Miles & Stockbridge to open Richmond office

By Heather Cobun
HCobun@TheDailyRecord.com

Miles & Stockbridge announced Thursday that it will open an office in Richmond, Virginia, to handle business litigation and commercial matters.

Thomas M. Wolf (Miles and Stockbridge Photo)

The office will be built around the litigation team from LeClairRyan PLLC led by Thomas M. Wolf, a member at the Richmond-based firm. LeClairRyan confirmed earlier this month that it was dissolving after 31 years, according to Law.com.

Wolf will be joined as a principal by Gretchen C. Byrd, also of LeClairRyan, and John MacDonald Robb III, a former principal at the firm. Carl R. Schwertz, a former Richmond attorney with Miles & Stockbridge’s office in Tysons, Virginia, will also join the office.

“Miles & Stockbridge is a perfect fit for our team: the sophistication and expertise of a big firm, with the small-firm collegiality and professional dedication I have come to love in the practice of law,” Wolf said in a statement.

A temporary office will be operating out of the SunTrust Center in downtown Richmond beginning Tuesday, according to Nancy W. Greene, chairman of Miles & Stockbridge. The firm is taking steps to secure a permanent space, she said.

“Our growth strategy since before I took over has been to be a dominant law firm in the mid-Atlantic region,” Greene said. “We have an office in Northern Virginia already, we have offices all over Maryland, but to kind of dominate the mid-Atlantic we needed to go further into Virginia.”

Greene said the firm looks at location as well as practice area when considering expansion.

“When we look at any growth opportunity, we look at how they’re going to complement any of our existing practices,” she said. “This particular group fits very nicely with a litigation practice we already have.”

A long-term location will be designed to house 15 attorneys, with an option to accommodate 30 or more lawyers, according to Greene. The new space will incorporate design and style elements that Miles & Stockbridge uses in all its offices.

Greene said the firm does not have any specific plans to expand further in Virginia in the near term, though she did not rule out expanding to other Virginia locations in the future.