While the office of Vinson & Elkins is new to Denver, the idea isn’t. The firm told Law Week that the idea of opening a Denver office has been bouncing around the firm for many years. But now, that idea is a reality.
Vinson & Elkins officially opened their Denver office on Nov. 1. The office is located in the Cherry Creek neighborhood and opens with partners Sarah Morgan, Mike Joyce and Ramey Layne.
The trio aren’t arriving in an environment completely unfamiliar to them. The firm told Law Week that it has a lot of clients in the state, and that it has already done a lot of business in the area. Some of the industries the firm has worked on in Colorado include energy, real estate and technology. Layne and Joyce have also lived in Colorado for a number of years.
But the client and business side was only one factor of the move. Colorado’s appeal as a growing state and economy, coupled with the large pool of legal talent that is already in the state or willing to move, drew the firm to establish a permanent outpost in the city as well.
“It’s an attractive place to live for legal talent, and given the top-end work we do in the energy space, across both capital markets and project financing, we think having an outpost here, the staff, the partners that we have, will be an attractive place to hire associate talent,” Joyce said. “We’re very excited about that.”
The trio aren’t arriving in an environment completely unfamiliar to them. The firm told Law Week that it has a lot of clients in the state, and that it has already done a lot of business in the area. Some of the industries the firm has worked on in Colorado include energy, real estate and technology. Layne and Joyce have also lived in Colorado for a number of years.
But the client and business side was only one factor of the move. Colorado’s appeal as a growing state and economy, coupled with the large pool of legal talent that is already in the state or willing to move, drew the firm to establish a permanent outpost in the city as well.
“It’s an attractive place to live for legal talent, and given the top-end work we do in the energy space, across both capital markets and project financing, we think having an outpost here, the staff, the partners that we have, will be an attractive place to hire associate talent,” Joyce said. “We’re very excited about that.”
While growing the Denver office is an objective of the firm, Joyce said that they want to be smart about it. He said that will be done by finding the right people and getting to know the talent market better, which will allow the office to grow in a way that makes sense.
The firm also noted that it believed it was important for it to open the office with attorneys who were already part of the firm’s culture and to build from that initial base.
“We feel like our chances of having people who are already integrated in that culture start a new office, and find people who are going to fit with that culture, and be additive to it, it enhances your chances of being successful versus starting with someone who is getting to know the culture themselves,” Morgan said.
“When you’re looking to attract talent, you want to demonstrate what you are,” Joyce added. “With the three of us knowing each other as well as we do, working together, we feel that you can see instantly when you walk into our small Colorado office, what Vinson & Elkins is in terms of collaboration and the way we work together.”
Morgan noted that the three partners in the Denver office are transactional lawyers. Joyce is a renewable energy lawyer, and Morgan and Layne are mergers and acquisitions and capital markets attorneys.
The firm said that energy will be a focus of the firm in Denver, noting the practice area as a natural strength. But it won’t be the only focus.
“Although we have a lot of experience in industry and infrastructure and clean energy, we’re industry agnostic,” Morgan said. “We could do M&A and capital markets in any industry, but as we get to know people in the market and get to know their needs, we can bring the full suite of services and practices that Vinson & Elkins has.”