Article from The Daily Record
By: Julia Arbutus
Attorneys Timothy Gunning and Michael Wyatt have been friends since freshman year football tryouts at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, and now, more than 40 years later, they have merged law practices to become colleagues.
Wyatt & Gunning LLC will “serve the expanding needs of our clients” throughout the mid-Atlantic region, Gunning said. The merger has been in the planning stage for almost 10 years, after both lawyers had established their individual careers and built a client base.
While both Wyatt and Gunning have experience in different aspects of the
law, they have often called on each other over the years for advice on different legal matters. Their specialties have helped them create an “expansive” firm footprint, said Gunning, who has a background as a criminal and civil litigator.
Wyatt, who has established a significant business practice, has primarily worked on the more “transactional” side of law, covering business law, real estate and trusts, he explains.
“At our core, we solve client’s problems, and we try to give them our best strategic advice,” Wyatt said. “We’re crisis managers.”
Gunning said the Towson firm’s focus is complex litigation and investigations, fraud and breach of fiduciary duties. “It’s one area we’ve intersected in the past, and one we want to focus on in the future,” he said. “If our practices are concentric circles, that’s the intersection.”
The two merged practices at the beginning of February and while they are “busier now,” said Gunning, the collaboration has been rewarding. “To have someone down the hall, like Mike, to bounce ideas off of has really been a phenomenal thing,” Gunning said.
Wyatt believes their collaboration has also been beneficial for clients. “Our clients are much better served where there is a shared collaborative approach,” he said. “It’s nice to be in an office where we have a shared … work ethic.”
The merger has meant sacrificing weekends and evenings to start their new business, but Gunning and Wyatt both believe it has been worth it. They have even started looking to the future of their new business and hope to hire additional lawyers as their practice grows.
“I’m extremely excited about this endeavor,” Gunning said. “It’s one of the best things I ever did.”
Wyatt is a graduate of Catholic University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. Gunning graduated from Boston College and the University of Maryland School of Law.