King & Spalding Goes on an 18-Month ‘Expansion Spree’
King & Spalding, a law firm known for its ties to Atlanta, is on “an expansion spree” that is tied to targeted practice areas, the American Lawyer reports in a profile.
The law firm has opened eight new locations since 2007—in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Charlotte, N.C.; Frankfurt, Germany; the Silicon Valley; San Francisco; and Austin, Texas, the magazine reports. Since a new chairman took over in 2006, the story says, the firm is “in transition from regional leader to global scrapper.”
The targeted expansion began with a firm retreat held in April 2006 in which the new chairman, Robert Hays, projected a photograph of a big cat tracking its quarry—a symbol of how he wanted the firm to pursue its aspirations.
“I thought that we were verging on complacent, that we were underperforming relative to potential, and that we were somewhat naive about the competition and what was happening in the marketplace,” Hays told the publication.
After the retreat, the firm identified four industry sectors it intended to pursue: health care; pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices; energy; and real estate capital markets. It also narrowed its areas of focus in litigation and transaction work, targeting such areas as product liability, international arbitration and trade, patent litigation, Islamic finance, private equity and corporate compliance.
The result, the story says, is increased profits that are spurred by the initiatives. In the pharmaceutical and medical device sector, for example, revenue grew by 80 percent in 18 months’ time.
