Legally Bond
Legally Bond
An Interview with Craig Olivo and Ralph Rosella, Bond Long Island
In this episode of Legally Bond, Kim speaks with Bond attorneys Craig Olivo and Ralph Rosella, co-managing members of the newly combined Bond Long Island Office. Craig and Ralph discuss the strategic decisions that brought the Garden City and Melville offices under one roof and the positive impact this move will have on Bond clients in the metropolitan area.
Bond Long Island is now located at 68 South Service Road, Melville, New York 11747.
Hello and welcome to Legally Bond, a podcast presented by the law firm Bond Chenek and King. I'm your host, kim Wolf-Price. We have a special focus on the podcast today because we're talking about Long Island, new York, and specifically the latest development in Bond Chenek and King's more than 20-year presence on Long Island. We're happy to have as our guests today the co-managing members of the Long Island office, craig Olivio and Ralph Rosella. Welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us today. Thanks, kim.
Speaker 2:It's great to be here.
Speaker 1:All right. So Bon recently combined two offices on Long Island into one office at 68 South Service Road in Melville, new York, which is conveniently at the border of Suffolk and Nassau counties and for those of you who know Long Island that's an important nexus. So if it works for the two of you, I'd like to talk a little bit about that move Bond, long Island generally and your reach, which is well beyond Long Island, and how this new combined space strengthens the client service and reach of the office. Does that work for both of you?
Speaker 3:It's great.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right, terrific. First, I'm going to ask each of you to briefly tell us a little bit about your backgrounds, your careers, and you can talk about what you'd like to, where you grew up, went to college or law school, and what your path to Bond was. Whatever you'd like to share. This is how listeners can learn a little bit more about our guests. So, craig, I'm going to start with you.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I am originally from Orange County, in a small town called Monroe, new York, where both of my parents were educators, with, most importantly, my father being an assistant superintendent for human resources and later the superintendent of schools in our home district.
Speaker 1:This makes so much sense. Now, craig, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Well, as you can probably imagine, having your father be employed in those capacities while you're in high school made for some interesting interactions with my teachers, especially since he was responsible for doing the collective bargaining with the district's various union bargaining units, and it was his role in that capacity that really shaped how my entire life unfolded from there. Because there was a labor lawyer from Long Island named Terry O'Neill who represented our district and worked with my father, and whenever Terry was in town for bargaining he would come over for dinner with my family. I have memories of being about 12 years old and Terry showing up for dinner and during those dinners Terry and my father would talk about all of the labor and employment issues that they were dealing with and I was fascinated and I actually had an opportunity later in high school to attend a federal court proceeding with the two of them on a very unique First Amendment religion issue, and it was that exposure to their conversations and getting to go to court the federal court. It was so cool as I was a teenager and that continued as I went to Duke for college and Notre Dame for law school. I wound up writing my college thesis and my law review note about the labor and constitutional issues that were involved in the continuation of that court case that I had attended while I was in high school. That ultimately wound its way all the way to the US Supreme Court, where I had the unique chance and opportunity to be invited by Justice Blackmun to attend the oral argument of that case. Wow, one of my college professors so come full circle.
Speaker 2:After law school, terry O'Neill, offered me a job at his labor and employment firm, rains and Pogrebin, where I later became a partner, and so my interest in labor law and my entire career really have been shaped by those dinners as a teenager and the relationship I developed with Terry Fast forward to 2004 and Rains and Pogrebin unfortunately dissolved. But just as that door closed, another opened when Terry and I made a decision to join Bond, along with seven or eight of our other partners, and together we opened the Garden City and New York City offices for Bond. And that was more than 20 years ago and we've never looked back.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, so I had no idea. This is honestly, I'll just confess. Now, this is actually why I asked this question, because I love learning about this, about my colleagues. The first thing I learned about Terry O'Neill was that he saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium, so there's always a good story, and I love that. That's how this unfolded. So thanks so much for sharing that. Craig and Ralph, you joined Bond similarly when firms came together, but will you tell us a little bit about your background?
Speaker 3:Sure, first of all I know Terry O'Neill now. I'd never met him in my younger years though, so your story is much more interesting than mine. But I have to say, kim, so someone actually asked me that question. Yesterday I met this person for the first time. They said tell me about yourself. I said at my age you don't want to ask that question because it's a very long story. I think this podcast is going to end before I get a chance to get halfway through it, so anyway.
Speaker 3:So I am from Long Island, so I was born and raised in Suffolk County, so I am truly a Long Island person. I spent virtually my whole life here, except for the time when I was in law school. I was living in the city in New York City, and the time when I got married I lived in Nassau County for a for a little while, but since then I've been pretty much living in in suffolk county. I went to college locally here at australia it was really a cost decision for the family and I studied in the business school. I studied administrative computer systems with the thought of being a systems analyst and programming, and I learned a lot about computers because my father told my brother and myself that you need to learn something that you can get, where you can get a job right. So both of us went to the business school. My brother studied accounting, I studied computers and we both became lawyers. My father actually went to law school for a little while. He was in the Korean War. He came back and he tried to go to law school at night. It didn't really work out for him. He became an accountant ultimately. But he kind of geared us towards the business world and I always had an entrepreneurial spirit in what I thought I wanted to do and I thought being a lawyer would give me an opportunity to do that, where I can do something on my own. And that's the reason why I kind of left the computer side of it.
Speaker 3:And so I worked in Manhattan for a few years, went to Ford Law School in Manhattan and worked in the city for a few years and came out to a firm out here, one of the prominent law firms out here, and at the firm there were two other lawyers who were both associates as well and they left to start their own firm in Suffolk County. The firm then was in Nassau County, so the idea was to bring commercial law out to Suffolk County because there was a void at the time and so they thought that they could replicate what we were doing in Nassau County in Suffolk County and they were trying to get me to go with them. I was at that time I was like 28 years old. I said this is kind of crazy. I really need to learn my craft a little bit more before I do this. They harassed me for about five years until ultimately I agreed to move and it was exciting. It was exciting because that business side of me, that entrepreneurial side of me I felt would be fulfilled by joining a firm of it was just five of us and to be able to do something at that level. And it was exciting, it was very exciting.
Speaker 3:And so I became a business lawyer, which is consistent with really where I think my skill set and desires were, again being somewhat entrepreneurs as lawyers. We bought a piece of property I guess it was about 25, 30 years ago. It was a vacant lot of three or four acres here in Melville. We built two buildings on it. We housed one of the buildings. We sold it maybe five years ago and that's the building that we left when we came here.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. Both of you had really strong influence from your dads to sort of guide your career going forward. That's great. Well, I really appreciate you sharing that, and I'm glad that both of your firms joined Bond so that you're here with us and leading the Long Island office. I do think that listeners like to know more about the guests, and obviously I do too, because it always helps, you know, as we're working together, to know a little bit more about each other. So, thank you both. Well, I mentioned that there was a new development after Bond's 20 plus years on Long Island, and, craig, will you talk a little bit about the moves that just happened and why this new office is important to Bond?
Speaker 2:Sure, it's very exciting. We have just recently completed what we've been working on for really more than 18 months A lot of time, a lot of hard work. More than 18 months, a lot of time, a lot of hard work and that's the combination of our Garden City and Melville offices into one brand new, state-of-the-art office space here in Melville. So it's really the culmination of what our strategic vision had been to grow Garden City from the outset, from the seven or eight labor lawyers that we started out with, into a full service office. That now, I think, really better represents the depth and breadth of the practice areas that Bond as a firm provides to its client base. So now, with the combined offices Garden City and Melville into one spot, we are close to 50 lawyers strong under one roof and can rival any of the larger firms here on Long Island. So it really, I think, gives us a lot of added credibility and is going to better enable us to market the bond brand here in the metropolitan region. So we're super excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's terrific. I can't wait to come see the offices in person. And Ralph, this larger, more concentrated presence I mean the lawyers from your former firm, from the former Melville office, have been with Bond for three years now three years and one month, if I'm going to get kind of specific, I think Is this move even. It's really a better way to help integrate, really strengthen that full integration, like you have been all in. But this really culminates that in a way, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's also, I think, an emotional or psychological factor which is important for us on the mellow side and Craig and I have spoken about this before Because we were still housing the building that we had built ourself there was still a little bit of a tug or a pull from the old firm and we thought it was important for everyone from that environment to feel more connected to the bond group, because that's our new home, that's our new identity, and not that it was missing, but I don't think it was strong and quite strong enough. So I think the fact that we came to a new place which is a beautiful office, and there are other people from the LeGarne City office physically with us now, I just think it integrates us so much better and I think the fact that people feel more pride in being a part of the bond firm has been really strengthened by this combination.
Speaker 1:That's terrific and I can make sense. Right now You're together and it really does help this combination. That's terrific and I can make sense. Right Now you're together and it really does help strengthen that. All right. So moving law offices that doesn't sound like a lot of fun, I'm not going to lie. To move all of this it sounds like a lot of work. So, raph, what was some of the process of moving? And, like you said, you'd bought that building as the previous firm and had been in it a long time. What was?
Speaker 3:some of the process. Well, I think a lot of people were concerned about the move itself, the actual days that we moved and we'd lose time. I was never really intimidated by that, because we had done it before right, because we had moved to our building, and you'd be surprised how quickly people get acclimated and start to work right away. For us, I think, the biggest issue was, as Craig pointed out, it was an 18-month process, so there was a lot of work that had to be done to plan the move itself.
Speaker 3:I think one of the problems that we had in Melville is that we were in a building that we had been in for almost 30 years. We had built an enormous basement, and so 30 years ago, the digital aspect of the business wasn't as prominent. So there was a lot of paper, and so I think we spent most of our time trying to figure out what do we do with all this paper. Do we shred it, do we scan it, do we have to give it back to clients? And so there was a whole methodology that had to be addressed in terms of how to deal with all that, and then the actual process of going through all that paperwork and what was important to keep or not to keep. Our profession is different than a lot of other professions. Our work product is not only what we do in communicating with people, but it's the result of agreements, documents, originals, all that wills, trust, all those things are critical and they cannot just simply be destroyed, and so that process, in my mind, was really the most difficult part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so Craig. It would seem like the administrative staff was probably pretty critical to that process.
Speaker 2:I think I speak for both of us when I say we truly could not have done this without all of the support that we got from the administrative support staff bar none. Our IT staff was on site for a week making sure that the computers and the phones and the video equipment and all the electronic equipment was working. I continue to be amazed by how much they accomplished in the space of a weekend. We were sitting in our old offices on Friday and we were sitting in our new offices on Monday and the computers moved over the weekend and they were fully functional. So we really can't say enough, and I think we also would be very remiss if we didn't mention Allison Paul, our office manager, and Lori Wachino as well, for all of the hard work they did. They kept everything organized. They were here over that weekend. I think they barely slept, and there is no way that the entire project would have been successful if it weren't for them and the entire group. It was a team effort.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's an important thing that I've noticed at Bond from the beginning is that there is a team effort and every you know the lawyers are right, the main part of the law firm right, we are a law firm but the rest of the team and the way they support everyone. It's really pretty, pretty wonderful and Allison has shared some of the some of the stories and I know there was a lot of work going through the paper and I don't think any of us knew there were that many binder clips in the world.
Speaker 2:But Ralph and I never want to see exhibit tabs again. Over that weekend, he and I and there are photos to prove it there must have been 50 enormous boxes of exhibit tabs from the two offices that he and I put into file cabinets. I never want to deal with them again.
Speaker 3:I still kind of shake when I walk by that room. I can't go down that hallway.
Speaker 1:So when you had the two offices and you were you know this was a long-term plan to make this move. Ralph, what were some of the considerations when considering the move and where to be?
Speaker 3:So for people who aren't from here, people may not realize how large Long Island is. It's a very unique place. It's very long, obviously, and fairly wide and fairly diverse. There's no real downtown on Long Island, and so if you want to be a viable Long Island group where you're accessible, it's important to really be as close to the midpoint in the business sector as possible, and I think Melville really suits us for that purpose.
Speaker 3:Plus, this particular location is right off of the Long Island Expressway, which is the main artery in terms of transportation here, so it's fairly easy to find and to get to. Plus, this is an A building, so it has a lot of the amenities that you would want in a professional group, and I think it allows us not only to impress clients but to impress prospects. As we all know, all the offices know that the competition for talent is very, very fierce. Right so to be able to showcase a place like this for talent. They can see that we're serious about what we do, that we're professional and that it's a nice place to go to, and our staff obviously is loving it too, so it's been great.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic, so it helps for recruiting obviously for the attorneys, but also for the staff as well and hosting events. I already have ideas that's thanks to you In Long Island and you know, bringing some alumni events, and now I think maybe we should get the Notre Dame alumni there. I mean, I'm ready to like invite all the way. I think you have beautiful space there. But, craig, will you tell us a little bit more about the work of the Long Island office? You've said full service, both of you, you know, but I think maybe the listeners would like to know a little bit more about the types of practice that clients served from that office.
Speaker 2:Sure, I mean, one of the most exciting things, as we mentioned, is that you know we have the full gamut of practice areas now under one roof, which is we've come a long way from when we were just labor and employment lawyers, just seven or eight of us in Garden City. So, with the addition of Ralph and his team from Laser App Keeper when they combined with us two or three years ago, we now have corporate and commercial transactions, commercial real estate, bankruptcy, trust in the states, the labor and employment that we've always had, school law and litigation, and that's probably a few that are missing. So we service from this office now everything from small family-owned businesses to large national companies, residential real estate transactions, the large commercial real estate transactions with the largest landlords here in the region and, on the public sector side, everything from your local town, village and school district all the way up to the largest New York State agency. So it really runs the gamut and just makes it a super exciting place to be.
Speaker 1:That's terrific and it really is a large reach with a lot of depth, and then you can reach into all the other offices across the firm as well. For Beckham, absolutely. And so, ralph, you said that Long Island is a large area. There's Nassau and Suffolk it's two counties in New York, which is a lot of people and a lot of space. But the reach of this office is even beyond those two counties and Long Island itself, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Sure, we always in our older firm, we always did a lot of work in New York City Westchester, some in Connecticut and some in New Jersey. So this makes it easier because there are more resources here. Because there are more resources here, and I think the next step from here, the next natural step, is not to physically integrate with New York City, but to have a better sense of what is happening in our New York City office and for them to know what's happening out here. For example, a client of mine had been sued in Fairport, New York City, and so I was able to tap into the New York City litigators so able to tap into the New York City litigators. So there's been a lot of back and forth between the people there and here for that case alone, and we're learning more about what we do in each other's environment and they're going to come out here and spend time with us and vice versa, and I just think it opens up more doors to understand that we're a more integrated group. We can't work in silos.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and, craig, there's Westchester clients in the Long Island office, and you work with our Westchester office as well, don't you?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. I mean that goes back to our range of program days when we had a significant client base up in Westchester County and even to this day up in Orange County. So one of the things that had attracted us to bond back in 2004 was, you know, having the ability to call upon attorneys in other offices and the other regions that we used to spend an awful lot of time driving up, say, to Albany, for various proceedings up there, and now we're fortunate that we've got our offices and it makes for a more efficient and less costly service for our client.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it really just. I think your move is another step in strengthening the Team Bond One brand that people are working more and more across regions, across offices and since the Garden City office and beyond, that has been part of it and has been happening. But this new Long Island office, I think, is another really great move, as you mentioned, to strengthen those ties in the client service that will come out of this. Well, anything that either of you would like to add in the end, long Island office.
Speaker 2:We're happy for you all to come and visit. We're finally proud of the office space that we're in.
Speaker 1:I can't wait. I'm ready to come visit. I want to come down and you know, of course, visit the associates and all of you and the staff. Everyone seems to have been really on board with the move, which is another unique situation that, having been an associate in a move many decades ago, it's not always that way. So it's great to see that the staff and the attorneys are all on board with the move. Thank you both so much. Thank you very much for joining us and talking to us on the podcast today for a successful move and I hope you'll each come back and talk to us about labor law and business transactions in another episode of the podcast soon. Thank you, any questions for me, want to hear from someone at the firm or have a suggestion for a future topic? Please email us at legallybond at bskcom. Also, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to Legally Bond wherever podcasts are downloaded. Until our next talk, be well.
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