SorinRand, leading advisor to early stage and emerging growth companies in technology and tech-enabled industries and the investors who support them, is joining forces with McCarter & English. The transaction, which becomes effective October 1, will give the combined firm nine offices and approximately 425 attorneys. It will continue to be known as McCarter & English.
“This combination makes sense on every level,” said Michael P. Kelly, the Wilmington, DE-based chairman of McCarter & English. “Our corporate practice is strong and has been growing substantially. The addition of SorinRand’s incomparable attorneys, who honed their craft at the most prestigious law firms in the country, establishes us as the leader in the early stage and emerging companies sector.”
“Plus, our new East Brunswick office will put us in the middle of New Jersey’s tech corridor,” Kelly said. “Our technology, venture capital, early stage and emerging company clients will benefit from the addition of some of the best lawyers in the nation focusing specifically on their businesses, bolstering the skilled team of lawyers they already know and count on.”
David J. Sorin, managing partner of SorinRand, who will become managing partner of McCarter’s new East Brunswick office and the head of McCarter’s expanded Venture Capital and Early Stage and Emerging Companies practice, said McCarter’s size and capabilities will bring its clients expertise for which they currently need to look elsewhere.
“We believe we’re in a league of our own in working with venture capital firms and early stage and emerging growth companies in this region,” Sorin said. “For example, we represent two of New York’s 10 most active venture capital funds and several of the fastest growing entrepreneurial enterprises in New Jersey and New York. But our services to them were limited to corporate, intellectual property, employment and litigation. Now, as part of McCarter & English, we can offer our clients a complete array of subject matter experts in fields such as real estate, immigration, employee benefits, executive compensation and bankruptcy, as well as deep industry expertise in fields such as health care, pharmaceuticals, banking and finance.”
The combined firm will be able to counsel clients on virtually every issue they face throughout their life cycle, from conception to exit events, he said.
The SorinRand attorneys coming to McCarter include 11 corporate, three intellectual property, two employment and one litigation lawyer. The SorinRand attorneys will practice from the East Brunswick location, where that firm has been located for five years, and from McCarter’s New York office.
“Law firm combinations work when the two firms share core values, service-delivery models and pricing, and that is the case here,” said Stephen M. Vajtay, Jr., McCarter’s managing partner. “Our combined client base will receive boutique attention from a full-service firm. On a purely business level, we anticipate that SorinRand’s clients will be a new source of customers and suppliers for existing McCarter clients, and McCarter’s clients should represent a new source of financing, exit options and customers for the SorinRand clients coming aboard.”
The combination with SorinRand continues McCarter’s growth trend, firm-wide and particularly in its corporate and intellectual property practices. “This speaks to smart growth the way Miller Balis & O’Neil spoke to our commitment to grow intelligently in energy law,” said Howard Kailes, leader of the firm’s Corporate Practice Group and chair of its growth committee, referring to the firm’s combination in February with the 14-lawyer, Washington, D.C.-based energy boutique.
McCarter, one of the oldest law firms in the country and with a reputation for being a litigation powerhouse, has seen its corporate practice double in the last two years, with the SorinRand transaction following substantial growth in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the firm’s intellectual property practice has doubled over the last four years to include 105 attorneys, patent agents and technical specialists, of whom 29 hold PhDs.
“One of McCarter’s objectives has been to combine the historic core competencies of our corporate practice—in M&A, private equity/venture capital, debt finance and public capital—with the outstanding breadth of our intellectual property practice, and the SorinRand combination will advance that collaboration,” Kailes said. “By adding best-in-breed practitioners to our strong team, our focused growth strategy results in a win both for McCarter and, more importantly, our clients.”
Source: www.mccarter.com
