Tampa law firm Trenam Kemker snapped up a dozen lawyers from Holland & Knight's shuttered St. Petersburg office. The lawyers, along with 14 other professionals and staffers from H&K, won't even have to move their desks: Trenam also took over H&K's lease on the 16th and 17th floors of the Bank of America tower in downtown St. Petersburg. The firm's five-person St. Pete office grew sixfold overnight.

In November, H&K announced plans to close or consolidate offices in St. Pete and eight other U.S. cities to focus on more lucrative markets and its national goals. Trenam President Harold W. "Hal" Mullis said that presented a perfect opportunity for his firm to beef up its presence on the side of Tampa Bay. "That had been a strategic objective of ours for some time," Mullis says. "We regard St. Petersburg as a thriving market just like Tampa, and our size there was simply not proportionate to representation in that community." Trenam now has 80 lawyers.