Richmond business law firm’s attorneys join Williams Mullen

Ten attorneys from KVCF, a Richmond-based business law firm, have joined Williams Mullen as of Oct. 1.

Thomas Voekler, who was managing partner at KVCF and continues on as partner at Williams Mullen’s Richmond office, said the move has been more than a decade in the making.

“We talked to Williams Mullen prior to forming KVCF when I joined, and we reformulated KVCF back in 2012,” Voekler told Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

In the years since, the entities chatted off and on, and Voekler said the firms began serious discussions about eight months ago to see if the move would make sense long term for the KVCF team.

Voekler said the move was presented as an opportunity to the team at KVCF to “transition” to Willaims Mullen. Given differing corporate structures, Voekler noted that the move was technically not a merger of the firms.

“We had the opportunity to present to everybody that wanted to an opportunity to transition over to Williams Mullen, which just meant that KVCF was not going to have any attorneys anymore and was going to terminate existence,” Voekler said.

Joining Voekler in Williams Mullen’s Richmond office are Richard “Chip” Cunningham Jr., S. Edward Flanagan, Cindy Heidel, Stephanie Karn, Kathy Lawrence, Mehanna Borostyan, Melanie J. Ramsey and John L. Watson.

T. Rhys James joined the firm’s Virginia Beach office from KVCF, which Voekler noted was “a great opportunity for him to join an existing office there” after working in Virginia Beach for the past six years.

In sum, 15 people, including two paralegals and support staff, made the transition to Williams Mullen from KVCF.

Cunningham, Flanagan, Heidel, Karn, Lawrence and James also joined the firm as partners, while Borostyan, Ramsey and Watson joined as associates.

Williams Mullen first announced the addition of the KVCF attorneys in late August, with the attorneys officially joining Williams Mullen on Oct. 1. The date also marked the closure of KVCF, whose website currently redirects users to Williams Mullen.

For Voekler, part of the motivation to make the move was the ability to focus more on the practice of law rather than administrative functions, which he said took up 90% of his day at KVCF.

“That’s just one of things that comes with managing a smaller firm,” Voekler said. “So, for the partners especially, the opportunity was to focus on what we do best, and Williams Mullen has a phenomenal team here to support us.”

Voekler noted that clients responded positively to the move, adding that rates are staying the same and that clients receive the benefits of having more in-house capabilities at a larger firm.

“For our clients, what we get is a more diversified practice, we get a very similar mindset and being very business oriented,” Voekler said.

He added that the move added ancillary practices the team needed, including complex tax representation and a deeper bench to support clients in complicated matters.

Voekler praised the Williams Mullen team for making the transition over easy and helping with the move.

“They helped us with things that we didn’t even contemplate,” Voekler said. “Moving an entire firm is quite an administrative undertaking and the amounts that they undertook on our behalf was incredible.”