Q: The Brownstein firm has been expanding rapidly. What’s fueling the growth?
A: Over the last year, we completed a merger with the California firm Hatch & Parent and added 32 attorneys and continued the growth curve we embarked on about five years ago when I took over as managing partner. We were roughly 90 lawyers, and today we’re approximately 250 lawyers and lobbyists in 12 offices.
I started sitting down with Norm Brownstein and Steve Farber when they were in their early 50s and I was in my early 30s and talking about the long-term game plan. We recognized that growth was an important component because it would allow us to compete at a different level than we could when we were the 30-person firm that I joined.
We were a very heavy real-estate and government-affairs firm. We all had a sense that the commercial real estate market was going to face a major adjustment in the near future. So our goal was to diversify and to have a broader base.
We’ve always felt like we have a dominant niche position in the Denver market. As we expanded into other markets, we wanted to take that same philosophy. That’s why when we looked at Las Vegas, we merged with the top gaming firm in the country. In California, we met with dozens of firms, but the Hatch firm was the only one that had a clearly defined market niche. We now are the biggest water-law firm in the country.
Q: When people think of the firm, they think of Norm Brownstein and Steve Farber. How would you describe your role?
A: They should think of Norm and Steve because they are unique players not only in the Denver legal market but nationally.
I’ve been here since 1986, so I have a lot of history with them. They were very proactive in wanting to work with me in engineering a transition of the firm so that it could sustain well beyond their careers. They give me wide berth to operate the firm, yet they’re always around for strategic decisions.
Q: Has the Washington office also been growing?
A: Yes. I think when the most recent set of numbers get finalized, we’ll be the ninth- or 10th-largest lobbying operation in D.C. That’s significant in itself, but if you look at the peers around us, they tend to be law firms with 1,500-2,000 lawyers plus. Certainly we’re the largest lobbying operation for a law firm of our relative small size.
Q: What kind of growth do you expect going forward?
A: My expectation is that in ’09 we’ll have a lot more opportunities, particularly in California, where a lot of law firms have encountered significant financial problems.
We’ve weathered the economy very well, so we’re positioned better than most firms to grow in ’09 and ’10. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us in the range of 300-500 lawyers and policy advisers in that time frame, but only if there’s a compelling case.
Q: What about your background?
A: I joined Brownstein in ’86. I got my undergrad degree in Michigan in finance and accounting and then came out to the DU law school, probably as much for skiing as anything else. I made the decision as an undergrad this is where I wanted to live.
Q: Do you practice law, or is running the firm a full-time job?
A: Running it is nearly a full-time job, but I do work on four to five projects a year. At the moment I’m working on the Colorado History Museum project and the Colorado Justice Center, the revamping of that whole area and moving the history museum.
I have always loved being in the middle of an intense, complex deal, and I haven’t lost that passion.
Q: Any deals you’re particularly proud of?
A: I’ve had the good fortune to work on nearly every project around the Civic Center. It’s fun to be able to walk through Civic Center park and look around and know that beyond the Capitol and city hall, all of the other recent projects, I’ve had some involvement in one way or the other. That’s pretty unique as a real estate lawyer.
Q: How do you see Colorado weathering the financial and economic crisis so far and going forward?
A: Thus far we’ve weathered it better than nearly every state. I think our diversified economy has really helped. The compromise that was reached (in which unions pulled anti-business initiatives off the ballot in return for help from business leaders fighting Amendment 47, which would limit union power) was critical to our ability to continue to sustain and grow our economy in ’09 and ’10.
We were already seeing a number of companies express reluctance about growing operations or moving operations to Colorado if several of the labor initiatives passed.
I think we’ll do reasonably well. Our real estate market is viewed as somewhere in the middle. We’re not at the top, but certainly we weathered the storm housing-wise.
I think we ought to go forward in the same way we came into this, with a very solid, unspectacular economic growth the last two to three years, which benefited us.
Edited for length and clarity by Greg Griffin
