Upon stepping in as president of downtown law firm Sands Anderson earlier this year, Jeff Geiger made clear his ambitions for the firm’s trajectory.

“It’s fair to say if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” he said at the time.

A few months later, the firm is leaning into that credo.

Sands Anderson today will close on a merger to add Virginia Beach law firm Frieden Seery Nuckols & Hahn into its ranks.

The deal brings with it Frieden’s five attorneys and its office in Virginia Beach, giving Sands Anderson its first physical footprint on the Southside of Hampton Roads. The firm now has a presence on both sides of the bay, after it previously expanded into the Peninsula with an office in Williamsburg in 2017.

“Part of our strategic planning has been to find the right partner to enhance our business and government practices and to plant our flag with an office in the Southside,” Geiger said in an email to BizSense this week. “We didn’t have to look far as we have worked with the attorneys at the Frieden firm for years and we complement one another from both a practice and a culture standpoint. It just made sense.”

Founded originally as Scanelli Shapiro Baskett & Adler in 1984, Frieden focuses its practice on real estate, corporate, and estate planning work. Its five attorneys are Alan Frieden, D. Scott Seery, Michael Nuckols, Carol Hahn, and W. Lane Nuckols. They’re all now part of Sands Anderson, as is Frieden’s entire support staff.

They bring Sands Anderson’s attorney headcount to more than 80.

Frieden’s office in the prized Virginia Beach Town Center area becomes the sixth office for Sands Anderson. The others are in Richmond, Christiansburg, Fredericksburg, Williamsburg and the Research Triangle of North Carolina. It opened a new downtown headquarters last year when it took over the former LeClairRyan office in Truist Place at 919 E. Main St.

Geiger said the firm, founded in 1842 and known as the longest continually operated law firm headquartered in Richmond, isn’t done expanding.

“We are continuing to look at growth opportunities in both Virginia and North Carolina,” he said.