In a legal market where most major firms aren’t planning big changes, Offit Kurman P.A. stands out.

The Howard County firm has serious aspirations: more than doubling its size in the next five years and becoming a mid-Atlantic powerhouse firm.

“Our vision—this is a goal, a five-year plan- but our vision was to become 100 lawyers in five years and… to have a regional practice,” said Maurice Offit, president of the firm.

“We have grown from approximately 10 attorneys in 1997 to 40 attorneys in 2007 and we think that we have a model that works and locations that are desirable,” he said. “[W]e’re not certain that we’ll attain our goal, but we’re striving for it.”

The firm began in 1987, founded by Maurice Offit and his brother, Ted, both certified public accountants as well as lawyers. Maurice Offit had been a sole practitioner, while Ted Offit had worked for Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman and then Blum, Yumkas, Mallman, Gutman & Denick P.A. In 1989, the brothers joined with Howard Kurman.

In its early years, the firm grew slowly, adding attorneys occasionally and one at a time. Its first multiple-lawyer acquisition came in 2001, when Blum Yumkas dissolved and four of its lawyers, including Charles Yumkas and Bernard S. Denick, came to Offit Kurman.

In addition to more acquisitions of individual attorneys, in the past few years Offit Kurman has hired attorneys from two small firms that were disbanding, Rockville’s Poppleton, Garrett & Polott P.C and Baltimore’s Scaldara & Potler LLP. This year, it took on attorneys from the firm formerly known as Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz P.A., including name partner Louis J. Ulman.

For many years, Offit Kurman’s only office was in Owings Mills. In 2005, the firm opened an office in Howard County, in- appropriately, considering its growth aspirations- the planned community of Maple Lawn, a mixed-use development that is rising from nothing but aims to be huge in a few years. In 2006, the firm shifted its headquarters there.

Maurice Offit said the move opened new doors for Offit Kurman, allowing the firm to pursue clients in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia, who will drive to Howard County but not Baltimore County. It also allows Offit to recruit lawyers from those areas.

Recruitment is key these days at Offit Kurman. Kurman and the Offits now spend a lot of their time in recruitment meetings. At any given time, the firm is working three or four hiring, merger or acquisition opportunities, Kurman said, though he would not disclose what deals the firm is working on now.

Offit Kurman wants to grow to take advantage of what it believes will be a flurry of work jettisoned by megafirms that can no longer afford to represent midsized companies.

“We’re absolutely convinced that there will be further consolidation at the top of the legal market, that the largest firms will continue to consolidate, and that the impact of that consolidation plan will be that the middle-market clients are underserved because the large firms, by their very nature and design, are going to need to handle the largest clients in the country and the universe,” Ted Offit said.

The very smallest law firms won’t be able to compete for the work because they don’t have enough lawyers practicing in enough areas, Offit said. It will be the full-service regional midsized firms, which Offit Kurman aspires to be, that get the midsized clients. Kurman said he envisions competing with top Baltimore-based firms such as Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander LLC and Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver P.C.

On targets
Those who have seen law firms try to grow dramatically caution that setting a numeric goal, as Offit Kurman has done, is not the way to go.

“A lot of firms think growth for the sake of growth is some kind of answer, but they don’t really know what that growth is going to get them,” said Ellen Freedman, a Pennsylvania-based legal consultant specializing in small and midsized firms. “Generally what I find a lot of firms do is, they pick a number out of the sky because it sounds good, it’s ego-gratifying.”

Tom S. Clay, a partner with legal consultancy Altman Weil, said that while he does not consider going from 40 to 100 lawyers in five years to be “extraordinary growth,” announcing a target size is not a good idea. He said publicizing the magic number can pressure a firm into becoming an “amoeba,” absorbing lateral hires and whole firms just to meet the goal.

The head of one of the firms Offit Kurman hopes to one day count among its peers said that to grow successfully, a firm must identify a couple of core practice areas and add lawyers only in those areas.

“You’ve got to not be all things to all people at our size,” said John A. Wolf, chairman and CEO of Ober Kaler. “You’ve got to differentiate yourself. You have to have strengths and stay within those strengths, rather than grasping onto far-flung and non-related practices.”

Barry F. Rosen, chairman and CEO of Gordon Feinblatt, said it’s a matter of culture, too. When a firm is trying to make a major leap in size, it needs to make sure all lawyers it takes on share its goals and outlook, he said.

“I think again, if they are aggregating really good lawyers, they can achieve [the 100 lawyer], and at the same time, you have to try to perpetuate a certain culture in the firm,” Rosen said. “I wish them luck. It’s not an easy task.”

Kurman said the firm is “pretty particular” about whom it hires.

“Our goal is not to increase by numbers just to increase numbers,” he said. “If that was the case, we’d be a lot larger than we are right now. Our goal [is] to make sure the people that come in share our vision and operating philosophy.”

The firm’s key practice areas are commercial litigation, labor and employment, estate planning, business transactions and real estate law, and Kurman said the firm’s hires will be in those specialities or subspecialities.

Even if Offit Kurman manages to hire only lawyers who will boost those key practice areas and fit in with the rest of the firm, there are still dangers in rapid expansion, said Freedman, who is also the law practice management coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

She said that firms often think lateral hires will enrich the firm’s coffers within a couple of months. In reality, it often takes a year to a year-and-a-half for firms to see a return on their investment. That can decrease profits and lead pre-existing partners to wonder if the hire was such a good investment after all, Freedman said. If those partners feel disgruntled enough, they sometimes even leave the firm, she said.

If Offit Kurman chooses to grow by merging with or acquiring other firms, that presents its own challenges, Freedman said. Over time, she said, the majority of law firm mergers don’t work out because the various factions don’t know or understand each other. Law firms that merge or acquire don’t work hard enough to make sure that everyone knows and trusts each other, she said.

Compensation structure
Offit Kurman believes it is a unique firm with the ingredients to make rapid growth work, though. Its secret weapon is its compensation scheme, which rewards all attorneys, partners and associates, based on a simple formula. Lawyers are compensated for the business they bring in, their billable hours and how much work they refer to other firm members. Theoretically, an Offit Kurman associate could earn more than a partner.

The compensation system reduces in-fighting and resentment over who earns what, Kurman said. He said lawyers who have come to Offit Kurman from other firms find it a welcome change from previous employers where the environment surrounding compensation was “toxic.”

That kind of a compensation scheme, sometimes called “eat what you kill,” can sometimes hurt a firm that is trying to grow, Clay said.

“As you get larger, larger firms do not favor formulaic compensation systems,” Clay said. “They’re going to find it difficult to grow very large, frankly.”

That compensation structure doesn’t tend to create what’s called the "one-firm attitude” because it gives lawyers an incentive to work only for their own benefit, he said.

Louis Ulman, however, is confident that his new firm’s compensation system will support its growth.

“The key really is to have a firm culture that would foster the growth of new attorneys and that is set up in a way… to welcome new attorneys and help them grow their practices,” he said.

Having been in the leadership at the Hodes firm when it was expanding, Ulman said Offit Kurman is better equipped to integrate new hires. He cited his new firm’s practice of holding monthly meetings attended by all attorneys and paralegals, in contrast to the yearly, no-paralegal meetings at his old firm. Among other benefits, the meetings let lawyers see what their colleagues are working on, so an attorney can understand why the person in the next office down is making more money.

Ted Offit said the management team is keeping a close eye on the compensation system as the firm grows. He said Offit Kurman understands the potential pitfalls of the system and wants to make sure all of the lawyers are working for the betterment of the firm as well as for their own financial gain.

He also said he expects the firm’s open-book management- staffers see financial figures at the monthly meetings- to help, too.

Kurman said Offit Kurman’s good management techniques will help the firm take off.

“I think that we’re a very well-run, stable firm on the cusp of things happening,” Kurman said.