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In December, Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey sold its building at 311 Main St. for $2.8 million to Cliff Rucker, who owns the Worcester Railers Hockey Club and is redeveloping properties around the city, including a hockey rink in the Canal District. The firm then signed an eight-year initial lease, with Rucker agreeing to make renovations.
The firm's chairman, Michael Angelini, sat down with WBJ to discuss the new developments and the company's long-term plan for Worcester.
Why did you sell the building?
We had no plan to sell it. Cliff Rucker, who is a client of ours and a good guy, has a great interest in Worcester. He said to us, “This is a great building, and I'd like to own a building like this one day.”
Our primary interest is in being here, and not necessarily in owning the building. It made sense to sell. Cliff is interested in promoting this property and improving it. We are interested in staying here in a long-term lease.
Obviously, we wouldn't sell this building to anybody. Look around the building, and we treat it like home. We wouldn't want to sell it to someone who would tear it down or convert it to a use that wasn't compatible with the city.
What renovations do you need?
We need to make some modern improvements. Half of one floor used to be a library, but we gave all our books to a law school in Africa. You don't need books at a law firm anymore. All that information is electronic.
The use of electronics in law firms has significantly changed the way you need space – smaller, more offices. You don't need libraries anymore.
We want to redo these areas to make a more open, collaborative space, with fewer offices with walls.
Is this your first step toward pulling out of the city?
The firm certainly isn't leaving Worcester. In fact, it is the opposite of that; we are here for the long term. We expect to expand and hire more people for this office actually.
Our hope is over the next five years to expand this office by another third. That would be bringing on an additional 15 lawyers.
Can you attract the talent you need for an expansion?
As people get more interested in this community, that gets easier to do. It historically has not been easy to attract young lawyers to Worcester. It has been easier the last two to three years. People are just interested in coming here. Worcester is resurgent in many ways.
The city is looking better. It is well managed. Business activity is picking up. It is relatively safer than other urban areas. It is part of the national trend of people returning to cities. Increasingly, people are coming back to Worcester.
Has the new activity in the city led you to develop new practice areas?
This firm has a long practice of representing medium-sized businesses, which is the characteristic business in this city. There is only one public company in this city – Hanover Insurance Group. It is unusual for a city of this size to have only one large company, and instead mostly be made up of medium-sized businesses.
One thought we had – and it is a community idea as much as a professional practice idea – is to see if we can be helpful in providing legal assistance to facilitate people opening new businesses in Worcester. There has not been a concerted, directed effort like that before.
How does that help you as a business?
We are a firm that likes to take on clients and make money, but we are also a firm interested in promoting the city.
If we can attract more businesses to this community, that means more jobs. More jobs means more people, and more people means more transactions and the economy develops. This community needs to attract people who have business interests, who will promote and provide jobs.
But, of course, you still need to pay the bills.
I spend my day helping people solve problems. The more people with problems to solve, the better it is for lawyers.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Brad Kane, WBJ editor.
Video
TITLE: Chairman
COMPANY: Bowditch & Dewey
AGE: 74
BIRTHPLACE: Leominster
RESIDENCE: Worcester
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in sociology and botany from Wesleyan University in Connecticut; law degree from Duke University
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Worcester Business Journal presents a special commemorative edition celebrating the 300th anniversary of the city of Worcester. This landmark publication covers the city and region’s rich history of growth and innovation.
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