MS&K opens New York office

NEW YORK--Long-time law firm to the security industry, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp has opened an office here, at 12 East 49th Street, two blocks east of Rockefeller Center, on the 30th floor. It joins offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. “We originally opened it up to service our entertainment clients,” who include Jay-Z, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kanye West, said Lessing Gold, an attorney with the firm who’s worked closely with the security industry. But they’ve also placed there Dennis Stern, an attorney with 34 years experience in the security industry whom the firm hired in the summer of 2007. Stern came directly from HSM, where he served as executive vice president and general counsel. “Having Dennis there makes us a lot more convenient and accessible for companies on the East Coast,” Gold noted, “though we’ve always served companies there.” Stern also provides on-site corporate transaction expertise to an office that’s predominantly staffed with lawyers specializing in business and commercial litigation, said MS&K marketing director Iris Falk. She said there are seven partners working now in New York. In the current financial market, will that merger and acquisition expertise be necessary? Gold said the “M&A business is still very strong, but it’s a little tougher for the buyers to get money,” he acknowledged. “The lenders are a little stricter now, making sure they qualify, but we haven’t seen any adverse affects in the alarm industry. In other industries, we have.” Gold also said to look for the firm to do “significantly more work” in the homeland security industry, from the Washington office. He said they recently hired Susan Ross, who has expertise in international trade and homeland security. “We’re just setting up a new division,” Gold said, “which I’ll be heading up, which will involve homeland security, so this is a new area we’re really expanding into.”