Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

November 21, 2024

After helping build Hartford-based Cantor Colburn into national IP law firm, Michael Cantor to step down as co-managing partner

HBJ FILE PHOTO Michael Cantor (right) and Phil Colburn have built Hartford’s Cantor Colburn LLP into one of the country’s largest IP law firms.
By Michael Puffer

Michael Cantor, one of Connecticut’s most prominent attorneys, on Dec. 31 will step down as co-managing partner of the Hartford intellectual property law firm that bears his name.

However, a day later, Cantor, 66, will be back to work at Cantor Colburn LLP as an employee, not an owner. As part of the transition, Cantor is selling his ownership stake in the business, which he helped build into one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the U.S.

According to its website, Cantor Colburn says it has 85 attorneys and agents located in Hartford and three other offices in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Detroit. 

The impetus for the move is a partnership agreement that Cantor and his partner, Philmore H. Colburn, crafted in 1999, when they took over the firm. It required partners to step down and sell their equity stakes at age 65, Cantor said. 

That deadline was pushed off a year for Cantor due to the pandemic.

The age stipulation was added into the partnership agreement as a retention tool, Cantor explained. They wanted younger partners to know they had a pathway to top leadership roles, so they wouldn’t leave in search of greener pastures elsewhere.

“There was no change of events in my life, or in the firm’s life that prompted this,” Cantor said. “It was something we wrote in 25 years ago, anticipating that we would grow and that we would have a bunch of partners that were 10, 15 and 20 years younger than us who wanted to exert their independence. And that’s why it’s happening now.”

As of New Year’s Day, Colburn will be the firm’s sole managing partner.

As part of the transition, Cantor will shed some of his day-to-day oversight and focus solely on client support and development. That will include continued flights around the country and overseas to attend conferences and meet with existing and potential clients.

“In the '90s, it was just this small, little law firm, and we’ve grown into this global powerhouse,” Cantor said. “You know it’s part of my life. So, I’m not walking away, and I still have the energy to keep building it and keep growing it, and especially to make this transition as smooth as possible.”

Cantor said he will also remain active in key leadership posts with local public and private institutions. He currently chairs the boards of Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford. He also serves on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and helps lead Bleeding Blue for Good, a nonprofit collective that helps raise money for UConn student athletes, who can now be paid for their name, image and likeness.

Cantor, a former UConn alum and board member, is also on the School of Engineering dean’s advisory council.

‘Chip on my shoulder’

Cantor graduated from UConn in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical and materials engineering. Three years later, he earned a law degree from UConn’s School of Law.

Cantor was promoted to partner within five years of joining law firm Fishman & Dionne. He and Colburn took over management in 1999, with the exit of Fishman & Dionne’s partners. Today, Cantor lives in West Hartford with his wife, Mayor Shari Cantor. They have four adult sons and two grandchildren.

Early in his career, Cantor said he walked around with a “chip on my shoulder,” wanting to prove that an intellectual property law firm didn’t have to operate out of Boston, New York City, San Francisco or Washington, D.C., to play in the big leagues. That drove him to grow the business by recruiting more attorneys and clients.

The firm’s Hartford headquarters became an advantage. The region’s lower cost of living and high quality of life meant the firm could pay lower salaries and bill clients at lower rates, Cantor said.

Part of the growth, Cantor added, also came from the increasing complexity of technology, and the need for companies to protect it. In Cantor’s early days, an intellectual property law firm could get away with having attorneys and agents with expertise in chemistry, mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. Over the years, in order to remain competitive, the firm has had to add experts in areas like inorganic chemistry, nanotechnology, physics and more, he said.

“We had to grow for various reasons, because technology is getting more complicated,” Cantor said. “So, we knew we would need to be much bigger to take on whatever large clients walk through the door, so we went down the path of growth.”

Cantor acknowledges there has been a post-pandemic drop in the number of attorneys at the firm. 

In 2021, Cantor Colburn told the Hartford Business Journal it had 54 attorneys and 34 partners in Connecticut, with five offices, including one in Hartford.  

Earlier this year, the firm reported it had 33 attorneys and 24 partners working in-state, and four offices. 

Stites & Harbison poached several attorneys and patent agents from Cantor Colburn earlier this year, as the Southeast-based law firm sought to establish a presence in Connecticut. 

Still, Cantor is stepping down from leadership at a time when Cantor Colburn remains one of the go-to intellectual property law firms in the U.S.

“The dream was, we could take this tiny, little firm and make an IP global powerhouse,” Cantor said. “I don’t think it's often that you actually achieve your dreams, and I feel like I did.”

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF