K&L Gates opens in South Carolina with seven partners
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Downtown-based legal giant K&L Gates has continued its geographic expansion by opening a new office in South Carolina formed with the addition of seven partners from Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein.
The Charleston location makes for the firm's 40th office and follows its Sao Paulo launch in November.
The new office will start out focusing on resort and hospitality work, labor and employment, litigation, banking, tax, corporate and real estate work, among other areas, the firm announced.
"With its expanding port and with South Carolina's distinctive business-friendly climate, Charleston is uniquely well positioned to continue to attract U.S. and international businesses," K&L Gates Chairman Peter J. Kalis said in a statement.
"The practices of our new partners, moreover, nicely complement our firmwide resources and add leadership-caliber lawyers to our firm. As but one example, we expect that Matt Norton will be a leader in our global resort and hospitality practice."
Matthew J. Norton joined K&L Gates along with fellow partners J. Walker Coleman IV, Joshua W. Dixon, Theodore B. Manuel, Bryan L. Walpole III, Jason P. Walton and James S. Bruce.
Mr. Coleman will serve as the office administrative partner.
Mr. Kalis said in an interview last week that the "extraordinarily business-friendly" public policy profile of South Carolina has increasingly made it a magnet for inbound investments by national and international businesses.
"There's nothing that I could see that would interrupt that trend," he said.
A growing business climate in the state means increased competition for indigenous businesses that will now be competing with international companies. With K&L Gates' local ties as well as offices across the globe, it can serve South Carolina clients as the "legal bridge to the globalized world," Mr. Kalis said.
Mr. Norton's practice has a focus on commercial real estate, resort development, hotels, golf and real estate financing. His clients' projects and transactions take place throughout the southeastern U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America.
"K&L Gates is the first law firm to establish an office in South Carolina that also has significant offices in world financial centers such as New York, London, Frankfort, Tokyo, Dubai, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo," Mr. Norton said in a statement.
"As a result, K&L Gates is the ideal platform for Charleston and South Carolina's growing and dynamic economy, and our international resort and hospitality practice."
Mr. Coleman's practice centers on litigation in the areas of employment, intellectual property, commercial disputes and class actions. His clients are in a number of industries, including aviation, athletic equipment, banking, health care, manufacturing, telecommunications and textiles.
Mr. Manuel, Mr. Walpole and Mr. Walton work in the banking and tax group, representing lenders and borrowers, as well as banks, investment funds, private equity firms and real estate and resort developers.
Mr. Bruce, a corporate transactions attorney, works on mergers and acquisitions, dispositions and strategic joint ventures.
Parker Poe is a 200-plus lawyer firm with roots in North Carolina and offices across the southeastern part of the United States. The firm has a resort, hospitality and planned development practice with nearly 25 lawyers.
South Carolina has not been a sought-after destination for many Pennsylvania firms, which, if they do make their way down the coast, have seemed to prefer North Carolina's banking and research sectors.
Many of the national labor and employment law firms, however, have outposts in South Carolina, including Littler Mendelson; Fisher & Phillips; Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart; and Jackson Lewis.
First Published December 19, 2011 12:00 am
