In 2007, when William Adams was talking to Gunster about opening a Jacksonville office for the West Palm Beach-based firm that brands itself, “Florida’s law firm for business,” there was something he needed to know.
“My big question was why does a traditional, Southeastern, very staid, white shoes law firm want to come to Jacksonville?”
Adams said the managing partner explained that the answer was simple: Jacksonville has in one place elements that are found singly — or maybe in pairs — in the other cities in Florida.
There’s access to the water, it’s a logistical cross point with the port and Interstate 10 and Interstate 95, there’s a pro-business climate in City Hall and a relatively well-educated workforce.
“It’s kind of a rarity for all those things to be in one place,” Adams said.
Gunster began in 1925 with a single practitioner who was the founding attorney for the First National Bank in Palm Beach. The namesake joined the firm in 1942 and it started growing. By 1975, its 15 lawyers made it the largest law firm in Palm Beach County.
Five years later, the attorneys opened an office in Stuart. Gunster has since expanded to nearly 400 attorneys and staff in 13 offices in Florida.
Adams said the practice areas have evolved naturally based on the first clients more than 90 years ago to include private wealth services, real estate and land use and commercial litigation.
“The firm started as the lawyers for New Yorkers who came south for the winter,” Adams said. “Rich people like to buy land and every once in a while, you’ll have a lawsuit, so litigators were added.”
What worked in the 1920s in South Florida still works today in Jacksonville, he added, although he admits that starting a new office for the firm mere months from the beginning of the Great Recession made the first few years tough on the real estate practice.
“It was easy to be skeptical about the future seven years ago. It was dark and gloomy,” Adams said.
“But then you have to think about that you’re in Florida, on the leading edge of the biggest economic shift and wealth transfer in history with the baby boomers retiring and wanting to move someplace sunny,” Adams said. “I don’t think Florida’s recovery was a possibility, it was an eventuality. And Jacksonville’s growth as a result of that trend was a certainty.”
“If you’re looking for a place that’s not over-congested where you can start a business — or move your business and have good support — Jacksonville is your spot,” he said.
Gunster Jacksonville has grown to 25 attorneys and Adams said he predicts the office will continue to expand steadily, but without urgency.
“I’d like to see us have 35 attorneys in five years and I’d like to add labor and employment and corporate transactional practice,” he said.
Adams said the firm is focused on getting the best team together.
“The better professionals you have, the better you can sell your services and the more success you’ll have,” he said.
And he’s looking at expansion not as recruitment, but more as evaluation.
“There’s never a bad time to hire the right lawyer. If the right attorney comes along … we always need talent.”
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