© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(May 25) – Butler Snow, a Mississippi law firm, is the latest out-of-state firm to enter the increasingly-competitive Texas legal market.
The firm recently announced the opening of Dallas and Austin offices by adding bankruptcy expert Martin Sosland and former Bowman and Brooke product liability pros Gary Davis and José Luzarraga.
Sosland, who retired from Weil Gotshal in December after nearly 30 years, said he was doing legal consulting and working on a publication for the ABA when met an old friend and Butler Snow partner, Stephen Rosenblatt, for a drink at the Fifth Circuit’s Bench Bar conference in New Orleans in February.
Rosenblatt, who worked with Sosland on the restructuring of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, MS in the mid-2000s, asked what he was doing and invited him to consider helping Butler Snow expand into Texas.
“The idea of opening an office in Texas and expanding the firm’s national footprint was exciting,” said Sosland, who assisted Weil in opening its Dallas office in 1987. “It is a good fit in expertise and geography.”
With the addition of the two Texas offices, Butler Snow has 19 offices nationwide and three international offices in London, Singapore and Hong Kong. The 300-plus lawyer firm has a strong Southeastern presence and wanted to close the gap between those offices and the outposts they have in Denver and Albuquerque, NM.
“Butler Snow has been expanding the past decade strategically according to where clients’ needs are,” Sosland said.
Firm leaders point to the success of its Nashville office for its potential for growth in Texas. Butler Snow has more than 60 attorneys in the Music City after opening five years ago with a handful of lawyers.
Sosland and Luzarraga will be based in Dallas, while Davis will lead the firm’s efforts in Austin.
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