Rock-n-Rose

American Freightways Corp. of Harrison has joined the list of accounts leaving the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock after the exodus of nine lawyers from the firm last month.

“We changed the firm but we didn’t change the person,” says Frank Conner, chief executive officer of Freightways.

That seems to be the sentiment fueling the switch from Rose to the law firm of Kutak Rock. Conner says Freightways had been using Richard Massey as corporate counsel since the company went public in 1989 and wanted to continue using him, regardless of where he worked.

Freightways was preceded in the switch by Bank of the Ozarks Inc., which announced a similar move at its annual stockholders’ meeting in mid-April. Fairfield Communities is expected to do the same at its annual meeting.

Kutak Rock is based in Omaha, Neb., and opened an office in Little Rock in 1989. The law firm recruited the nine lawyers from Rose earlier this year. We suspect the move will cost the Rose firm a few more large clients this year.