Sidney Welch Discusses Atlanta Office Growth with Daily Report

Bradley attorney Sidney Welch was quoted in a Daily Report article on the growth of the firm’s Atlanta office since its opening in May 2023.

Welch, who serves as the Atlanta office managing partner, said the firm has focused on growing the office with lawyers of “exceptional talent” who believe in working with other lawyers to take a “multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to client problems.”

Since the office launched in May, the firm has added lawyers in “priority” practice areas, including healthcare, real estate and corporate, and will continue to seek lawyers in those areas in 2024, Welch explained. The firm would also like to add attorneys who are experienced in government investigations, bankruptcy and restructuring, and intellectual property, she added.

The office’s growth is “intentionally designed to add on to the corporate, real estate, healthcare and non-litigation-focused practices,” Welch said.

“We will continue to have litigation growth — it’s just the nature of the beast,” she said. “But since we have a critical mass, it’s not necessarily a priority focus other than rounding out areas of litigation that we would still like to see representation in, such as government investigations —that type of work.”

The increase in head count “has been intentional and very positive growth as opposed to putting bodies in chairs,” she added.

Welch said Bradley was not driven by a “fear of recession” to recruit lawyers in counter-cyclical practice areas to the office — despite the number of litigators who joined when the office opened.

“They just happened to be a sizable group from multiple different firms added into the mix,” she said. 

Welch noted the firm has focused on “getting exceptional talent” in all practice areas for the Atlanta office and 50% of lawyers in litigation is “probably not a huge number for a full-service firm.”

The full article, “Eight Months After Raiding Atlanta Law Firms, Bradley Arant Continues to Recruit,” was published by the Daily Report on January 3, 2024.