Thirty-five years ago, hedge funds like Bridgewater Associates and SAC Capital Advisors were either in their infancy or nonexistent. There was no such thing as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While prosecutors keyed on insider trading, defense procurement fraud was as much a focal point ”“ if not more so ”“ here in Connecticut.
This year, Day Pitney L.L.P. marks 35 years since its predecessor, Day, Berry & Howard, arrived in Fairfield County.
The firm and the practice of law have changed ”“ exponentially in some instances ”“ both since Day, Berry came to Stamford and since the firm merged with Pitney Hardin in 2007, says Managing Partner Stanley A. Twardy.
To hear about the firm”™s evolution and how it has managed legislative and regulatory changes on the state and federal levels, the Business Journal recently spoke with Twardy, U.S. Attorney for the district of Connecticut from 1985 to 1991 and chief of staff to Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. from 1991 through February 1993.
Business Journal: How has the business of law changed?
Stanley Twardy: “There was a time when law firms, every year, would figure out how much they were going to increase their rates ”¦ and they would just send a letter to clients saying they were going to increase their rates by 5 or 7 percent or whatever it might be.
“Those days I think are forever gone for all law firms, whether it”™s the AM Law 100 or the AM Law 5000. Clients are much more sensitive to costs and law firms are having to adjust for that.”
To what extent has technology factored into how firms operate?
“For example, in the IT area, the use of search terms has really changed how things are done. We have people in our firm who do nothing but the electronic discovery and understand its nuances and how you can make the process quicker but also a lot less expensive for the clients.
“But there”™s a lot of law that is evolving with that too, as to when something is turned over, if there are mistakes made, inadvertent waiver of privileges, inadvertent disclosure; so that law has come a long way in the last 10 years or so to keep up with the changes in technology.”
How has Day Pitney changed since its predecessor arrived in Stamford?
“Back then it was a broad-brush ”“ you did some trust and estates work, some litigation, and some general corporate work. We still do all of those, but there are now specialties that have evolved within those areas.
“Trust and estates is still trust and estates, but it”™s gotten a lot more complex with tax laws changing. In litigation, we now do everything from general commercial litigation to white collar criminal defense work, for example, which was new to this office 20 years ago when I joined.
“We have a lot of intellectual property litigation, which didn”™t exist 35 years ago, that”™s new. Same thing on the corporate side ”“ you still have the general corporate representation, the deals, but now you represent hedge funds and equity funds, in addition to the large Fortune 100 companies and Fortune 200 companies that exist here in Fairfield County and Westchester County.
Take Dodd-Frank, for example: How do you manage the complexities and seemingly constant changes with that particular law and other trending legal topics?
“One of the great things about today”™s Internet world is you have more and more folks who are in Washington covering it on a daily basis. We don”™t need to have our people in Washington; there are folks there who cover it for us.
“But it really is making sure that we”™re on the cutting edge of what the developments are. … And there are things that affect us even at the state level ”“ it”™s not just what the federal government is doing, it”™s what the state is doing too, so we”™re covering that. And then, let”™s not forget that at the end of the day, you have courts, and the courts are the ones that interpret the law.
“With the health care law, for example, when that came back and was upheld as constitutional, it opened up a whole flood of new areas where we needed to get involved and make sure that we had expertise to advise our clients.”
Does government have a heavier hand in how law firms and their clients operate than in the past?
“The heads of businesses recognize that government regulation is something you have to live with. Before, it used to be something that was tolerated and you would try to avoid it, but government has gotten so pervasive with what it”™s done that every corporation knows that it has to be able to respond ”“ not only to respond, but to anticipate what a government agency might do.
“I think companies ”“ and this is true of law firms ”“ are spending a lot more money and paying a lot more attention to compliance efforts, because now the consequences of being out of compliance are so great.”
