This RI Firm Is Nearly 120 Years Old and Is Growing Across the Country

This RI Firm Is Nearly 120 Years Old and Is Growing Across the Country

Too often, Rhode Island’s best businesses get gobbled up and then become just outposts for major corporations, but one law firm has reverse-engineered the model and is growing across the country.

The Providence-based law firm Hinckley Allen is in full growth mode. It is opening offices across the country and expanding its staff.

Moreover, the firm is doing some things that are counter to one of the major corporate business strategies now in vogue.

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The Growth

Managing partner Pat Rogers said, “Last year, 2024, we opened up two new offices. We opened up our first office in the south. We opened up an office in Fort Lauderdale in February of 2024. That kind of kicked off 2024. And, we finished the year in December, we opened up an office in the St.  Louis metro area. So we now have eight offices in seven states, and 2024 was a really big year for the firm.”

“We hired 28 lawyers last year. So we grew our firm by 10%. Our revenues were up by about 10%,” said Rogers. "The firm has enjoyed three consecutive years of growth. We are the largest we've ever been. We've got 170 lawyers firm-wide.”

Rogers is well known in the Rhode Island community. He served in the Peace Corps, was on the staff of U.S. Senator John Chafee, Chief of Staff to Governor Lincoln Chafee, and as a lawyer, has done some big deals. Billion-dollar deals.

He is the first to recognize how ruthless the legal world can be. 

“It continues to be a very competitive industry. You see, throughout the industry, a lot of firms are merging. We see it here in Rhode Island: firms are merging. We see firms disappearing. Burns and Levinson, for example, a well-known firm for the office, doesn't exist here anymore. They're gone completely,” said Rogers.

“[There is] incredible pressure for talent. Young lawyers have lots of places to go. They can work remotely. So you're no longer tied to your geography. You can live in Rhode Island and work in New York, for example,” Rogers added.

The cost of legal services is climbing at power firms.

“Clients want efficiency.  We're probably 30% less expensive than the top New Yorker Boston firms. We actually don't talk much about hourly rates; we talk about how we're a lot less expensive, and we're just as good, if not better. In the other case, because we're not huge when you hire us, you deal with, we don't do a bait and switch where you meet somebody who's really slick at sales,” said Rogers.

 

While Much of Corporate America Is Demanding Workers Get Back to the Office...

From JP Morgan to the Trump administration, workers are being ordered back to the office. In many cases, the requirement is five days a week.

Rogers says a key part of Hinckley Allen’s success is its remote work policy. He believes it is critical to retaining and attracting talent and improving productivity.

“We always talked about how we were a brick-and-mortar law firm; [that] people want to come into the office. COVID blew that apart. Every single one of our lawyers works remotely to one degree or another,” said Rogers. “And people are incredibly mobile. Everyone has a laptop. Everyone has an iPhone. We basically have 170 portable lawyers, which is what we have.”

Rogers points out there is not a lot of productivity sitting in cars in traffic for two to three hours a day.

“Productivity has improved. So, for example, think about Boston, Massachusetts. The traffic is terrible. Many of our lawyers and our staff have at least a one-hour commute if you drive into work every day, and they have to pay for parking,” he said. “They can save that time and energy for better uses.”

“We have had record years financially. 2024 was a record year for the firm, following a record year in 2023, following a record year in 2022. All of the while, while we have embraced remote work, so it's been astonishing,” said Rogers.

 

AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a major factor in the legal community. According to Law360, 96% of general counsel surveyed believe AI investment will meaningfully reduce costs in their legal departments.

The pressure is on everyone in the legal community to be faster and more efficient.

“So we have an AI task force that has lawyers of different generations, different practice groups that meet weekly to talk about how to make sure that we're keeping abreast of the most current legal developments; it would require substantial financial investment, so you want to be strategic on how you deploy your capital,” adds Rogers.

“But I would say that we're seeing an increasing sort of interplay between traditional legal services and AI because you don't want to fall behind. We don't want to be on the cutting edge because it's very expensive, and we don't want to make mistakes, but we are very active and engaged followers, so we can deploy the most effective tools,” Rogers added.

 

Three Years at the Helm - Where to Next

Rogers has served as the managing partner of Hinckley Allen for the past three years.

“So one of the things we really talk a lot about at Hinckley Allen is our culture. So we want to be a great law firm, and we want to be a great community citizen in all of our markets,” said Rogers.

He pointed out that members of the firm are committed to their communities. In New Hampshire, a partner is chair of the bar association; others are active on non-profit boards. He points to the influence of Malcolm Farmer, a long-time top corporate attorney, who marched in the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, Jr., and never let up on his commitment to the community.

Rogers also said the firm will continue to be independent and want to continue to grow in size and profitability.

“We are opportunistic to new offices. We're looking to grow where our clients are. There is an increasing legal activity in the South. And we are open to opening new offices where there's value. So I see the firm continuing to grow,” said Rogers.

“We will remain independent. And that's a differentiator to a lot of firms, as we see locally, are merging with national or international behemoths. We are committed to being an independent, regional, middle market firm that is open to expanding in the regions that we operate in,” he said.

“But we want to chart our own course,” said Rogers.