Corrections or additions?
This articles were prepared for the
February 21,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Hale and Dorr
The Princeton office of the Boston-based law firm Hale
and Dorr LLP, opened by David Sorin last month, is negotiating for
office space at 650 College Road East. Moving there from the offices
it now occupies at 214 Carnegie Center would be a homecoming. The
space it is seeking is in the same building as Buchanan Ingersoll,
the firm Sorin left — taking 32 attorneys and the entire support
staff with him — to create a New Jersey presence for Hale and
Dorr.
Sorin opened Buchanan Ingersoll’s Princeton office in 1993, building
it from two attorneys to 60. The practice he created there centered
on high technology. “We were the leading high tech and emerging
growth firm in the region,” Sorin says. The firm, he says, did
more IPO, mergers & acquisition, and venture financing work for high
tech companies than did any other firm in the area.
Hale and Dorr, seeking a presence in New Jersey, recruited Sorin to
start an office in Princeton. “We needed to be at a firm with
considerably more depth and focus on high technology,” he says
of the reason he jumped from Buchanan Ingersoll. “Instead of being
at a firm where a relative few focused on technology, I went with
a firm with rich expertise.” With offices in New York and Reston,
Virginia, as well as Boston, the firm is in all the high tech hot
spots in the East and focuses solely on work for high technology
companies,
Sorin says.
New Jersey belongs on the “A list” of high technology locales,
Sorin says, but is not always recognized. “The interesting thing
about New Jersey,” he says, “is that we don’t have an
identifiable
city associated with technology. Our tech corridor spreads through
the state. It’s not as dense as others.”
Nevertheless, Sorin says, there is an enormous amount of high tech
legal work from companies in the telecommunications, wireless, life
sciences, E-commerce, information technology, and software industries.
This is still true, despite a sputtering Internet sector and a tech
slowdown. “Clearly, it’s a different mix of work,” he says.
“A year ago we would have been talking about all the IPOs. Six
months ago there was tremendous venture capital activity. Now, we’re
busy primarily with mergers and acquisition work. There are a lot
of strategic partnership and tech transactions, like licensing,
too.”
If its real estate negotiations go well, Hale and Dorr will be doing
this work from approximately two-thirds of the 60,000 square feet
Buchanan Ingersoll is now leasing at 650 College Road East. “We’ll
take the whole fourth floor,” Sorin says of his firm’s plans.
Hale and Dorr will take over all obligations for the lease, but
Buchanan
Ingersoll will stay on. “I expect they will maintain a strong
office in New Jersey,” Sorin says of his former firm.
Sorin, the father of a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son,
grew up in Brooklyn and moved to New Jersey when he and his wife,
Randi, who teaches pre kindergarten in Manalapan, decided to start
a family. He credits his father, who worked as a government clerk,
and his mother, a secretary, with contributing to his success.
“Both
parents stressed the importance of education,” he says. “It
was very important in our upbringing.” Sorin says he and his
brother,
a theater director, were the first in their family to attend college.
Sorin, who is also a CPA, holds a degree in accounting and economics
from New York University and a law degree from Fordham.
Hoping to lease enough space to allow for growth, Sorin says he
expects
Hale and Dorr’s Princeton office to be up to 40 attorneys in a year.
The ultimate size, he says, “depends on the economy.”
— Kathleen McGinn Spring
Hale and Dorr LLP, 214 Carnegie Center, Suite 300,Princeton 08540. David J. Sorin. 609-750-7600; fax, 609-750-7700.Top Of PageExpansionsNovaSoft Information Technology Corp., 505 LawrenceSquare Boulevard South, Lawrenceville 08648. Neil Bhaskar, CEO.609-588-5500;fax, 609-588-5577. Www.novasoftinfo.com.The seven-year-old IT company has bought a human resources firm,UnisonCareer Services, which does executive searches in informationtechnology.The transaction is billed as a merger, says Neil Bhaskar, CEO. SteveTremitiere, is the president of Unison.WithumSmith+Brown, 120 Albany Street, Suite 303,New Brunswick 08901. William Hagaman, shareholder. 732-828-1614; fax,732-828-5156. Www.withum.com.Bleich, Glass & Cardona PC has joined WithumSmith&Brown at its NewBrunswick office. Ronald L. Bleich and Ruben Cardona, foundingpartnersof BG&C, are now shareholders of WS+B.Cardona went to City University of New York and is former assistantfinance administrator for management and administrative services forthe City of New York. Bleich went to New York University and BrooklynLaw School, and is the treasurer of George Street Playhouse.Polygenesis, 4262 Route 1 North, Monmouth Junction08852. Henry Wieck, president. 732-355-1001; fax, 732-355-1002.Www.polygenesis.com.The technology development company is moving from 4270 Route 1 Northand adding 1,500 feet for a total of 4,000 feet. Barry Ginsberg ofBedminster has designed the space, and the buildout is by InnovativeGeneral Contracting. Polygenesis has complete technology developmentcapabilities, including mechanical design, software and electronics,and rapid prototyping. It has a close relationship with a clinicaldiagnostic company in Indianapolis.Intellispace, 116 Village Boulevard, Suite 200,Princeton 08540. Joe Anzalone, director of business development.609-951-2265;fax, 609-951-2220. Home page: www.intellispace.com.The Manhattan-based telecommunications company has moved to VillageBoulevard. It offers broadband, high-speed fiber optic Internetproviderfor multi-teneted business properties.Top Of PageBroadband Newsnex-i.com, 29 Emmons Drive, Building B, Princeton08540. Ira Baseman, president. 609-497-9400; fax, 609-497-9433.Www.nex-i.com.With its “plug and play” local networks for small tomedium-sizedbusinesses, nex-i.com has been acquired by another broadbandcommunicationprovider, EurekaGGN. When Eureka and GGN merged in December, Eureka’schairman, Jeffrey E. Ginsberg, had announced his plan to do a”rollup,”to acquire other companies and consolidate the industry.EurekaGGN has a full suite of integrated communications services thatit can deliver to nex-i customers — small to medium-sizedbusinesses.With its latest purchase, EurekaGGN snagged $10 million in cash plusa promise of $4 million more. Nex-i-com’s investors include AlphaNetSolutions, Mellon Ventures, and LLR Equity Partners. Terms of thebuy were not disclosed.Top Of PageManagement MovesPrinceton Partners Inc., 2 Research Way, Princeton08540-6618. Thomas M. Sullivan, CEO and owner. 609-452-8500; fax,609-452-7212. Www.princetonpartners.com.As planned 10 years ago, Catherine A. Mathis has retired as ownerand chief executive officer of the 30-year-old advertising agency.Tom Sullivan, now president, will take her place at the 48-employeefirm, which has as its creative trademark, a gargoyle. “We haveevolved in the last few years into a dynamic, integrated brandmarketingagency,” says Sullivan. “All of the pieces of the plan havefallen into place.Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (CHD), 469 North HarrisonStreet, CN 5297, Princeton 08543-5297. Robert A. Davies III, CEO andboard chair. 609-683-5900; fax, 609-497-7177. Home page:www.armhammer.com.For the first time in nearly 150 years, a family member is not incharge at Church & Dwight. Dwight Church Minton has moved from beingchairman to the post of chairman emeritus. The current CEO andpresident,Robert A. Davies 3rd, has been elected chairman of the board. Davies,65, is no longer president. He will bring in an “outsider”,Jon L. Finley, 46, as president as of April 1. Finley will also havethe new position of chief operating officer. He had been senior vicepresident of global convenience foods for General Mills inMinneapolis,where he was in charge of evaluating GM’s acquisition of the PillsburyCompany.Last June, Church & Dwight acquired North Brunswick-based USADetergents,makers of laundry detergent and fabric softener.Gilbane Building Company, 3150 Brunswick Pike,Suite 300, Lawrenceville 08648. George Cavallo, senior vice president.609-671-4200; fax, 609-671-4255. Www.gilbaneco.com.Gilbane Building Co., a construction and real estate developmentcompanywith offices in Crossroads Center, has named George Cavallo head ofits northeast regional office. Cavallo, who joined the company in1984, succeeds Walter McKelvey, who has been named regional managerof the company’s central region.Cavallo, a graduate of Temple, holds an MBA from Old DominionUniversity.He was an adjunct professor at Temple from 1989 to 1998, and willteach a graduate course in construction management there this spring.Top Of PageNew in TownEmpire Equity Associates Inc., 2117 Route 33, SuiteB, Hamilton Square 08690. Mike Jacobovitch, regional manager.609-588-0010;fax, 609-588-0269.Empire Equity Associates Inc., a mortgage company providing bothresidentialand commercial loans, has moved into offices on Route 33 in Hamilton.This is a six-person office of the Empire Group, a company licensedin 45 states.NCR Metropolitan Data Center (NCR), 2031 OldTrentonRoad, Cranbury 08512. 609-443-1800; fax, 609-371-2910.NCR has signed a lease at 5 Princess Road for 2,900 square feet,replacingMerrill Lynch’s raised-floor data center, which is moving to Hopewell.Matt Malatich of CB Richard Ellis in Iselin represented NCR, whichis based in Ohio (800-444-9151).Shire US Inc., 212 Carnegie Center, CarnegieExecutiveCenter, Suite 206, Princeton 08540. Lorraine A. Pronek, executiveassistant. 609-919-6330; fax, 609-520-1806.The business development office of a pharmaceutical company, ShirePharmaceutical, moved to the Carnegie Center last year. It has itsheadquarters in the U.K. and its U.S. headquarters in Kentucky.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesAmerican Express Corporate Services, 134 FranklinCorner Road, Suite 101, Lawrenceville 08648. Carol Comfort,customerservice representative. 609-844-7774; fax, 609-844-3194. Home page:www.americanexpress.com.American Express Corporate Services has moved from 989 Lenox Driveto 134 Franklin Corner Road. Carol Comfort is customer servicerepresentativeat the 10-person office.Barone-O’Hara Associates, 34 Fackler Road,Princeton08540. James J. O’Hara, vice president. 609-683-5566; fax,609-683-8077.The search firm has moved from 29 Emmons Drive at Princeton CommerceCenter to a similar-sized space on Fackler Road. It does executivesearches for start-ups in the medical device arena. O’Hara went toSt. Francis University in Loretta, Pennsylvania. Marialice Barone,the co-president, went to St. Louis University and Ohio State.Top Of PageDeathsB. Eugene Wilson Jr., 54, on February 11. He had beenthe owner of Patterson Chevrolet.Pamela L. Haight, 43, on February 11. She was directorof distribution for Integra Life Sciences on Morgan Lane.William A. Warshaw, 78, on February 12. He was a chemicalengineer with FMC Corp.Pamela K. Smith, 46, on February 15. She worked at ETS.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
