For decades, Charlotte has been known as a financial services mecca, with Bank of America and Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) based in the North Carolina city.
And the Queen City remains the nation’s second-ranked banking hub behind only New York City, with Truist Bank, the recent merger of Atlanta-based SunTrust and Winston-Salem-based BB&T, joining the other banks as a Charlotte-based major financial institution.
But the city has diversified, also earning a reputation for being a hotbed for the technology, food and beverage, TV/film and life sciences industries.
“We are home to nine Fortune 500 and 17 Fortune 1000 companies,” said Adrienne Hua, lead principal researcher with the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. “The economy here is extremely diversified, so there’s a lot of opportunities to grow these businesses. It’s able to sustain [downturns], such as the pandemic, across the board, instead of that one industry such as banking.”
While Bank of America and Truist are among Charlotte’s Fortune 1000 companies, the list also includes name brands such as Lowe’s, Honeywell and Coca-Cola Consolidated, according to the CLT Alliance’s website.
Hua said Charlotte’s 15-county metro area has a population of 3.5 million that is expected to grow by 50% by 2050, and its population increased by 15% just in the past decade.
“A lot of people moving to this region are typically younger and well-educated, so we’re developing our talent workforce,” she said. “A lot of them will be working in the tech, banking and life-science industries. Our region is very strong for those areas, so we’re … built for success.”
Law firms such as Wilson Elser and Haynes and Boone certainly have taken notice.
‘A Lot More to Offer’
Those attributes have made Charlotte an appealing city for Atlanta- and Miami-based law firms, especially in the past six years, according to the Daily Report and the Daily Business Review.
According to ALM Intelligence research of firms with Charlotte offices, there are 267 attorneys from Miami- and Atlanta-headquartered firms in the city—and this number has grown by 40% since 2016.
From 2014 to 2016, three Atlanta firms and three Miami firms entered Charlotte. Since then, their attorney headcount rose from 38 attorneys to 99, or 161%.
Although Atlanta firms have had a presence in the Charlotte market since the 1980s, Miami firms did not enter Charlotte until 2016. These three firms include Holland & Knight, Vernis & Bowling and Greenberg Traurig. Collectively, they have grown from nine attorneys to 30 since 2016.
Atlanta-based Hall Booth Smith was the most recent entrant into Charlotte in 2021. The firm today has nine attorneys in Charlotte.
Tim Ryan, executive partner for Holland & Knight’s Charlotte office, said the city was appealing to that firm for its increasingly diversified economy.
“It still has a strong financial services presence, but you’re seeing more Fortune 500 and Fortune 200 companies moving here,” he said. “There is a lot more to offer in Charlotte, which was recently named one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.”
Walter Fisher, managing partner for Troutman Pepper’s (formerly Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders’) Charlotte office, which opened in 2014, said the firm (then Troutman Sanders, before its merger with Pepper Hamilton) for years has had offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. He added its then-chairman, Bob Webb, even was interviewed by at least one Charlotte publication a decade earlier, saying opening an office in that city was a high priority, partly because one of Troutman’s clients was and still is Charlotte-based Duke Energy, a major utility company and Fortune 200 member.
“We played to our strengths. … The business climate here, the financial services base, the energy base [helped],” Fisher said. “There were just a lot of synergies from a client perspective.”
‘Be All In’
As Charlotte’s economy has diversified, the large law firms with offices there have capitalized on opportunities by having a wide array of practice areas and growing at a high rate. Troutman Pepper opened its Charlotte office with only five partners, was up to 13 lawyers within a week, and has 60 today. Its roster doubled from 28 attorneys on Jan. 1, 2019, to 57 on Jan. 1 of this year.
Holland & Knight christened its Charlotte office with only four attorneys (Ryan and two other partners came from Bryan Cave and Winstead) but has 22 today.
If you’re a law firm looking to plant your flag in Charlotte, be sure to start your office with local attorneys, Fisher and Ryan said. Fisher, who along with the four other original partners came from K&L Gates’ Charlotte office, added the city is already a competitive legal market.
“What is difficult, and where I’ve seen some firms be not terribly successful, is to parachute into a city [outside] attorneys, as opposed to [local ones],” Ryan said. “To start and to grow, you need folks to know the market and have been in the market for a while and have the local connections and local clients.”
Fisher added Charlotte today has “an increasingly diversified economic base.”
“When we were looking at the financial crisis [of 2007-09],” he said, “we were extremely dependent on the banks here, and banking is still very important. But now our economy has a lot more branches and arms to it. I think that creates different opportunities for different firms to play to their strengths.”
According to Fisher, one particular industry may be a good practice area for firms to pounce on in Charlotte.
“One of the things I would tout from the community’s perspective is fintech is really taking off here,” he said. “There are a number of fintech companies here. I think it will continue to be a trend.”
Ryan said focusing on building client relationships is key and something Holland & Knight provided support for on the first day the Charlotte office opened.
“Be all in,” he said. “Be committed to the office and growth to the office.”
