Cook named managing partner at Hancock & Estabrook

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 05, 2004 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE - One of Central New York's largest law firms has new leadership. Richard Cook was elected managing partner by the seven-member executive committee of Hancock & Estabrook, LLP. On Jan. 15, Cook took the firm's reins from long-serving managing partner Donald Denton who remains a partner with the firm.

Cook practices corporate and banking law, including acquisitions and mergers as well as other financial transactions. A graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, Cook joined Hancock & Estabrook in 1975, became a partner in 1981, and has headed the firm's business department for the past eight years.

Individual service and attention to the firm's role as "Counselors at Law" will continue under Cook's tenure as managing partner, he says. Cook emphasizes the firm's use of the phrase "Counselors at Law" as indicating Hancock & Estabrook's focus on providing clients with advice and not mechanically dispensing legal services.

"We use 'counselors' to stress the concept of a trusted adviser to our clients and not only an attorney," says Cook.

Hancock & Estabrook traces its use of counselor back to founder Theodore E. Hancock who started the firm in 1889. Hancock's son Stewart guided the firm into its modem age and grandson Stewart, Jr. rejoined Hancock & Estabrook after serving on New York's highest court. Theodore's son, Judge Clarence E. Hancock, has the city's airport named in his honor. Stewart Hancock, Jr. is representing the New York State Senate in its suit against Gov. Pataki over control of the state's budget process.

The firm's history is tied to the Hancock family, says Cook, and he plans to help it uphold the founder's legal values.

Hancock & Estabrook regularly gauges its performance through the use of client surveys conducted by an outside firm. Cook says the surveys have shown that clients placed a high value on the level of service Hancock's attorneys provide.

"We don't do cookie-cutter law," says Cook.

Hancock & Estabrook has 70 attorneys and a 90-member support staff. The firm occupies approximately 50,000 square feet on four floors of MONY Tower I in downtown Syracuse. The firm's size sometimes intimidates potential clients who may think a big firm can't provide personal service, says Steven R. Shaw, partner and member of the firm's executive committee.

Providing service to small businesses as they grow is part of the firm's mission, says Janet D. Callahan, partner and member of the executive committee. The firm's core practice is business law, no matter what the client's size.

"We got the ability to help the small-business startup grow," says Callahan.

Expanding businesses need legal services in the area of labor, tax, and litigation. As a company adds locations, employees, and business, legal issues arise at every turn.

Health care is also a growing legal area in Central New York, Callahan adds.

Environmental-law business is growing thanks to New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program, says Shaw. The program rewards voluntary cleanups with liability defenses for participating companies. Hancock & Estabrook advises its clients to consult with their attorneys before approaching government agencies with environmental problems. Communications with the firm concerning environmental problems enjoy legal protections while calls to agencies could make a property owner an enforcement target.

Hancock & Estabrook handles client matters across New York State as well as in other states. The federal nature of tax law, explains Shaw, means the firm's advice is sound no matter where the client has its business. Most intellectual-property issues are also decided under federal law. Past legal matters have taken Hancock & Estabrook's attorneys to other states to defend patents for clients, says John L. Murad, Jr., partner and member of the firm's executive committee.

Hancock & Estabrook doesn't do criminal-defense work, instead referring cases to other firms.

"We've got some tremendous young talent here," he says. "These attorneys are going to be recognized over the next five or 10 years."