Among the new group in its Hartford offices is a former scientist for a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company and a former tax consultant for a Big Four accounting firm. The firm also hired a handful of former court clerks. Stanley A. Twardy Jr., Day Pitney's managing partner, said the fact that so many new hires came from business settings was no accident.
Indeed, he said, the priority in hiring was to fill client needs. "The wide-ranging work experience [of the new hires] will result in immediate and valuable contributions to the firm and our clients," Twardy said.
Bill Perrone, Wiggin and Dana's hiring partner, said he looks for lawyers with both top academic credentials and business experience. Among the educational attributes that would put somene on top of Perrone's resume pile is training in "biochemistry, accounting or computer science, to complement practice groups with a demonstrated need in those areas."
Likewise, Robinson & Cole continues to align "its staff and resources with our clients needs," as hiring partner Thomas Cody put it.
While the firm brought in one traditional fall associate, fresh out of law school and the firm's summer associate program, it also made two lateral hires for its construction, business and commercial litigation practice groups.
Those hires were made to provide those practice areas with more "depth," said Aileen Bastos, a spokeswoman for the firm.
GOOD CHEMISTRY
At the highly specialized intellectual property practice of Cantor Colburn, the Hartford-based firm announced this month it was hiring a larger-than-usual group of six lawyers. The new hires include Lily Neff, counsel, who previously worked as a senior intellectual property attorney with IBM for 15 years and taught courses on patent law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Others who started in recent weeks with Cantor's Hartford office are experienced in science or technology. Dmitry Zuev, for example, was hired as a patent agent. Although he just graduated from the UConn law school in May, Zuev previously earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State University.
Co-managing partner Michael Cantor said it's fairly standard for the firm to hire "with a specialty in mind ... More often than not, [new hires] have real job experience. We generally don't hire people right out of law school."
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