The office towers at 621 17th St., right, and 633 17th St. as seen from the corner of 17th and California streets on Nov. 19, 2024. (BusinessDen file)
Treece Alfrey Musat, a dozen-lawyer litigation firm downtown, had received its share of merger requests over the years and rejected them all. But an offer last fall was different.
“The culture and the business match, the people that we met in the process, just made it seem like if there was going to be an opportunity to do this, this was the time to do it,” said Rob Zavaglia, a professional liability litigator and former managing partner at TAM.
On Jan. 1, Treece Alfrey Musat’s 33-year run came to an end and all but one of its lawyers — the exception retired — formed the new Colorado office of Freeman Mathis & Gary, a national business law firm that was founded in Atlanta and now has 38 offices in 21 states.
“We’re not drawing on an office of 12 lawyers and 12 support staff anymore. We’re drawing on an office of 450 lawyers and 300-plus staff,” said Zavaglia, now an FMG partner.
“We do have growth ambitions in the Denver market and the way to turbocharge that is to pair up with a firm that you have a core alignment with in market philosophy, office culture, how you go about doing your work and the type of work that you want to do,” he said.
Rob Zavaglia (Courtesy of Freeman Mathis & Gary)
Zavaglia, who runs FMG’s Denver office, called the acquisition a sign of the times in the merger-happy legal industry, where small- and medium-sized offices are frequently acquired by ever-expanding national firms, which have an easier time recruiting prized lawyers.
Freeman Mathis & Gary has moved into TAM’s former office space on the 22nd floor at 633 17th St. That tower, once Denver’s tallest, sold in the fall for a surprisingly low price.
Zavaglia said that Treece Alfrey Musat founding partners Tom Alfrey and Rich Musat, who are retired, approved of the merger with FMG. (Bob Treece died of cancer in 2015.)
“Even if the name changes, the way that we’ve gone about doing our business doesn’t,” he said. “That was the thumbs up we got from the founders: ‘We like the fact that the legacy is carrying on in the work that you do, not necessarily in the name you’re doing it under.’”
The office towers at 621 17th St., right, and 633 17th St. as seen from the corner of 17th and California streets on Nov. 19, 2024. (BusinessDen file)
Treece Alfrey Musat, a dozen-lawyer litigation firm downtown, had received its share of merger requests over the years and rejected them all. But an offer last fall was different.
“The culture and the business match, the people that we met in the process, just made it seem like if there was going to be an opportunity to do this, this was the time to do it,” said Rob Zavaglia, a professional liability litigator and former managing partner at TAM.
On Jan. 1, Treece Alfrey Musat’s 33-year run came to an end and all but one of its lawyers — the exception retired — formed the new Colorado office of Freeman Mathis & Gary, a national business law firm that was founded in Atlanta and now has 38 offices in 21 states.
“We’re not drawing on an office of 12 lawyers and 12 support staff anymore. We’re drawing on an office of 450 lawyers and 300-plus staff,” said Zavaglia, now an FMG partner.
“We do have growth ambitions in the Denver market and the way to turbocharge that is to pair up with a firm that you have a core alignment with in market philosophy, office culture, how you go about doing your work and the type of work that you want to do,” he said.
Rob Zavaglia (Courtesy of Freeman Mathis & Gary)
Zavaglia, who runs FMG’s Denver office, called the acquisition a sign of the times in the merger-happy legal industry, where small- and medium-sized offices are frequently acquired by ever-expanding national firms, which have an easier time recruiting prized lawyers.
Freeman Mathis & Gary has moved into TAM’s former office space on the 22nd floor at 633 17th St. That tower, once Denver’s tallest, sold in the fall for a surprisingly low price.
Zavaglia said that Treece Alfrey Musat founding partners Tom Alfrey and Rich Musat, who are retired, approved of the merger with FMG. (Bob Treece died of cancer in 2015.)
“Even if the name changes, the way that we’ve gone about doing our business doesn’t,” he said. “That was the thumbs up we got from the founders: ‘We like the fact that the legacy is carrying on in the work that you do, not necessarily in the name you’re doing it under.’”
