, not a once-every-two-year law firm. We have some practices that we feel like are important to our clients on a daily basis.”

The moves by Kansas City’s Polsinelli have it on the verge of cracking the 50 largest firms by revenue after seeing its top line surge by more than 650% over the last 15 years. It has outpaced competitors by focusing only on a handful of industries, with clients including Equifax, Inc., US Bancorp, and Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp.

“The story of our firm the last couple years has really been about balance,” he said. “There’s just been really a lot of balance between the transactional practices, the regulatory and the advisory practices, litigation, and intellectual property. It’s been one of those kind of Goldilocks periods for our firm.”

Polsinelli raked in more than $964 million in gross revenue last year, a 13% gain that’s in line with the expected average across large firms. Its profits per equity partner jumped by nearly a third, topping $2.5 million.

Polsinelli opened new outposts in Park City, Utah, and Fort Worth, Texas, last year while expanding its office space in Nashville and St. Louis. The firm, which has 24 offices across the country, plans to move to a bigger office in Dallas and double its square footage in Philadelphia.

It’s also looking to grow in South Florida, a hotbed for health care and real estate work, where the firm has offices in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

Simmons said he is optimistic about the upcoming year, even if the current global economic expansion “feels pretty long in the tooth.”

Polsinelli has previously used combinations to grow, acquiring 180-lawyer Kansas City firm Shughart Thomson & Kilroy in 2009. While mergers are a key tool for US law firms looking to bulk up quickly, the firm isn’t interested in the approach, Simmons said.

“In a merger, you normally get some things that you prefer not to get,” he said. “You get duplicate offices, you get cities you didn’t want to go to. And so that been kind of the reason we have shied away from it.”

Chase Simmons

Photo: Polsinelli

The firm poached a 47-lawyer team from Holland & Knight last year, opening a Philadelphia office in the process. Polsinelli in 2016 used a similar move to build out its intellectual property practice, nabbing 40-plus attorneys from IP boutique Novak Druce Connolly Bove & Quigg.

Polsinelli has had success targeting lateral recruits who want to try make partner at a firm with “an accessible equity tier,” Simmons said. “Direct one-on-one small group recruiting has probably been the smartest thing that we’ve done.”

The firm also juiced profits by stockpiling its nonequity partner tier. It was an early adopter of the trend, made popular by deals giant Kirkland & Ellis, employing a group of largely salaried “partners” for at least two decades. Several elite firms have since embraced the strategy to retain lawyers and give larger profit shares to rainmakers.

Polsinelli has doubled the size of its nonequity partner roster over the last 10 years, up to 502 lawyers. It has kept a lean equity partner roll, which increased by 11% during the same time.

Polsinelli doesn’t subscribe to the “up or out” approach that Kirkland and some other major firms take with nonequity partners, giving them a few years to get promoted or find new jobs. The firm values nonequity partners who remain in the roles for longer stretches, Simmons said.

“From the client’s perspective, we believe that really high-skilled, 15, 16-year partners that aren’t necessarily rainmakers are an unbelievable value for clients,” Simmons said.

They still need to pull their weight with clients and help mentor junior lawyers. “But what they don’t have to do, if that’s not their path, is generate business,” he said.