Law360, New York (June 27, 2014, 3:19 PM ET) -- Drumthwacket, the columned mansion that serves as the official residence for the governor of New Jersey, is not situated in Trenton, the state capital. In fact, Drumthwacket is in Princeton, proof positive that the placid college town is also a hub for the state's legal community — a body that would be incomplete without Reed Smith LLP’s outpost there.

Reed Smith, which has a home office in Pittsburgh that put down roots in 1877 and is one of the region's oldest firms, began an aggressive expansion campaign in the late 1970s, which led to the 1992 construction of its Princeton "greenfield" office that launched the firm's presence in the Garden State.

Princeton was chosen for its proximity to the region’s key markets — Trenton is a 20-minute drive away, while Philadelphia and Manhattan are each about an hour-long trip — and Reed Smith has capitalized on that position, cementing its place among Law360's New Jersey Powerhouses.

Diane Frenier, a partner in the Princeton office’s life sciences transactions practice, said the added benefit of Reed Smith’s choice to expand to Princeton is the office’s ability to attract top-notch talent who like the combination of the firm's hustle and bustle and the quaintness of a college town.

Frenier, who joined Reed Smith in 2000, was one of the attorneys drawn to the Princeton office’s big-firm/small-town dynamic, and her work with clients demonstrates how high a premium the firm places on teamwork across state lines and across oceans. While its size makes the Princeton office seem slight compared to the larger North Jersey firms, at Reed Smith no office is an island, and clients have the full breadth of the firm’s resources behind them.

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