The right partner: Merger with Katz Korin Cunningham has Stoll Keenon Ogden looking to grow

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Doug Barr (left) and Offer Korin plan to grow SKO in the Midwest. (IL photos/Marilyn Odendahl)

For years, Katz Korin Cunningham turned down invitations from larger firms to discuss merging, saying it was happiest being independent. But in Stoll Keenon Ogden, it found a like-minded partner that had also spurned combination offers and took pride in being self-made.

Katz & Korin, which opened its doors in Indianapolis in 1994 and added the name Cunningham when Norris Cunningham arrived with his practice group in 2017, began operating under the name SKO on July 1. The combined firm now boasts more than 180 attorneys across five offices and has plans to expand its footprint across the Midwest.

“They’re different in sort of the same way we are,” Cunningham said of SKO. “… I was surprised that we would find a group of lawyers who had the same outlook, the same approach to the practice of law, the same approach to the business of law.”

Stoll Keenon Ogden, based in Louisville, Kentucky, expanded in the Hoosier State when it combined with the former Bamberger Foreman Oswald & Hahn LLP in 2017 in Evansville. The firm had grown the Indianapolis office to seven attorneys but, according to P. Douglas Barr, managing director of SKO, the team was missing out on opportunities to serve existing and new clients because of its small size.

Both SKO and KKC serve primarily business clients across an array of industries including hospitality, energy, manufacturing, real estate and retail. The addition of KKC, Barr said, will enable the firm to capitalize on the opportunities in Indianapolis’ growing health care and banking fields.

Also, SKO is expecting the combination to allow it to build its practice serving auto dealers as well as deepen its relationships with businesses such as those in the spirits industry, which have a presence in Indiana and Kentucky.

“We think that the Indianapolis market, the central Indiana market, is growing and it’s growing at a faster pace than other markets,” Barr said. “And we believe that there is a place for midsize firms to provide the kind of service that clients want at midsize firm rates.”

Norris Cunningham says SKO will be a “destination firm” for lawyers.

Cunningham remembered meeting Barr for dinner just as the two firms were beginning to talk and asking the SKO leader why his firm was interested in KKC. The response was, “Because you don’t need us.”

KKC had been growing, according to Cunningham. The firm had been adding attorneys, broadening its client base and continuing to increase its revenue. Yet by combining, he said he believes Katz Korin Cunningham and SKO will be able to build on each other’s strengths.

Cunningham pointed, in particular, to KKC’s community involvement. The attorneys have volunteered and served in numerous nonprofits along with forming a social justice committee and focusing on equity and access issues. Also, Cunningham has led a team of lawyers that is teaching the law and coaching mock trial teams at Arsenal Tech High School.

“I think there are many, many things that, from a structural and operational standpoint, that we are certainly going to learn from them,” Cunningham said. “But I think in the context of community involvement and the work that we’ve been able to do from a social justice standpoint, they are learning from us.”

From no to yes

The combination of Stoll Keenon Ogden and Katz Korin Cunningham comes as the pace of law firm mergers has been gaining speed.

An analysis by Fairfax Associates found merger activity accelerated slightly in the second quarter of 2022, so the total of 25 completed combinations is now equal to the number tallied in the first half of 2021. However, this year’s merger activity remains below the historical year-to-date average of 32 mergers in the first and second quarters over the last 10 years, according to the analysis.

The Stoll Keenon Ogden combination bucked the 2022 trend of combinations mostly involving smaller firms of five to 20 attorneys. At the time of the merger, SKO had 145 attorneys and KKC had 38.

Barr said in early 2021, SKO realized that to find a merger partner, it needed to have someone on the ground in Indianapolis. As a result, the firm got an apartment in the Hoosier State capital, and SKO member Mark Hurst, who practices out of the Louisville office, volunteered to spend three to four days a week there.

Hurst connected with attorneys and kept inquiring into local law firms and the quality of their work. KKC was always mentioned, and even though Offer Korin accepted the offer to have lunch, the co-founding shareholder was upfront that his firm was not interested in combining.

At the invitation to breakfast, Korin said he thought he would have to be more direct. But as the dishes were being cleared, plans were being made to have Barr and Katz Korin Cunningham’s thenmanaging partner, Michael Gabovitch, meet.

Then, Korin said, everything “kind of snowballed” as the two firms kept discovering they were compatible.

He referred a client to the SKO attorneys in Evansville and said he was delighted when the matter was handled within 24 hours. Eventually, the attorneys and professional staff from both firms were given the chance to socialize and talk about their practices to see if they would fit together.

As Korin continued to meet the SKO team, he said he was struck by their work ethic and enthusiasm.

“That’s really what impressed me was not the people who were in charge of growing the firm, but the people that were doing the work on the firm, taking care of the little things. Their participation and their willingness to do extra for the firm was, frankly, inspirational,” Korin said, adding that he was convinced, “I can work with people like that because that’s how we approach things.”

‘Positive change’

The day the merger was announced, Cunningham’s voicemail and email began overflowing with messages.

He said he interpreted all the questions about the combination as attorneys actually trying to see if there might be a place for them at SKO. Some from Fort Wayne were more straightforward, asking about the possibility of the merged firm opening an office in their city.

Certainly, Barr, Korin and Cunningham are not ruling anything out in terms of expansion.

The merger created a deeper bench so the firm can grow its client base and increase the amount of work that it does, the trio of attorneys said. Opening more offices would be a natural progression and, currently, the surrounding states, especially Illinois and Ohio, are most attractive, but they envision a footprint across the Midwest.

Cunningham said within the Indianapolis market, Stoll Keenon Ogden will be a destination firm for attorneys wanting to make a lateral move. The interest, he continued, is driven by the firm’s reputation for being “fiercely independent,” meaning lawyers can build their practices as they want without being second-guessed.

Korin built Katz & Korin with his mentor and friend Ronald Katz. Together, he said, the pair could handle three big pieces of litigation simultaneously and a bunch of small ones.

Now, the attorneys in the combined firm will be able to fight “as many wars on as many fronts” as the clients need, Korin said, without diminishing quality.

Still, he said, he is a little nostalgic to see a page of Indiana legal history turn.

“There is a little bittersweet because, obviously, a big chapter is closed,” Korin said. “But we’ve experienced new opportunities that shifted the personality of the firm (as attorneys were added). … Life always has change and this is a positive change.”•

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