Legal Times: What is keeping the Washington office busy?
Joseph Fanone: At the time that I stepped in as office managing partner, we took some time to reflect on the direction of the office. We were trying to focus on areas where legal services were needed. We have a real estate practice for the firm and then we went into the recovery section of the real estate practice and emphasized that. Within the real estate department, we identified a group for distressed real estate. Even though the country as a whole is in the recession, we believe that the Washington area economy is still very strong. Housing is very strong here now. You're starting to see a lot of significant mixed-use development. We have tried to enhance the real estate group in Washington that represents developers.
