AÂ law firm that has offices in five states and more than 260 attorneys is coming to White Plains.
Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC, which has locations in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Kansas in addition to New York, expects to open an office in White Plains this month with the location to be announced.
“We have high hopes for that office in the future in terms of expanding, both in terms of the attorneys who work there and our client base,” attorney Kevin Bernstein, management committee chairman for the firm, told the Business Journal.
The organization already has New York state offices in Albany, Rochester, Utica, Buffalo, Saratoga Springs, Garden City and Manhattan, along with its headquarters in Syracuse.
“One major geographical gap was Westchester County,” Bernstein said, explaining that the plan is to cover the Hudson Valley from its Albany office and the new one in White Plains.
“Westchester County has been part of the firm”™s strategic plan for many, many years. We already have a client base in Westchester County,” Bernstein said. “We see an opportunity to grow that client base from the perspective of both the private and public sector. White Plains is kind of an economic center for Westchester County and there is a lot of activity.”
Bernstein said that at first there will be eight attorneys plus support staff working at the White Plains office. Among the prime practice areas would be labor and employment law, health and long-term care and higher education.
“We represent a number of colleges and universities, big and small, throughout the tri-state area but also nationally, so that”™s a very strong practice area for us,” Bernstein said. “We have a lot of health law clients, whether it”™s hospitals, hospital groups or nursing homes, a lot of different health-related and long-term care clients. We do that from the perspective of labor and employment but also the core regulatory work and even sometimes acquisition work in that area.
“We do a lot of public sector work and we expect that will continue,” he added. ” We represent a number of municipalities and school districts within the tri-state area including in Westchester County. We represent a number of exempt and nonprofit organizations.”
Bernstein said that the firm also does a lot of real estate development work, appearing before local planning boards and other municipal bodies on behalf of clients. He said that the firm expects to expand its wills and estates practice along with various areas of business law, including mergers and acquisitions.
When asked whether he”™d agree with the observation that we live in an increasingly litigious society, Bernstein said, “From the very basic level there”™s a greater demand for lawyers. However, I also see that there”™s more focus from the courts once a case is filed, to try to settle matters whether it”™s through mediation, court conferences or the like.
“I do see an effort on behalf of the courts to try to resolve matters before they go through full litigation,” he continued. “Beyond that you always have cases on behalf of clients that probably should be settled from a business perspective, but sometimes there are principles at stake that need litigating.”
Bond Schoeneck & King became known to some in the business community through its preparation of a comprehensive 500-page guide covering employment law in New York. “New York Employment Law: The Essential Guide” was published under the auspices of The New York State Bar Association, which offers the book to members while nonmembers can order it through Amazon.
About 80 attorneys from the firm”™s labor and employment and employee benefits practices contributed to the text, which was edited by the firm”™s Louis P. DiLorenzo and Jeffrey A. Kehl.
“It fills a gap of all the loopholes and special issues that are unique to New York law and aren”™t the same as federal law,” DiLorenzo told the Business Journal. “This is for the general practice lawyer who has to answer questions sometime for their clients. It”™s for human resources people. It”™s for people who own businesses. The gist of the preface to the book is that these are the rules to help you answer questions about what the law is.”
Among the specifics covered: workers’ compensation cases; unemployment; wages; discrimination; and employee discipline.
“As you look at the spectrum of law work, usually employment law is more of the tail than the dog,” DiLorenzo said. “There are tax issues, there are corporate issues, there is general litigation and filings and all those kinds of things that corporate lawyers have to deal with and then the employment is sometimes a little bit more of a service area.
“We are known and have been since 1935, as a firm that specializes in what we call labor work, which is public and private sector unions,” he added. “That”™s our sweet spot. Since unions have declined a great deal in the private sector but grown in the public sector, a lot of firms have lost that expertise and people have retired and younger and newer lawyers haven”™t had a chance to train at the feet of mentors who did only labor work.”
DiLorenzo said that labor work involves advising employers during a union campaign while the union is seeking to represent their employees, negotiating labor contracts ”” including the first one and renewals ””- and then conducting labor arbitrations pursuant to those contracts.
DiLorenzo said that he will be moving from Midtown Manhattan to White Plains and hopes to be close to the White Plains office, but he also plans to take the train to the firm’s office in the city.
