Underberg & Kessler marks 100 years with new leadership

The law firm of Underberg & Kessler LLP is marking its 100th anniversary with a new approach to leadership and a redesigned website.

Patrick Cusato, who has been involved in management of the firm for more than 20 years, and has served as managing partner since January 2024, is now co-managing partner with David Tang, who will ultimately take over the role individually.

“It is an honor to partner with Pat in this role. Having practiced law together for more than 15 years, we bring complementary strengths and perspectives. This approach allows us to support each other’s practices, share the responsibility of leading the firm, and focus on what each of us does best, while also creating a framework for the transfer of institutional knowledge, leadership development and succession,” Tang said.

“Our 100-year history is defined not merely by longevity, but by the trust we have earned, the solutions we have delivered, and the mutual respect and collegiality that have long-defined our culture,” said Cusato.

“The co-leadership structure with David reflects the partnership’s commitment to planning for the future and will help strengthen our focus on client service, sustainability, and the development of exceptional legal talent,” Cusato said.

The focus on a transition to a new generation of attorneys goes beyond the shared managing partner role. Underberg & Kessler’s management team is already made up entirely of younger partners.

Cusato and Tang will share duties, with Cusato heading up finance and operations, and Tang handling strategic planning, marketing, and IT, while learning the financial management of the firm as well.

“It’s probably the best way I think to do this, other than to say, ‘OK David, here are the keys,’” said Cusato, leader of the firm’s real estate and finance practice group.

Cusato and Tang both received their law degrees from Syracuse University School of Law — Cusato in 1987, Tang in 2005.

Cusato spent one year as a law clerk to a U.S. District Court judge before joining Underberg & Kessler in August 1998.

Tang was a summer associate at Underberg & Kessler in 2004. He started his legal career at another large Rochester firm and returned to Underberg & Kessler in 2011. He has been a partner since 2018.

A commercial litigator, Tang chairs the firm’s healthcare practice group, and the creditors’ rights practice.

“We celebrate 100 years of service with immense pride and gratitude. This anniversary reflects the firm’s enduring commitment to excellence, perseverance, and dedication to our clients. We remain deeply committed to honoring the legacy and culture established by our founders for generations to come,” Cusato said.

Tank called the 100^th anniversary “a pretty fantastic feat.”

“I feel like it’s a testament to the quality of client delivery that the firm has enjoyed and has really cultivated,” Tang said.

The firm started in 1926 when attorneys Joseph Goldstein and Manuel D. Goldman formed a partnership in the Union Trust Building at 19 W. Main St., in downtown Rochester.

For more than 25 years, Goldstein and Goldman remained a two-attorney practice. In 1952, the firm expanded when Harry D. Goldman, Manuel D. Goldman’s brother, joined as a partner, prompting a name change to Goldstein Goldman and Goldman.

That same year, Irving L. Kessler, recognized for his leadership in real estate law, joined the firm as an associate. Five years later, Kessler became a partner, and the firm was renamed Goldstein, Goldman and Kessler.

In 1963, Alan J. Underberg, an accomplished corporate practitioner, joined the partnership, leading to the firm’s next name change: Goldstein, Goldman, Kessler and Underberg.

Continued growth throughout the following decade culminated in the firm’s relocation in the early 1970s to the newly opened Chase Lincoln First Tower, where it became the building’s first non-banking tenant.

By July 1988, with more than 30 attorneys, the firm adopted the name Underberg & Kessler LLP. The firm remained in the Chase Lincoln First Tower until relocating its headquarters in 2005 to Legacy Tower (formerly Bausch & Lomb Place), where it remains today.

In celebration of its 100th anniversary, Underberg & Kessler also has launched a redesigned website with a modern look and enhanced functionality.

“Today, Underberg & Kessler stands on the shoulders of generations of attorneys who believed in putting clients first. Our practice is built on relationships, many spanning multiple generations,” said former managing partner Anna E. Lynch.

“We have worked carefully to ensure that the highest standards of legal expertise, work ethic, and client loyalty are reinforced and continue into the future,” Lynch said.

Throughout its history, Underberg & Kessler attorneys have advised individuals, families, and many of Rochester’s most well-known institutions, including dozens of not-for-profit organizations, banks, health care providers, municipalities, and private and public companies.

The firm’s legacy also includes alumni who served in prominent judicial roles, among them: Harry D. Goldman, former presiding justice of the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department; Patricia E. Gallaher, former Monroe County Family Court judge and acting state Supreme Court justice; retired bankruptcy judge John C. Ninfo II; and Richard A. Dollinger, a former judge of the New York Court of Claims and an acting state Supreme Court justice.

For many years, the firm’s size has not change significantly and it now has 23 attorneys with offices in Rochester, Geneseo, Canandaigua, and Buffalo.

“We’ve been fairly selective in the attorneys that we bring on. They have to be subject matter experts, or technically very good, but also a good fit,” Tang said.

“For a lot of firms it’s been trying times … We’ve seen friends closing recently and things of that nature,” Cusato said.

“We have remained very strong. We’ve been able to, in a very tough market, bring in some very talented new attorneys. We keep evolving and getting into different practice areas, bringing a boutique law firm into the firm last year to expand in certain areas, and to bring us a renewable energy practice and more municipal practices,” he said.

“We always have to keep evolving. And we tend to do that,” Cusato said.

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