Another Era Ends: Levy & Droney Lawyers Joining Hinckley, Allen & Snyder

Why would a law firm in Metro Hartford with a marquee name dissolve, with most of its attorneys joining a regional firm with a growing presence in the capital city?

That’s what’s happening as about 15 of 21 lawyers at Levy & Droney join Hinckley, Allen & Snyder as of Jan. 1, a source familiar with the arrangement said.

The move could help both sets of lawyers, as Levy & Droney, in Farmington, would have faced a future, sooner or later, without its prominent founders, Coleman Levy, until recently a co-owner of the New Britain Rock Cats, and John Droney, a former state Democratic chairman.

For Hinckley, the arrangement — not exactly a merger, as individual partners join the firm — will mean a higher profile in central Connecticut. The local office, at 20 Church St., the Stilts Building, has about 25 lawyers, many from the old Tyler Cooper & Alcorn firm, who joined Hinckley in 2008, and some from Pepe & Hazard.

The combination will create a full-service corporate, litigation and real estate development firm with high local energy and deep local ties, though its history and top management are elsewhere.

Hinckley, Allen & Snyder was co-founded in Rhode Island in 1906 by Theodore Francis Green, who in 1933 became governor of the Ocean State and a U.S. Senator.  In 1987 the firm merged with the Boston firm of Snyder, Tepper & Comen.

The largest airport in Rhode Island is named for Green, whose name has not been on the firm’s title since 1930.

There won’t be an office in Farmington.  And the region will lose an extremely civic-minded firm, which, among other activities, has hosted clients and friends at an annual breakfast at the New Britain Museum of American Art, often with a speaker who made news.