Strategic Execution

Strategic Execution

By David R. Corder

Associate Editor

Over the past several months, Fowler White Boggs Banker PA has executed a new phase of its five-year growth plan. Adopted three years ago, the plan guided the firm's expansion into West Palm Beach and the Fort Myers-Naples regions.

Now the Tampa firm is about to double its presence in West Palm Beach and expand farther south into Fort Lauderdale or Miami or maybe even both. The firm has identified growth opportunities at all nine of its existing offices - Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Naples, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, Tampa and West Palm Beach. That means lateral lawyer recruitment ranks high on its list of priorities.

The goal is to reinforce the firm's presence as a statewide law firm, says Rhea Law, president and chief executive officer. Last summer, Florida Trend magazine ranked Fowler White, with 203 lawyers, as the fifth largest law firm in the state behind Holland & Knight, Akerman Senterfitt, Greenberg Traurig and Carlton Fields.

"We've identified the areas we want to grow in," Law says. "We've also specifically gone out and looked for talent not only in practice areas but geographic areas."

Law has taken, perhaps, an unusual role for a law firm president. She has met face-to-face with key clients in each market to assess their needs and how the firm can help.

"It's amazing," says Tampa shareholder Hala Sandridge, head of the firm's lateral hiring committee. "Each time she went out she came back with more work. To have your chief executive, the president, offer face time with clients, that's impressive."

More business translates into a need for more lawyers, Sandridge says. So the firm made a change in its hiring strategy.

Late last year, the firm named Tampa health care litigator Rick Fernandez as its hiring partner. He reports directly to Sandridge and the lateral hiring committee.

There was a good reason why the firm decided to promote Fernandez, who has been with the firm since 2003. He has an unusual set of skills for a lawyer.

Following graduation in 1978 from the Stetson University College of Law, Fernandez served about six years as a U.S. Navy judge advocate. In 1984, he joined what was Tampa's Shackleford Farrior Stallings & Evans, which has since merged with GrayRobinson PA. Then he spent three years as a shareholder at Tampa's Bavol Bush & Sisco PA.

In 1999, Fernandez became a lawyer-recruitment headhunter. Special Counsel Inc., a law firm recruitment company, hired him as its executive director in charge of its South Florida operations. That gave him direct contact with lawyers and firms from West Palm Beach down to Miami, over to Naples and up to Tampa.

It's obvious, Sandridge says, that Fernandez's experience and contacts in those markets complements the firm's growth strategy.

"A lot's going to happen over the next six months," Sandridge.

While he still practices law, Fernandez spends a lot of his recruiting time on the telephone early in the morning or evenings. That's the best time to catch a busy lawyer, he says, because secretaries aren't there to intercept the calls. The lawyers usually are surprised when he calls, he says, because most of them think he's calling about legal matters not recruitment.

"They tend to appreciate a call from another lawyer," he says. "One-hundred percent of the time it's been a positive experience."

As an example of the expansion effort, Fernandez cites the firm's progress at the West Palm Beach office. The firm just signed a lease on 12,000 square feet of new space. That's up from 6,000 square feet that seven to eight Fowler White attorneys now occupy.

"The new site accommodates up to 23 lawyers," Sandridge adds.

All expansion builds on the core practice in each office, Fernandez says. Then the firm identifies compatible practice areas for future growth.

In Southwest Florida, for instance, the Fowler White attorneys focus heavily on trust and estates and other practice areas that cater to a wealthy, older demographic. Now those offices are offering support in the areas of real estate, labor and employment and litigation.

"There's a similar pattern in West Palm Beach," Fernandez says, which has an established health care law practice.

Amid the expansion effort, Law says the firm's revenue is growing. Revenue is a highly guarded secret at Fowler White. She wouldn't even offer an estimate on percentage of growth for the year ended Oct. 30.

"We're doing fantastic," she says. "I'm delighted."