Sergey Nivens – Fotolia

A number of law firms in Pennsylvania expanded their geographic footprints and practice area offerings this year, through major mergers, group acquisitions, individual hires or a mix of the three.

Some large firms were especially hungry for growth in 2017, with implications for the legal market in the region and beyond.

Saul Ewing

Saul Ewing grew its head count by more than 50 percent in 2017, thanks to a September merger with Arnstein & Lehr. That merger alone added 135 lawyers in Chicago and Florida, leaving the combined firm, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, with 407 lawyers by the end of the year. That total accounts for a net gain of five additional lawyers outside the merger, according to the firm.

Saul Ewing had expanded several times before through mergers with smaller firms. For instance, in 1998 it merged with Baltimore-based Weinberg & Green, which increased its head count from 159 lawyers to 222.

Before the Arnstein & Lehr merger, Saul Ewing reported a head count of 252, making it 171st on The National Law Journal's NLJ 500. A firm of Saul Ewing's new size would be within the top 110 on that list.

Ballard Spahr

Also in September, Ballard Spahr made two moves that would drastically change the firm.

Just after Labor Day, the firm announced plans to merge with Minneapolis-based Lindquist Vennum, but the combination won't be official until Jan. 1. Before the merger was announced, Lindquist Vennum had about 140 lawyers.

Lindquist Vennum serves mainly midmarket clients, and Ballard Spahr chairman Mark Stewart said its mergers and acquisitions and private equity practices were especially attractive.

Less than two weeks later, Ballard Spahr announced a merger with media law boutique Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, a 25-lawyer firm with offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Denver.

Including the two mergers, as of Jan. 1, Ballard Spahr will likely have a head count more than 650. That makes for 11 percent head count growth from the beginning of 2017, according to estimates by The Legal, including information from ALM's Rival Edge, which tracks lawyer movement.

Ballard Spahr was unable to confirm these estimates by press time.

Cozen O'Connor

With a string of lateral hires and a few small acquisitions, Cozen O'Connor increased its head count by an estimated 13 percent over the course of 2017. According to the firm, those hires represent a net gain of 84 lawyers.

The additions included some immigration lawyers early in the year, followed by a duo from Pepper Hamilton focused on institutional responses to sexual misconduct claims—a new practice for Cozen O'Connor. The firm continued to expand that practice through lawyer hires and the acquisition of a campus safety consulting firm.

The firm made a significant addition in May, when it added over two dozen lawyers from Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney to several offices, including a large labor and employment group. Part of that group planted the seed for Cozen O'Connor's new Pittsburgh office.

Cozen O'Connor also acquired a 10-lawyer real estate boutique in Santa Monica in October. And the fall hires continued with an office leader from Jackson Lewis in San Diego, and back on the East Coast, a lucrative five-person lobbying group from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

With all of its additions, Cozen O'Connor crossed the 700-lawyer threshold in 2017, ending the year with a head count of 720, according to a spokeswoman.

Fox Rothschild

After major head count growth in 2016, Fox Rothschild announced another merger in the spring, when it acquired 39-lawyer Riddell Williams in Seattle.

Accounting for other hires and departures from the firm, Fox Rothschild had a net gain of 56 lawyers in 2017, according to the firm, bringing its total to 813.

That makes for 7 percent growth for the year, following an expansive 2016, when Fox Rothschild became the largest law firm to have its greatest lawyer head count in Philadelphia. (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Dechert each have their largest offices in New York.)

Expanding Footprints

For these firms with major head count gains in 2017, much of the growth took place outside of their headquarters in Philadelphia.

In Saul Ewing's big merger, the legacy firms had no geographic overlap. Saul Ewing gained a foothold in Chicago, where, chairman Barry Levin said, the firm has a number of clients. The combined firm also has a significant presence in southeast Florida. Before the combination, Saul Ewing's footprint had been limited to the Northeast.

For Ballard Spahr, the Lindquist Vennum merger will add two offices and expands the firm's longtime presence in Denver. The Minneapolis office will be Ballard Spahr's largest outside Philadelphia.

The Levine Sullivan lawyers are all from outside Philadelphia as well. And earlier in the year, Ballard Spahr opened an office in Boulder, Colorado.

Stewart said the recently announced mergers were not geographically motivated, but client-focused, as the firm saw opportunity in these middle-market cities.

Likewise, Fox Rothschild chairman Mark Silow said the Seattle market provided worthwhile opportunities with the types of clients the firm aims to serve. The firm had long desired a presence in the Pacific Northwest, he said.

And while Cozen O'Connor made some noteworthy additions in Philadelphia, it also opened new offices in Pittsburgh and Santa Monica, California, and acquired a national consultancy based in Vermont, where it does not have a law office.

The firm also made hires in Washington, D.C., New York, Minneapolis, Miami and San Diego.

Midsize Movement

In the midsize law firm category, Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld said it has grown by 39 percent in total employees in 2017, including nine lawyers and four administrators. As part of that growth, the firm launched an international practice—not a common offering at a 33-lawyer firm.

The international practice was added thanks to David Gitlin, a partner who joined Royer Cooper in June from Greenberg Traurig. The firm also added Meaghan Petetti Londergan in a dual role as employment counsel and director of talent acquisition and management.

Pittsburgh's Houston Harbaugh also grew its ranks in 2017 when it acquired nine-lawyer Picadio Sneath Miller & Norton, also based in Pittsburgh, bringing the combined firm to 43 attorneys. The move allowed Houston Harbaugh to expand its litigation offerings, and the two firms had several mutual clients.