Lexington, KY – Urban County Council took its first action Thursday night to allow for an incentives package to finalize the addition of 250 jobs from Boston-based law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP to Lexington beginning this spring.
A package that will forgive 1 percent of the firm’s occupational license tax and waive permitting fees for a leased building on UK’s Coldstream Research Campus had a first reading before council Thursday and will be up for a final vote in two weeks.
“The incentives package that has been proposed is critical to us getting up and running quickly and that is our goal,” Bingham’s Chief Operating Officer L. Tracee Whitley told council.
Wednesday afternoon it was revealed the firm would open an operations center in Lexington. Bingham, with operations in 14 cities around the globe, had 2011 revenues of more than $858 millionand approximately 1,000 lawyers and 900 other staff, , according to the Boston Business Journal.
The firm has stated in documents that the center will employ at least 250 people with an average salary and benefits package totaling $37 an hour or $76,960 per year, based on a 40-hour work week.
“This has been the culmination of many months of research and planning for us about how best and where best to relocate and transform our administrative operations for all of our US and global offices,” Whitley told council.
As Bingham’s move was made public in Kentucky, employees around the world were informed of the decision to relocate the firm’s administrative functions. The Lexington center will consolidate staff positions from areas like finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, knowledge services, marketing, operations and risk management.
“We’ve got a lot of our staff, despite the shock of what is actually a significant change for us, (that) are already looking at Lexington and thinking about relocating,” Whitley told council.
In an interview with Business Lexington following her presentation to council, Whitley said the firm would be paying for employees affected by the relocation to come to town with their spouses or another guest to get a feel for Lexington and determine if it is a place they could see themselves living.
While determining who is interested in relocating is still in progress, the firm will have to wait to decide what types of jobs will need to be filled locally and how that hiring will occur. Whitley does anticipate having job fairs at some point in the future here in Lexington to fill those open roles.
Despite the fact the firm will not generate revenue in Lexington as the law practice will stay in cities such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, Honk Kong, Frankfurt and London, Whitley said the company does plan on getting involved in the community.
“It’s beneficial to our employees who are a part of the community and it is beneficial to their success, to their fulfillment,” she said. “If we are operating our business in any community, we feel a responsibility to be a part of it and give back.”
Whitley also told council the firm strives to make its workplaces as welcoming as possible, which she said is evident in being named to Fortune 100 magazine’s "Best Places to Work" rankings for each of the last eight years.