When Stacey Borowicz was named office managing partner of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s Columbus, Ohio office in September of 2019, she had a vision.

“My goal was to have more than 100 Columbus attorneys available to clients, and build an office with talented, diverse lawyers to make our client offering even stronger than it already was,” she said this week.

Two years into her tenure, that vision is nearly reality. The office has grown by over 33% in attorney headcount (72 to 96), and by 51% in total diverse attorneys (37 to 56), with “diverse” being defined as people of color, women, LGBTQ+, veteran and disabled lawyers. When Borowicz assumed her role in 2019, Dinsmore was the seventh-largest firm in Columbus. By 2020, it was ranked No. 4 in the Columbus Business First Book of Lists, and Borowicz was the only woman leading a top-eight law office in the city. Now in 2021 alone, the national firm has added 14 new attorneys in Ohio’s capital city, accounting for 10% total growth so far this year. 

Aubrey Searcy (public finance), Brady Wilson (commercial litigation), Caitlin Throne (mergers and acquisitions), Kayla Tyler (intellectual property), Vincent Mora (mergers and acquisitions) and Michael Burke (commercial finance) are the newest additions, all of whom joined Dinsmore in early September. Eight others came aboard earlier in 2021 in the firm’s labor and employment, tort, immigration, health care, private client and family wealth planning practice groups.

The legal field notoriously lags behind the rest of corporate America in diversity metrics, but Dinsmore is making a concerted effort to address that trend. Just this week, Dinsmore earned Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certification Plus for having hired at least 30% diverse candidates nationwide for leadership roles in the previous 12 months.

All of this strategic growth, both in total volume and diversity, is fueled by the needs of Dinsmore’s expanding client base, including companies in the Fortune 500.

“Our clients, both new and existing, are growing alongside us,” Borowicz said. “We are meeting their needs by creating a deeper, more diverse bench in as many practice areas as necessary. We’ve offered full-service representation for many years in Columbus, but we are now deeper and more diverse than ever.” 

While the growth and diversity are encouraging, Borowicz is far from satisfied, and she sees a clear opportunity to continue the firm’s track record of award-winning client service.

“We will meet my initial goals much sooner than I expected, and I’m proud of that, but this has shown us we can accomplish much more for our clients,” she said.

Earlier this year, partners Kelly Leahy (health care) and Jessica Davis (medical malpractice) joined Dinsmore in Columbus. With the addition of LaTawnda Moore in June as well, the office has grown by three health care attorneys in 2021 and to 17 locally in that group. Borowicz expects others of their caliber to follow in the coming months.