"My goal is to spend roughly 20 or 25 percent of my time in the GC role and 75 to 80 percent in the business development role to help the company grow, so I probably will be looking to add resources to help me cover some of the areas that I otherwise would be doing if I was here 100 percent of the time as GC," Basso said, noting he would look to hire more resources for the internal legal department.
Having only started in his new role January 28, Basso said it was too early to tell whether he would make any changes to Black Box's roster of outside counsel, which includes Buchanan Ingersoll. But he said he is a believer that if something isn't broken, there is no need to fix it.
Basso will be spending his first few weeks learning even more about the company he has represented since the 1990s.
"As with every general counsel, the things you think about a lot are the things you don't know about," Basso said.
Black Box has the same regulatory challenges as any public company, Basso said. While there aren't any specific regulations that he is expecting will directly impact companies like Black Box, all public corporations are still dealing with the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, he said.
Basso's departure from Buchanan Ingersoll left a hole in the firm's corporate department leadership. That was quickly filled by Jeremiah G. Garvey, who has taken over as co-chairman of the firm's corporate section along with existing Co-Chairman Thomas G. Buchanan.
Garvey said that while other firms may have looked to expand their corporate practices around the world, Buchanan Ingersoll has maintained its emphasis on its core markets of Pennsylvania, the Mid-Atlantic region and the East Coast.
That has been both a strength and a challenge for the department, Garvey said, in that it creates a strong commitment to the region but also can make it difficult to grow the practice.
One way the firm can achieve that growth, Garvey said, is to blend the firm's corporate work with some of the key strengths at Buchanan Ingersoll, including the firm's energy and health care practices as well as work for manufacturing and university clients in the Pittsburgh area.
Garvey focuses his practice on securities-related transactions and corporate governance, specifically in connection with private capital financings, public offerings and the organization, funding and ongoing representation of emerging growth technology companies and venture firms. He is a member of Buchanan Ingersoll's board of directors and co-chairman of the firm's securities/SEC practice group.
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