Notable law firm closes

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Chamberlain, D’Amanda, Oppenheimer & Greenfield LLP has ceased operations.

Founded in 1879, Chamberlain, D’Amanda was one of Rochester’s oldest law firms and among the area’s oldest businesses. Its shutdown was unceremoniously announced by a voicemail message stating that the firm ceased operations as of Nov. 20.

What led to the 136-year-old firm’s demise is not clear.

“I’m not in a position to say anything at this time,” former Chamberlain, D’Amanda managing partner Eugene O’Connor said Tuesday.

O’Connor joined Gallo & Iacovangelo LLP last week.

Ranked as the area’s 18th-largest law firm on the Rochester Business Journal’s list published July 31, Chamberlain, D’Amanda reported its attorney roster at 14 lawyers, including eight partners.

The firm’s still-active website lists 16 lawyers. The roster includes James Vazzana, who this month won a Monroe County Family Court judgeship. He is slated to begin serving a 10-year term on the bench in January.  

Over the last few months, Chamberlain, D’Amanda’s pool of attorneys steadily diminished as partners retired and lawyers left, said Douglas Lustig, a bankruptcy lawyer and former partner in the firm.

“I haven’t been that close to management and could not say what exactly went wrong,” Lustig said. “Partners retired or died or left and not enough new people joined. I think it just reached a point where there wasn’t enough business coming in.” 

Lustig moved to Dibble & Miller P.C. last week. He had been a Chamberlain, D’Amanda partner since 2001. Dibble & Miller also currently lists Mikal Krueger, a former Chamberlain, D’Amanda associate, as a member of its bankruptcy practice. 

Through the latter half of the 20th century and the early years of this century, Chamberlain D’Amanda boasted a robust labor-law practice, representing a number of area unions in National Labor Relations Board and court proceedings.

In 2014, the lawyers who had largely built and run that practice, partners Michael Harren and Matthew Fusco, left to join Trevett, Cristo, Salzer & Andolina P.C.

Respectively veterans of Chamberlain, D’Amanda for 40 years and 26 years, Harren and Fusco last year said the switch made sense because they had long worked closely with Lawrence Andolina, a name partner in Trevett, Cristo and a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who represents public-sector unions including the Rochester Police Locust Club.

Days before Harren and Fusco announced their impending move to Trevett, Cristo, Vazzana, who was then Chamberlain, D’Amanda’s managing partner, released a statement announcing Chamberlain, D’Amanda’s intention to focus more tightly on small-business clients.

“The reality of the legal marketplace and industry changes over the past five years have led many firms to become more specialized,” the statement read. “In order to be more laser-focused from a marketing standpoint, we need to be more streamlined from a practice standpoint.” 

In an earlier notable departure, longtime managing partner Edward Radin left in 2013 to join Syracuse-based Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC’s Rochester office.

Radin had been with Chamberlain, D’Amanda since his 1977 graduation from law school and had served as the firm’s managing partner for 17 years.

How many attorneys were still with Chamberlain, D’Amanda when the last person turned off the lights at the firm’s sixth-floor Crossroads Building offices last week is not clear.

The building’s owner, Eli Futerman, this week declined to comment on the status of the law firm’s space.

Chamberlain, D’Amanda’s final voicemail message gives new contact numbers for three of its former attorneys: O’Connor, Lustig and John Schuppenhauer.

“Please do not leave messages on this phone as they will not be returned,” the message concludes.

11/27/15 (c) 2015 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email [email protected].