After years spent toiling over depositions in “traditional high-rise” law offices, veteran Connecticut litigator Dennis Brown can now take a breath of fresh air when he gets to work in the morning.

Last July, the national firm of Gordon & Rees expanded its Northeast presence by opening an office in Hartford and hiring Brown as managing partner. “At first, it was me, a paralegal and 400 boxes of legal documents,” Brown said. In the year since, a small hiring blitz has netted a dozen attorneys, plus support staffers. That, in turn, created a need for more space, so Brown has moved the operation to leafy Glastonbury.