In a significant shift within the legal landscape of the Northeast, two regional law firms have successfully recruited 20 attorneys from the Boston-based firm Burns & Levinson. This development follows the firm’s recent announcement that it is winding down operations amid a wave of departures earlier this year.
McCarter & English, a Newark-founded firm, has welcomed seven partners from Burns & Levinson, specializing in trusts and estates, real estate, and business litigation. Additionally, nine professional staff members are joining McCarter & English to bolster their resources.
In parallel, Barclay Damon, a 300-lawyer firm with offices in New York, Boston, Toronto, and Washington, DC, has brought on board ten lawyers focused on intellectual property and real estate from the dissolving firm.
The closure of Burns & Levinson, which has operated for 64 years, follows a tumultuous year marked by significant partner exits, including a 25-lawyer group that established a new Boston office for Blank Rome and a 17-lawyer team that joined ArentFox Schiff. Other lawyers have found new homes at firms such as Locke Lord, Polsinelli, Rubin and Rudman, and Verrill.
Managing partner Paul Mastrocola stated that despite considering multiple merger proposals, none aligned with the remaining partners’ practices, leading to the decision to dissolve the firm. “The offers would not work for the remaining partners as a group and for our wonderfully varied practices,” he explained, suggesting that the remaining attorneys will likely transition to other firms.
Barclay Damon’s chair, John Langan, highlighted that his firm had explored combination talks with Burns & Levinson in June but was unable to reach a mutual agreement, despite the latter’s solid profitability. “We just couldn’t make it work,” Langan remarked.
Maria Laccotripe Zacharakis, managing partner of McCarter & English’s Boston office, noted that the newly acquired attorneys will significantly enhance the firm’s life sciences and technology practice groups. As Boston increasingly establishes itself as a competitive hub for legal services, firms from outside the region, including Paul Hastings, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Wiggin and Dana, have opened offices in the city this year, further intensifying the local legal market.
The movement of talent from Burns & Levinson to regional firms signals both challenges and opportunities in the evolving legal landscape. As these firms adapt and grow, they are poised to leverage their new resources in an increasingly competitive environment.
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