Flamm Walton Heimbach started in 1996 when Wally Flamm gathered seven other lawyers from one of Philadelphia’s preeminent and largest law firms, Clark Ladner Fortenbaugh & Young to start a new practice aimed primarily at the entrepreneurial market. Wally, long a dean of the management labor bar, and a managing partner of Clark Ladner, saw that there was a need for “big city law practice” in an affordable and accessible scale for the entrepreneurial market.
When asked why he started the Firm, Flamm said “At the end of Clark Ladner’s run, several things became evident to me about the practice of law: (a) the time of the “jack of all trades” lawyer has passed; for adequate representation, clients need to have specialists; (b) entrepreneurial clients don’t want to drive into center city, park blocks away from the lawyer’s office and pay a fortune to park to visit a lawyer who is going to cost them more money. They want convenient service; and (c) lawyers are an expensive vendor; they don’t generate new revenue. While it is important to have a cordial and friendly relationship with the client, at the end of the day it is the quality of service and cost that makes the difference”. Flamm decided to start a firm that provided the same degree of specialty service as the “big city” firms with the accessibility, response time, and affordability of the suburbs.
Since then the Firm has grown to a full service advisor for businesses and institutions around the country. Over the past 20 years, the Firm has focused on growing in quality instead of quantity. For example, in 2007, the Firm added its Allentown office with the addition of the Lehigh Valley’s best labor and employment practice, which greatly added to the Firm's already strong litigation and labor and employment practices.
The Firm regularly counsels businesses regarding acquisition and sales, employment and labor issues, financial services, as well as taking disputes to trial. The Firm's clients include utility-service providers, hospitals, colleges, financial-service firms, construction firms, professional-service providers, and municipalities. But the Firm's flexible, value-driven structure allows it to serve many small and growth oriented businesses as well.
As authorities in our fields, our attorneys have also been engaged with the development of the industries and law in their fields. Indeed, a number of the Firm’s legal strategies and methods have helped shape our clients’ industries. We are also regularly asked to speak, write, and consult for a number of local and national associations.
But our Firm is not just a collection of talented attorneys. The strength of the Firm’s approach lies in our emphasis on teamwork. We bring a collective thought process to our clients’ matters, drawing on the differing experiences of our attorneys. This approach does not stop inside the Firm but extends to our clients as we value our clients own experience and knowledge in finding solutions and opportunities for them.