By Michele Deluca
Niagara Gazette
LEWISTON —
Hogan Willig, an Amherst law firm which started in Lockport, has opened new offices in the Village of Lewiston and hired former Mayor Richard Soluri as a consultant.
A spokesman for the firm, which recently opened its new offices at 705 Center Street in the village of Lewiston on the site of an former dress shop, says the location will serve both clients and staff.
“We have had, through the years, a good contingent of people working here, both attorneys and support staff, that live in Lewiston,” said Diane Tiveron, managing partner at the firm. She noted that the firm had found that the village of Lewiston offered an attractive community atmosphere. “We hear so many good things about Lewiston,” she said.
One of those good things was, apparently, the former mayor.
“We started to talk (about him) and we said wouldn’t he be a great ambassador,” Tiveron noted. “He's got a lot of energy, he's gracious, and he's a great ambassador for our office.”
The general practice law firm, which was started by Cory Willig in Lockport before moving its main office to Amherst more than 20 years ago, has another high profile employee in former U.S. Congressman John J. LaFalce.
“He's sort of the elder statesman for our office,” she said of LaFalce. “He knows this area, and it is near and dear to him.”
The congressman, who has a law degree from Villa Nova, spent 28 years in government serving the Tonawandas and Niagara County before returning to the practice of law.
“When I walk the street people still think I’m their congressman,” he said. LaFalce, a small business advocate, expressed his affection for the Niagara region, and noted that he had an office in Niagara Falls the entire time he was in Congress.
“I was investigating the problems of Love Canal a year before people were aware there was a problem. I introduced first bill in Congress creating the superfund,” he said.
Hogan Willig, which still has offices in Lockport, employs about 40 attorneys and 60 support staff, according to Jessica Hulbert, firm administrator who said that while many of the staff will rotate in and out of the village offices, one attorney, Deborah Rougeus, will work full-time out of the new location.
