Williams Mullen is headquartered at the Williams Mullen Center downtown. (Michael Schwartz)
For the second time in two months, Williams Mullen has lured a group of attorneys over from a smaller competitor.
The downtown Richmond-based law firm in recent days added a team from Norfolk-based Pierce McCoy.
The move involves six lawyers, including Pierce McCoy co-founder and namesake Gabe McCoy, and follows Williams Mullen’s addition earlier this month of a group of 10 attorneys from Richmond firm KVCF.
Whereas the KVCF deal was driven mainly by Williams Mullen’s desire to add KVCF’s specialty practices, president and CEO Woody Fowler said the Pierce McCoy additions are driven more by geographical and generational thinking.
From the geographic perspective, Fowler said the firm was looking to expand in Hampton Roads to grow its established offices in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, where it had around four dozen attorneys prior to the new additions.
Woody Fowler
“Having more depth and expertise and new clients in Hampton Roads was important to us,” Fowler said. “It’s a very good market for us.”
The firm also liked the fact that the Pierce McCoy attorneys are all young, allowing Williams Mullen to add younger partners to help shore up its ranks in the future as older partners retire.
“It’s generationally strategic because this is a group of attorneys who are experienced and accomplished and who are in the 32-45 age range,” Fowler said. “You cannot have too many attorneys in that generation. You’re always trying to build for the future… to make sure you don’t have any gaps as time passes. It’s making sure each generation gets filled with good attorneys and those who will be good producers in the future.”
In addition to McCoy, the other Pierce McCoy attorneys who made the move were Erick Lewis, Heng Yong, Jonathan Grasso, Julia Rust and Stephan Lipskis.
Fowler said Williams Mullen had been eyeing Pierce McCoy for several years and had courted the entire 16-person firm before zeroing in on certain attorneys who were ready to move to a larger firm.
“We’ve been talking to Gabe McCoy for probably three years about coming over, bringing a group or bringing the whole firm over,” Fowler said. “You never know who’s going to want to come or not or whether a merger makes sense. In this approach we looked at all the different options.”
The practices of those who came over include corporate law, litigation, and trust and estate work for high-net-worth clients.
Fowler wouldn’t say how much revenue the six Pierce McCoy attorneys bring with them.
“They have a good book of business,” he said. “It’s a material amount of new rev for the firm.”
The new additions bring Williams Mullen’s attorney headcount to around 270. With the moves from KVCF, Pierce McCoy and a few other recent additions in North Carolina and Northern Virginia, Fowler said the firm has added nearly three dozen attorneys in the last three months, a nearly 15 percent increase.
The firm is now at its largest point attorney-wise since shortly after the Great Recession.
As for the future of Pierce McCoy, co-founder Nat Pierce, who opted to not make the move to Williams Mullen, said the firm he founded with McCoy 10 years ago will continue on.
Nat Pierce
“Luckily we’re in a pretty stable position with a strong client base,” Pierce said. “Obviously it’s a transition and any transition is disruptive, but it allows us to refocus.”
He said the firm will have around 10-12 attorneys and is rebranding as Pierce Jewett by making Josh Jewett a named partner. And he expects the firm will look to hire to replenish its ranks in the near future.
Pierce said nearly everyone at the firm received an offer from Williams Mullen.
“We all each had our discussions with them and it worked for some and didn’t for others,” he said. “The ones that had the big-firm desire went.”
Pierce said his firm’s younger age range has regularly made it a target for suitors over the years.
“We’ve always been attractive to big firms that are trying to replace retiring partners,” he said.
The firm retains its offices in Norfolk and New York, while its Dallas office will close in conjunction with the recent departures.
Pierce said the departures won’t affect the firm’s ongoing efforts to open its first permanent office in Richmond on a ground floor space in the Bank of America Center downtown. He said the firm expects to be open for business in the space on Jan. 1, 2024.
Pierce said the end of his partnership with McCoy comes with mixed emotions, but that it’s all part of the business.
“Just like any business, some relationships you sign up for were meant to be lifelong ones and some have a duration,” he said. “It’s bittersweet after 10 years of working with someone.”
Williams Mullen is headquartered at the Williams Mullen Center downtown. (Michael Schwartz)
For the second time in two months, Williams Mullen has lured a group of attorneys over from a smaller competitor.
The downtown Richmond-based law firm in recent days added a team from Norfolk-based Pierce McCoy.
The move involves six lawyers, including Pierce McCoy co-founder and namesake Gabe McCoy, and follows Williams Mullen’s addition earlier this month of a group of 10 attorneys from Richmond firm KVCF.
Whereas the KVCF deal was driven mainly by Williams Mullen’s desire to add KVCF’s specialty practices, president and CEO Woody Fowler said the Pierce McCoy additions are driven more by geographical and generational thinking.
From the geographic perspective, Fowler said the firm was looking to expand in Hampton Roads to grow its established offices in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, where it had around four dozen attorneys prior to the new additions.
Woody Fowler
“Having more depth and expertise and new clients in Hampton Roads was important to us,” Fowler said. “It’s a very good market for us.”
The firm also liked the fact that the Pierce McCoy attorneys are all young, allowing Williams Mullen to add younger partners to help shore up its ranks in the future as older partners retire.
“It’s generationally strategic because this is a group of attorneys who are experienced and accomplished and who are in the 32-45 age range,” Fowler said. “You cannot have too many attorneys in that generation. You’re always trying to build for the future… to make sure you don’t have any gaps as time passes. It’s making sure each generation gets filled with good attorneys and those who will be good producers in the future.”
In addition to McCoy, the other Pierce McCoy attorneys who made the move were Erick Lewis, Heng Yong, Jonathan Grasso, Julia Rust and Stephan Lipskis.
Fowler said Williams Mullen had been eyeing Pierce McCoy for several years and had courted the entire 16-person firm before zeroing in on certain attorneys who were ready to move to a larger firm.
“We’ve been talking to Gabe McCoy for probably three years about coming over, bringing a group or bringing the whole firm over,” Fowler said. “You never know who’s going to want to come or not or whether a merger makes sense. In this approach we looked at all the different options.”
The practices of those who came over include corporate law, litigation, and trust and estate work for high-net-worth clients.
Fowler wouldn’t say how much revenue the six Pierce McCoy attorneys bring with them.
“They have a good book of business,” he said. “It’s a material amount of new rev for the firm.”
The new additions bring Williams Mullen’s attorney headcount to around 270. With the moves from KVCF, Pierce McCoy and a few other recent additions in North Carolina and Northern Virginia, Fowler said the firm has added nearly three dozen attorneys in the last three months, a nearly 15 percent increase.
The firm is now at its largest point attorney-wise since shortly after the Great Recession.
As for the future of Pierce McCoy, co-founder Nat Pierce, who opted to not make the move to Williams Mullen, said the firm he founded with McCoy 10 years ago will continue on.
Nat Pierce
“Luckily we’re in a pretty stable position with a strong client base,” Pierce said. “Obviously it’s a transition and any transition is disruptive, but it allows us to refocus.”
He said the firm will have around 10-12 attorneys and is rebranding as Pierce Jewett by making Josh Jewett a named partner. And he expects the firm will look to hire to replenish its ranks in the near future.
Pierce said nearly everyone at the firm received an offer from Williams Mullen.
“We all each had our discussions with them and it worked for some and didn’t for others,” he said. “The ones that had the big-firm desire went.”
Pierce said his firm’s younger age range has regularly made it a target for suitors over the years.
“We’ve always been attractive to big firms that are trying to replace retiring partners,” he said.
The firm retains its offices in Norfolk and New York, while its Dallas office will close in conjunction with the recent departures.
Pierce said the departures won’t affect the firm’s ongoing efforts to open its first permanent office in Richmond on a ground floor space in the Bank of America Center downtown. He said the firm expects to be open for business in the space on Jan. 1, 2024.
Pierce said the end of his partnership with McCoy comes with mixed emotions, but that it’s all part of the business.
“Just like any business, some relationships you sign up for were meant to be lifelong ones and some have a duration,” he said. “It’s bittersweet after 10 years of working with someone.”