With another year behind them, many of Pennsylvania's law firms can look back on a 2017 marked by growing footprints and general stability compared to the greater legal industry.

While firms' full-year performance remains to be seen, reports on the first three quarters showed hope that demand growth in Pennsylvania has actually outpaced the industry at large.

Still, Pennsylvania firms that are adding lawyers are largely doing so in other states, through combinations and group acquisitions. And for a few firms, 2017 was the year to split up, or bid adieu to groups that formed spinoffs of their own.

Mergers Large and Small

2017 was the year of the merger, and Pennsylvania firms were no exception.

The tie-ups included small firms hitching their wagon to larger players in the state, like three-lawyer Stonesifer and Kelley in Hanover joining central Pennsylvania's Barley Snyder, and Houston Harbaugh's acquisition of business litigation boutique Picadio Sneath Miller & Norton in Pittsburgh.

For Fox Rothschild, which spread into the Pacific Northwest with its acquisition of 39-lawyer Riddell Williams, a new office came out of the combination. The same can be said of Cozen O'Connor's acquisition of Gilchrist & Rutter in Santa Monica, California, though the firm is planning to consolidate those lawyers into their Century City office.

Several firms added to targeted practices by merging with boutiques. Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott acquired a trusts and estates firm in its hometown of Pittsburgh, and Duane Morris absorbed a corporate boutique to grow its presence in Los Angeles. Ballard Spahr, meanwhile, merged with 25-lawyer media law firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, bringing it into four existing offices.

That was the second merger Ballard Spahr announced in 2017, after several years of no combinations. The firm announced just after Labor Day that it is merging with Minneapolis-based Lindquist Vennum at the beginning of 2018, adding about 150 lawyers and two new locations.

On the same day, Saul Ewing announced an addition of similar proportions. After confirming months earlier that it was in talks with 150-lawyer Chicago-based firm Arnstein & Lehr, the two firms came to an accord and combined to become 400-lawyer Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr.

Small firms outside Pennsylvania's cities planned combinations as well. Lancaster County's Nikolaus & Hohenadel announced late in the year that it was acquiring four-lawyer Gingrich, Smith, Klingensmith & Dolan, bringing the firm to 25 lawyers and 34 staff. And in Venango County, Dale Woodard Gent and McFate & Merkel announced that they would become one, six-lawyer operation at the beginning of 2018, in a move driven by succession planning.

Key Lateral Moves

Pennsylvania firms didn't only look to mergers to grow their practices, executing some key group lateral hires.

The practice area that saw the most action was labor and employment. The game of musical chairs started in May, when Cozen O'Connor took more than a dozen labor and employment lawyers from Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, bulking up several offices and opening a new one in Pittsburgh.

Soon afterward, Buchanan Ingersoll announced that it was hiring eight lawyers from Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, a move it said was in the works before Cozen O'Connor made its hires.

In September, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart took a group of four Philadelphia lawyers from Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads. And just a few days later, Montgomery McCracken brought a pair from Ballard Spahr's labor and employment group.

Later in the year, Duane Morris picked up a substantial employment group as they jumped ship from Sedgwick, after the latter firm announced its plans to close.

Pennsylvania firms of all sizes were growing their construction practices beginning early in the year, in expectation of a boom in the industry. Buchanan Ingersoll and Post & Schell both added construction partners, and Pittsburgh-based Weiss Burkardt Kramer added an of counsel to cover clients on construction issues. Baltimore-based Offit Kurman also took two construction partners from Kaplin Stewart Meloff Reiter & Stein in Blue Bell, which turned around and hired a partner from small construction firm Venzie, Phillips & Warshawer.

Meanwhile, when construction boutique Jacoby Donner closed in March, its lawyers were picked up by several firms, except for a few who spun their practice into the newly formed firm Charlson Braber McCabe & Denmark.

After some lateral departures early in the year, Pepper Hamilton brought two partner pairs back to the firm. Two who had left Pepper Hamilton for Hogan Lovells in 2016 went back to their former firm, including Rachael Bushey, who now chairs the firm's life sciences practice. And two partners from Reed Smith returned to Pepper Hamilton after a longer hiatus, boosting the firm's financial services offerings.

Blank Rome had taken a Pittsburgh corporate and securities partner from Pepper Hamilton, and a benefits group in Philadelphia. They also added an insurance group from Kasowitz Benson Torres in Los Angeles, building up the policyholder-focused insurance practice they gained through their 2016 acquisition from Dickstein Shapiro last year.

New Offices

Through their group hires, three law firms entered new cities in 2017.

San Francisco-based Sedgwick was already dealing with a string of departures early in the year, including 23 Texas lawyers who jumped to Drinker Biddle & Reath, giving the firm its first foothold in Dallas. Sedgwick announced in November that it would shutter its operations in early January.

Ballard Spahr added three lawyers in Boulder, Colorado, adding a second office in that state for the large firm. Carin Cutler, Nathan Seiler and Steven Dupont had formed a boutique in 2010 focused on serving emerging growth companies.

And Duane Morris opened in Austin in October after hiring an intellectual property partner from Norton Rose Fulbright and a renewable energy partner from King & Spalding. The new office was part of the firm's plan to grow its presence in Texas.

Spinoffs

Several groups of lawyers saw opportunity in a smaller setting, spinning off to form their own firms.

Two were born out of central Pennsylvania's Rhoads & Sinon. The first was Pillar + Aught, which took 11 lawyers into a modern law firm with a greater emphasis on using technology. And later in the year, three Rhoads & Sinon lawyers looked to implement a more nimble, lower-cost model, opening Penwell Bowman + Curran.

After Pennsylvania's former Office of Open Records director, Terry Mutchler, left Pepper Hamilton early in the year, she took a few months to launch Mutchler Lyons along with public affairs professional Charlie Lyons. The new firm focuses on navigating agencies, corporations and media organizations through open records laws.

In personal injury law, former Kline & Specter partners Andy Youman and David Caputo left to open their own shop, Youman & Caputo, focusing on catastrophic injury and whistleblower cases.

And when Philadelphia and New Jersey firm Williams Cuker Berezofsky broke up in September, two of its name partners formed new firms, Williams Cedar and Berezofsky Law Group.

Leadership Changes and New Roles

In traditional leadership roles, a few law firms announced major transitions in 2017.

Early in the year, Pittsburgh firm Metz Lewis Brodman Must O'Keefe announced that it elected a new president and CEO, founding partner Chris Brodman. He took over for LeRoy Metz, who had been president for 17 years.

Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller named Ronald Schiller chairman in January as well, making him the first non-founding partner to chair the 23-year-old firm.

In September, Duane Morris elected Matthew Taylor as its new chairman, to take effect in 2018, ending John Soroko's 10-year run leading the firm.

Some midsized firms implemented new leadership roles, like Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld, which hired its first chief financial and administrative officer in April, and a director of business strategy and innovation in November.

White and Williams also created a chief privacy officer role, and Burns White named a general counsel as their lawyer head count grew.

Midsized and large firms continued to seek professionals for nonlawyer leadership roles as well, like Buchanan Ingersoll, which added a new chief business development officer and chief financial officer. Dechert brought on a new talent management team, and McNees Wallace & Nurick added a chief operating officer with Big Law experience.