Boston firm has eyes set on Worcester
Are city's law firms leaving biotech biz up for grabs?
A large Boston-based law firm has made Worcester part of its "strategic plan," putting local firms on notice that the area's lucrative, biotech-borne intellectual property, business litigation and patent law business is now fair game.
New territory
David Rosenblatt is managing partner of Boston-based Burns & Levinson LLP, a firm with more than 120 attorneys and strong practice groups in business law, intellectual property, real estate and business litigation. He told the Worcester Business Journal that, given the city's burgeoning biotech business cluster and ongoing developments at Gateway Park, "for us to reach out into the Worcester area is part of our strategic plan."
Rosenblatt demurred on details about that plan, but did say the firm had expressed interest in locating an office in Worcester.
"We think [Gateway Park] will be a big business center," Rosenblatt said. "Boston law firms which are broad-based and have services these expanding businesses can use will want to parlay that experience into good business, and we hope to be part of that mix."
The attention paid by Boston firms to businesses in the area has some local attorneys looking over their shoulders.
Michael Angelini, chairman of Worcester-based Bowditch & Dewey LLP, said he agreed with the notion that area firms are leaving too much local biotech business on the table for Boston firms to come in and scoop up.
And while stating that his tune has changed lately and he welcomes the increased attention from the east, he admitted to spending many years, only half-jokingly, "Convincing the guys in Boston that Worcester was a foreign country. I didn't want them taking my business."
Angelini said the prospect of one or more Boston firms opening an office in Worcester is only fair.
"We have an office in Boston," Angelini said. "There's no reason a Boston firm shouldn't have an office in Worcester."
Area firms need to start planning now to protect their existing business and attract further clients in the months and years to come, said Patrick Jones, currently in-house counsel with Fidelity Investments, and formerly a corporate and high tech specialist for the law firm of Gesmer Updegrove LLP in Boston.
"I certainly think Boston is looking more west these days," for business opportunities, said Jones, who is chairman of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venture Forum. "Worcester and Central Massachusetts attorneys and firms, to the extent that they want to protect their own business, need to be more aggressive and reach out and create a role in those emerging marketplaces."
"Based upon my private practice experience, a lot of Worcester firms don't take advantage of not only the biotech, but other high tech ventures in terms of the opportunities out there," he said. "They don't mine those opportunities as well as they could."
Mining those opportunities is not as difficult as some local attorneys might wish, Rosenblatt said.
Short commute
"Worcester is not very far from Boston, and many lawyers live in MetroWest and further west," he said. "It won't take a large amount of effort for Boston firms to reach into the Worcester business community and work with some of the new companies locating in Worcester."
However, some local firms don't see a Boston invasion on the horizon too soon.
"Any of the sizable Boston law firms are not looking at Worcester as a means of expansion," said Matthew Cote, executive director of Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple PC in Worcester, noting that he sees no shortage of business at his firm. "They don't see Worcester on their radar screen."
Michael Refolo, a partner at Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie & Lougee LLP in Worcester, agreed. "I don't know that the large firm, the big national firm, sees the Worcester market as strong enough to position itself here," Refolo said.
Still, as the biotech market expands, the built-in biases towards larger, Boston-based firms may become more pronounced as more and more companies seek startup funding and associated business law consulting, Angelini said.
Because small companies are traditionally funded by capital from larger cities, they might be compelled to choose representation deemed acceptable by their investors, and that representation will not always be local, said Angelini.
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