Emerging Growth Law Firm of the Year - USA

Firm Profile

The new model law firm that looked good on the drawing board is proving even more effective in the real world than its founders had anticipated.

SorinRoyerCooper opened its doors in fall 2009. Since then, the firm has attracted a host of experienced attorneys and reeled in high-profile clients in its target markets of media, technology, communications, energy and life sciences, among other technology industry sectors.

The firm’s appeal lies in its ability to offer first-rate legal services at a price clients find reasonable, says David J. Sorin, the firm’s co-managing partner. “Clearly this is something that we knew would be important to early-stage companies,” Sorin says. “But emerging growth and middle- market companies also have embraced our model.”

“The model starts with a focus on cutting costs, much as clients have done over the last few years,” Sorin says. While salaries are competitive, SorinRoyerCooper keeps a close eye on what it spends for marketing, overhead and real estate. Even as the firm has added attorneys, it has shrunk its footprint, relying on digital storage technology, careful site selection and smaller yet functional reception areas and public spaces.

While clients may pay less, they get the same experienced attorneys they would find at larger firms. But unlike at larger firms, those attorneys work directly on client accounts.

“The typical law firm model is to rely extensively on over-leverage, often pushing work to less- experienced professionals,” says John Royer, a co-founder of SorinRoyerCooper. “We’re different. Our delivery model ensures experienced personnel handle our clients’ work. Not only does that appeal to the clients, it also appeals to attorneys. They don’t have to deal with billing rates that don’t make sense and a model that requires them to hand off the work.”

Indeed, a number of experienced attorneys have joined

SorinRoyerCooper in the last year, boosting the firm’s staff to more than 40 people.

The new recruits include: Jeff Marcus, former chair of the corporate

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department in the New York office of Morrison & Foerster; Jay Rand, former national co-chair of the technology and venture law group at Manatt, Phelps; George Nagle, former co-chair of the tax department at Saul Ewing; Barry Cohen, former chair of the intellectual property litigation practice of Thorp Reed; and Jeff Kaplan, who had founded one of New Jersey’s leading intellectual property law firms. Most recently, these partners were joined by leading licensing and trademark partner Susan Goldsmith and patent law partner Paul Schwarz, both formerly Duane Morris partners.

“We knew that we were doing something that was a positive disruptive force in the marketplace, and we were hoping that what we were doing was a game-changer,” Cooper says. “But the results have surpassed expectations,” he adds. “The market acceptance for what we are doing has really been extraordinary.”

Today, SorinRoyerCooper operates offices in East Brunswick, New Jersey and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania two areas marked by technology and life science innovation, and in New York, serving communications, new media, venture capital, investment banking and private equity fund clients.

Areas of Expertise

With respect to eCommerce, Technology, Life Science, Communications and Alternative Energy:

• Corporate, including business and finance, entity formation and corporate governance;

• Financing, including seed capital, angel and venture financing, private equity and public offerings;

• Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and strategic partnerships, including licensing;

• Securities law compliance; • Intellectual property; • Litigation; • Taxation.

Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2011 61

David J. Sorin, Esq., Co-Managing Partner

SorinRoyerCooper LLC Two Tower Center Boulevard East Brunswick, NJ 08816

(dd) 732.839.0401 dsorin@sorinroyercooper.com

Notable Legal Work

Companies tapping the firm’s services include Atlas Copco, Noveda Technologies, Phone.com, Exclaim Mobility, Emerson, Nautilus Solar, United BioSource, Second Market, Vidyo, Amgen, Scanbury and Wayside Technology Group. The firm also represents FirstMark, IA ventures, ff Venture Funds, NYCSeed and Osage Partners, among other investors.

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