ADVERTORIAL
Te Crumbie Law Group/Hinckley, Allen & Snyder Strategic Alliance:
INITIAL SUCCESSES
Late last October, Crumbie Law Group, LLC, the largest state-certified Minority Business Enterprise law firm in New England, and Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP, a 130+ lawyer multi-services business law firm, announced a strategic alliance. At the end of March, their fifth month of implement- ing initial internal development plans and pursuing selected new busi- ness opportunities, they reported their progress to us on a program that might well be an industry model.
Te strategic alliance of Crumbie Law Group (CLG) and Hinckley, Allen & Snyder (HAS) is actively aimed at expanding each firm’s client base and providing clients with a team of diverse lawyers highly experienced in sophisticated litigation and business law. “Our alliance is structured as a transitional bridge to the future—to two futures,” said Marc Crisafulli, who became HAS managing partner last fall. “Our objective is to improve both firms’ independent operations although we expect to have a long- term relationship co-counseling clients that are best served by combin- ing the unique skills and experience of both firms’ attorneys.” CLG, a MBE-certified boutique
firm of 12 attorneys founded by Andrew Crumbie in 2008, focuses on litigation, corporate investigations, municipal services, and commercial transactions. Some of the firm’s practice areas developed naturally from Andrew Crumbie’s 20-year career in Connecticut law enforcement in positions that included, among others, assignment for several years to the FBI as a task force agent working closely with the office of Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney and later Chief of Staff to
the State’s Commissioner. In addition several attorneys at CLG have over 25 years of complex litigation and munici- pal law experience. Tose practice areas complement Hinckley Allen’s, which span all areas of corporate and business law, complex litigation, public finance, construction and public contracts, banking and financial institutions, employee benefits and executive com- pensation, gaming, labor and employ- ment, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, municipal restructuring, real estate, healthcare, intellectual property, and trusts and estates. Te two firms are pursuing
targeted opportunities together—“in a way that is very resource-sustainable for both firms —in areas where neither firm would be likely to succeed alone, either because we need a deeper bench on the diversity side or because CLG needs more experience with large-firm clients,” Crisafulli said. “We’re getting a terrific client response so far and a terrific response internally,” he said, a statement enthusiastically endorsed by Andrew Crumbie. According to Crumbie, “One huge
success is new work with a private equity client with whom we had the contact and Hinckley Allen had the expertise.”
Te fund-to-funds client is one of several that he and William S. Fish Jr., a HAS partner, have been approaching together. Fish has been deeply involved in planning and implementing the alliance since he and Crumbie met at a charitable event and concluded after several conversations that such an alli- ance could benefit both firms. “Another promising practice area
involves corporate and government investigations, and one where we are starting to work jointly on some significant issues for a major utility,” Fish said, “Other areas showing great potential are commercial litigation and corporate transactions, where we see a big opportunity for work with some of the larger corporations in the Northeast. I also see potential work in specialty areas such as intellectual property and ERISA law.” What sets the CLG-HAS strategic
alliance apart is a major effort to build a mutually beneficial foundation for success even before those opportuni- ties arise. Before the alliance was announced, CLG attorneys began attending continuing legal education sessions, an internally run program developed and staffed by HAS attor- neys. CLG lawyers also are invited to other professional development events hosted by HAS. Most importantly, a six-month rotational program for CLG associates is enabling them to develop the hands-on legal experience that might only be found in a large multi- practice firm by working closely with HAS partners and mentors. Tat began in mid-November with the assignment of Heidi Hamilton, an attorney who practices in CLG’s municipal services, litigation and trial, and business services groups, to HAS’ Hartford office on a contract basis. Tere she is working closely with Bill Fish, Bill Bouton and William H. Champlin, another HAS partner, who reviews her work and has become her mentor. While her 13-year career had
provided her with experience in other law firms in New York and commer- cial and transactional experience that
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