SYRACUSE — Green & Brenneck PCs, which has branded itself as Team Green Lawyers, PLLC, is a growing local criminal-defense law firm assembled of local, former prosecutors. The firm operates on the 17th floor of Axa Tower I at 100 Madison St. in Syracuse. Attorneys Tim Green and Scott Brenneck are the co-managing […]
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Central New York business news and analysis updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Get a year's worth of the Print Edition of The Central New York Business Journal.
- Special Feature Publications such as the Book of Lists and Revitalize Greater Binghamton, Mohawk Valley, and Syracuse Magazines
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
SYRACUSE — Green & Brenneck PCs, which has branded itself as Team Green Lawyers, PLLC, is a growing local criminal-defense law firm assembled of local, former prosecutors.
The firm operates on the 17th floor of Axa Tower I at 100 Madison St. in Syracuse.
Attorneys Tim Green and Scott Brenneck are the co-managing partners of the firm, which they launched in May 2014. Green declined to disclose their percentages of ownership.
Green and Brenneck spoke with CNYBJ at their office on June 10.
Besides his work as an attorney, Green is known as a former member of the Syracuse University (SU) football team, the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL), and as the author of 31 books.
Team Green Lawyers currently has five attorneys, including Green and Brenneck. The firm also employs a marketing director and an office manager.
It hopes to hire three more attorneys and a support-staff member before the end of 2015, Green says.
Team Green Lawyers leases its space from Syracuse–based CBD Companies. Green declined to disclose any of the law firm’s revenue information.
Assembling the team
Besides serving as a co-managing partner in Green & Brenneck, Green is also of counsel at Syracuse–based Barclay Damon, LLP (formerly Hiscock & Barclay).
Green joined that firm in February 1999, according to his biography on the Barclay Damon website.
As he grows his new firm, Green will continue servicing clients at Barclay Damon because his practice is very successful, he says. Green notes that since Barclay Damon is a business-law firm, he doesn’t foresee any conflicts between Team Green’s criminal-law clients and those of Barclay Damon.
Regarding why he started Team Green Lawyers, Green says he had clients come to him with questions about criminal-law issues, either their own or those affecting family or friends. Depending on the issue, he would refer them to attorneys who practiced criminal law.
However, many of the “main” criminal defense attorneys in Central New York are getting older and retiring, Green contends, and the area lacks a dominant firm known for criminal defense.
“There isn’t one firm in the area where people who have something happen to them, or someone in their family, know where to go,” says Green.
He also contends, “there are a lot of lawyers who aren’t really qualified as criminal attorneys” but will still represent clients in criminal court.
The rules and regulation of the legal profession allow it, but “it’s not a … smart thing to do,” says Green.
“It’s a very specialized area of the law and I realized there wasn’t one main firm, brand out there [providing the service],” he adds.
Green in 2013 began pursuing his goal to create a firm that people would both “recognize” and that “would be the best criminal-law firm in the area,” he says.
He acknowledges that he’s not a criminal lawyer, but Green “knew” he could “go out and assemble a team.”
Green spoke with several area attorneys who practice criminal law, both on the defense side and the prosecution side.
“My question to them was who is the best young attorney to come out of the DA’s office in the last 10 years … The name Scott Brenneck just kept coming up,” says Green.
A mutual friend introduced the pair during an unscheduled meeting at a local restaurant where Green explained his vision for the firm.
“It was a great idea, and it’s grown so quickly because it was needed,” says Brenneck. “It didn’t exist.”
Green used a football analogy to describe his pursuit of Brenneck.
“I went out and got a franchise quarterback with Scott Brenneck,” says Green.
Hiring former prosecutors
Team Green Lawyers on May 19 announced that Nicholas (Nick) DeMartino had joined the firm.
DeMartino had spent the previous seven years as an assistant attorney general in the criminal-prosecutions bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office.
Besides Green, Brenneck, and DeMartino, the firm also includes James Daley and Kari Arnold, both of whom had previously served as assistant district attorneys in the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office.
Timothy Hennigan, who previously served as a senior assistant district attorney in the same office, will join Team Green Lawyers in July as its sixth attorney, according to Brenneck.
CNYBJ asked Green if experience as a prosecutor is a prerequisite for working at the firm.
Prosecutors have the level of “experience and expertise” that the firm wants in its attorneys, Green adds. He calls the profession “the proving ground,” which includes “tons of files, tons of cases.”
“I’m not going to say never, but I don’t envision us hiring anybody but former prosecutors,” he says.
About the partners
Green graduated from Liverpool High School in 1982 before playing football at SU, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1986.
The NFL’s Atlanta Falcons drafted Green the same year and he remained with the team through 1993 before retiring in 1994.
During his time in the NFL, Green also studied law before earning his law degree from the SU’s College of Law in 1994. He also started his work as an author.
To date, Green has written 31 books, selling more than 2 million copies, he says.
In addition to his work as a lawyer and author, Green has also served as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports. He’s also contributed to ABC’s Good Morning America,
Court TV (which is now truTV), and most recently co-host of ABC’s Find My Family in 2009.
Brenneck grew up in New York City before graduating from SUNY Cortland in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
He later graduated from the SU College of Law in 2001.
His law career began in the Stanley Law Offices, LLP before moving on to the Onondaga County DA’s office as an assistant DA from 2003 through mid-2006. He then joined Cambareri & Cambareri LLP in Syracuse in 2007 and remained with the firm until in 2014.