WILMINGTON — Boutique business law firm Esbrook P.C. has opened a Wilmington office led by seasoned Delaware attorney Scott Leonhardt, who has a strong track record of transactional and bankruptcy experience.
Leonhardt, most recently an associate with the Rosner Law Group LLC, has joined Esbrook as a partner and the only attorney the firm has in the First State so far.
“Esbrook embodies the blend of offering an unparalleled value proposition for clients,” Leonhardt said in a prepared statement. “It’s an honor to lead the firm’s expansion into Delaware. I appreciate my partners’ confidence in me to contribute to the firm’s accelerated growth strategy, and I look forward to contributing my in-depth experience in corporate transactions, corporate litigation, commercial litigation and bankruptcy.”
While Leonhardt is the sole attorney in the firm’s Delaware office for now, founding partner Christopher Esbrook plans to hire more to join Leonhardt in the newly-leased office in the Brandywine Building in downtown Wilmington.
“We’ve hired recruiters to help staff that office out with other bankruptcy and litigation attorneys,” Esbrook told the Delaware Business Times. “Scott is a tremendous litigator and a perceived practitioner. There are lawyers who ‘get it’: they have the right strategy, they are communicative, great writers and they’re good tacticians. Scott is one of those attorneys, and we’re excited to have him with us.”
Esbrook is an industry veteran himself, with 15 years at big law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP. There, he worked on noteworthy litigation, including serving as a lead on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill case, and a trial at the now-disbanded arbitrage court in Moscow for a lawsuit against the rocket manufacturer for the Russian military. Over the years, Esbrook’s time also crossed into private equity and transactional law where he worked in Delaware and with local counsel.
In 2018, he opted to open a boutique firm first in Chicago to become essentially litigation specialists for companies that want top-notch legal services at more affordable rates.
“I was looking around, and I really didn’t see that in the market in Chicago, but as it turns out the need is nationwide,” Esbrook said. “I really wanted to attack that market because clients want to hire the right firm because of the substantive issues. And they need that law firm that’s sophisticated, but the exposure on the case would not justify hiring a large law firm. I do think we found an opportunity in the market because of that strategy.”
Esbrook offers competitive rates and alternative fee structures. More law firms are starting to embrace alternative fee structures which differ from billable hours by offering flat fees or costs depending on the stage of the legal matter, success fees and other options. A 2021 Bloomberg survey found that 84% of law firms offer some type of fee agreements with most relying on a flat fee.
Since Esbrook left Kirkland & Ellis LLP, he’s grown his firm to include 35 attorneys in offices in New York and Washington D.C. to handle a whole spectrum of litigation services, including multi-district litigation that has the team work with local counsel – an experience that would lead to meeting Leonhardt.
“We worked like 10 cases together in Delaware, and it got to the point where I realized we practice so much in the state it made sense to open an office,” Esbrook said. “Scott’s experience allows us to do complex litigation and expand directly into bankruptcy cases since it’s his expertise.”
It’s no secret that Delaware is a major draw for corporate attorneys, as more than 66% of Fortune 500 companies have incorporated in Delaware due to the Court of Chancery and its rich laws that have been in place for more than a hundred years. But for a boutique firm, it also makes sense to start building a presence to work with other big law firms who need a local counsel to represent them in the courtroom and guide them through the system.
“I tried to find someone who had that sophisticated book of business for hourly levels that were lower than what you see from big firms,” he said. “That’s the same type of dynamic we saw in Chicago— and it turned out to be truer than I thought. And I see it specifically in Delaware.”
