An Albany-based law firm owned by two military veterans has relocated and expanded its Buffalo office after just a year in the market, continuing its rapid growth across the state that began two years ago.

Tully Rinckey Pllc moved from Niagara Street in downtown Buffalo to a new larger office building at 5488 Sheridan Drive in Amherst, where it is leasing 5,090 square feet – about five times what it had before. The firm currently employs about six locally, but is “gearing up for substantial hiring,” with plans for 23 local employees within three years, said spokesman James Schlett.

“Our firm continues to find that the Western New York legal market is ripe for business growth and development,” said Mathew B. Tully, founding partner and a former lieutenant colonel in the New York Army National Guard, who founded the firm in 2004 with fellow Reserve Officers Training Corps cadet Greg T. Rinckey, a former Army captain.

The fast-growing, full-service law firm serves individuals, families and businesses, with over 50 attorneys in six offices in upstate New York, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The firm works in family and matrimonial, criminal defense, labor and employment law, personal injury, estate planning, bankruptcy, military and appellate law.

Tully Rinckey began expanding across the state in August 2012 with a full-service office in Syracuse, followed by Buffalo in January 2013 and Rochester in July 2013.

He was wounded during a car bomb suicide attack on Aug. 7, 2012, and retired from the Army after recovering from his injuries. He received the Combat Action Badge in May 2012, the Purple Heart in September 2012 and the Bronze Star in February 2013.

His partner, Rinckey, served as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) and was later assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.