Eric Getty, JD represented Watkins & Eager, PLLC in the lease of its new Birmingham HQ at Lakeshore Park Plaza. Jerry Grant, CCIM, also of Graham & Co, represented the Landlord in the transaction.
There’s another new player in Birmingham’s legal field, and it has hired three local legal veterans to launch its new office in the Magic City.
Mississippi-based law firm Watkins & Eager PLLC has opened an office in Birmingham.
The new office, located on Lakeshore Drive, opened on Sept. 7.
The firm’s managing member James J. Crongeyer, Jr. said the expansion is part of the firm’s strategic growth initiative. Adding three new members and a Birmingham office expands and deepens the firm’s existing areas of practice and enables Watkins & Eager to better serve clients around the Southeast, he said.
“This is an important milestone for Watkins & Eager as we continue to grow and strategically position the firm to best serve our clients,” Crongeyer said. “Expanding into the Birmingham legal market seemed like a natural fit and enables our firm to better serve the needs of existing clients who have significant interests in Alabama and throughout the Southeast.”
The firm has offices in Jackson and Hattiesburg, Miss., representing national and international businesses with Mississippi interests and Mississippi businesses and individuals since 1895. The firm is a full-service, diversified law firm with a broad trial and appellate litigation practice, as well as an extensive real estate, banking, corporate, and healthcare practice.
The firm’s new members in Birmingham include J. Patrick Strubel, H. Lanier Brown II and David Brown. All three previously worked at Huie Fernambucq & Stewart,
Strubel said the firm’s plans for the Birmingham office are to continue serving existing clients while exploring opportunities for strategic growth, including attracting talented lawyers in Alabama.
“Lanier, David, and I are excited about the opportunity to join Watkins & Eager,” Strubel said. “We are excited about the growth opportunities for the Birmingham office both in litigation and in other practice areas.”
Lanier Brown, a UAB and UA School of Law alumnus, has represented nursing home operators and other health care providers, motor vehicle and other product manufacturers, construction and engineering firms, restaurant and hospitality operators, insurers, personal injury defendants and pharmaceutical and medical device clients. He also represents parties in commercial litigation and business disputes.
David Brown’s law practice includes automotive, product and professional liability, medical malpractice, pharmaceutical and medical device defense, employment litigation, and general insurance litigation defense. He has also tried general liability cases. Brown is also a UA School of Law alumnus.
The litigation practice for Strubel, who graduated from Birmingham-Southern College and Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, includes product liability involving automobile, recreational vehicle and agricultural equipment manufacturers, pharmaceutical and medical device defense, and medical malpractice claims involving physicians, nursing facilities, hospitals, and pharmacies. He also handles commercial litigation matters and premises liability and personal injury cases.