Riker Danzig is pleased to be one of three finalists for the “Law Firm of the Year” award being presented by the New Jersey Law Journal at its annual Legal Awards. In connection with the honor, the Law Journal interviewed Co-Managing Partners Lance J. Kalik and Michael R. O’Donnell in its September 22, 2022 article “Riker Danzig Credits Pelvic Mesh, Real Estate Work for Successful Year.”
Following is the Q&A from the article:
How did your firm achieve excellence across practices, and in varying ways, in 2021?
Riker Danzig’s clients enjoyed a number of successes in 2021. As always, the firm achieved these successes by thoroughly understanding the nature of our clients’ business problems and objectives, and collaboratively devising creative solutions to obtain favorable results.
The firm successfully litigated numerous cases of significance, and many of them involved issues of first impression. One particular highlight involved our representation of client Ethicon in a pelvic mesh litigation before the New Jersey Appellate Division, which involved groundbreaking issues that will have broad implications for product liability cases in New Jersey. In another consequential decision, we successfully represented our client Holtec International in overturning the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s decision to withhold the right to hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits that were promised to Holtec following its completion of a state-of-the-art technology campus in Camden, which created hundreds of jobs. We were also pleased to achieve notable wins for BSH Home Appliances, earning our team an ALM “Litigator of the Week” shout-out, as well as other victories for clients Bank of New York Mellon, Sharp Electronics, and Chicago Title Insurance Company.
We had a number of transactional successes in 2021 as well, including representing the New York Red Bulls in its Fall 2021 acquisition of the former Honeywell site in Morris Township. Additionally, we represented real estate development firm CRG and affiliates in the $107 million sale of all membership interests in two New Jersey urban renewal entities. Our Cannabis Group was also successful in securing license awards and handling cutting-edge cannabis cases for its clients.
All of these matters exemplify our recognized ability to consistently deliver successful outcomes for our clients.
The world has changed, including the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. What has your firm done to adapt?
Riker had made significant technology upgrades immediately prior to the pandemic, allowing us to seamlessly represent our clients from the onset of the pandemic. Working remotely gave our attorneys the opportunity to maintain their stellar level of client service with the use of remote technology. In many cases, the technology has created efficiencies, increased productivity, reduced our environmental footprint, enhanced communication and connections with our clients, and improved the lives of our attorneys and employees. We found that many aspects of litigation can be done equally well remotely, providing time efficiency and cost savings for our clients. This also gave us the opportunity to include more junior associates in meetings and court appearances as a professional development experience than would have been possible when such appearances required travel and more of a time investment. At the same time, we adapted to this “new normal” by instituting far more regularly scheduled meetings with attorneys and groups to ensure that training and open communication remained robust throughout the firm.
In a market where both specialization and breadth of services are valued, how do law firms consistently achieve general excellence in New Jersey?
Although the market changes, the fundamentals of client service remain the same. Our purpose and motivation have remained the same, to help our clients succeed by providing creative and cost effective solutions to their complex legal challenges. More than ever, the key to excellence in this legal market is to remain carefully attuned to the needs of the clients we’re serving, and to communicate with them regularly to make sure that our services are closely aligned with their goals. We have always devoted resources necessary to understand our clients’ goals and needs, and that has only increased with shared technology and other changes in the legal marketplace. In short, excellence requires us to reinforce what we have always done: gain a deep understanding of our clients’ business and problems, and provide unparalleled legal service to achieve our clients’ goals to resolve disputes. In today’s competitive market, firms also must be flexible in structuring fee arrangements to meet the needs of varied clientele, which requires an ability to manage its cost structure and service levels.
The full article is available at Law Firm of the Year.
