© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Less than two years ago, Polsinelli opened its doors in Dallas with just three lawyers. The Kansas City-based firm was barely a blip on the screen compared to the other giant firms – Latham & Watkins, Gibson Dunn and Sidley Austin – that exploded into the Texas legal market.
But those three lawyers and Polsinelli had a solid strategic plan that focused on its strengths, including health care law, private equity representation and corporate M&A. As a mid-sized law firm (when did 600 lawyers become mid-sized?), Polsinelli offered more customized client services without the high-dollar billable hour demands of the global firms.
The strategy has been a tremendous success, according to Polsinelli leaders. The firm’s Dallas office has expanded fourfold, including the addition of a new shareholder, Sherri Alexander, this week. And just recently, the firm moved into new office space in Uptown in Dallas.
Polsinelli received additional news a couple weeks ago when former Dallas Congressman and firm shareholder Martin Frost was elected chairman of the board of directors of the bipartisan National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.
“It’s an extension of my work from 1990-95,” Frost said, referring to when he chaired a special House Task Force established to help eastern and central European nations transition to democracy after the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I have a longstanding interest in that part of the world.”
His longstanding interest can be attributed to his family being from the region—his great-grandfather immigrated to Henderson, Texas from Lithuania.
It’s partly because of his Texas roots and connections that Dallas ended up on Polsinelli’s radar screen in the first place, says Jonathan Henderson, a shareholder in the Dallas office. While Frost spends most of his time in D.C., he visits Dallas every six weeks or so to take part in programs and introduce his Dallas colleagues to the countless relationships he developed during his 26 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Henderson, who joined Polsinelli from K&L Gates, was one of the three attorneys who helped open the Dallas office, along with shareholder William Swart and associate Chad Knight. The office now was 16 attorneys, 10 of which are shareholders.
What sets the firm apart, according to Henderson, is a combination of the firm’s management approach, overall leadership and positive collaborative culture. Polsinelli offers alternative fee arrangements and operates as an integrated national firm without walls based on its practice groups.
Henderson, a graduate of Texas Christian University and St. Mary’s University School of Law, said lawyers are attracted to a culture that he describes as a hybrid of entrepreneurialism and discipline.
“The best way to describe our culture is a chapter from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great called ‘Culture of Discipline’,” he said. “This is not official, but it is one way I’ve come to understand and communicate Polsinelli’s cultural strength that I was attracted to in choosing this law firm.”
The success the office is having definitely doesn’t hurt. Polsinelli was counsel in seven of the top 100 transactions in the healthcare industry, according to Modern Healthcare’s 2012 M&A report.
In May, The Health Industry Council of the North Texas Region will host its 6th Annual Southwest Healthcare Transactions Conference. Henderson is the founding chair of the conference, which provides a forum for leaders in the healthcare industry to discuss opportunities and challenges in the marketplace, and leads its execution and development each year.
Henderson, who is also the chair of the firm’s national general corporate practice, said he is currently evaluating other target practice areas where the firm should be moving forward. Right now, the food industry has his attention because of the industry’s stability in an ever changing economy, the firm’s geographic footprint and the expertise of several of the firm’s lawyers, particularly Jason Sapsin, who was formerly associate chief counsel in the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Chief Counsel in D.C.
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