In 2017, law firms looked to pick up large groups for moves that aided expansions and helped bolster specific practice areas, one of which was a new—timely—practice area: institutional responses to sexual and gender-based harassment and misconduct.

Our top 10 moves of 2017 includes name partners, large groups with a focus on life sciences corporate practices and labor and employment, as well as acquisitions of smaller firms. One pair formed their own catastrophic and whistleblower firm with an emphasis on technology and how to use it to their best advantage, while another pair—who left their firm in 2016—decided to return.

After combing through our archives from the past year and hearing from reliable sources on lateral moves in Pennsylvania, the staff at The Legal talked over which moves made the biggest impact on the legal landscape. The lawyers, groups and firms below were either major additions to their new firm, a big loss to their former firm or helped grow their new firm—in numbers and geographically.

Cozen Grabs Two Groups From Buchanan

(l-r) Thomas Giotto, Eugene Giotto, and Jeremy Garvey, of Cozen O'Connor's new Pittsburgh office.

In May, Cozen O'Connor expanded into western Pennsylvania, opening an office in Pittsburgh with three partners from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

Partners Thomas Giotto, Jeremy Garvey and Gene Giotto joined the firm, with additional lawyers joining them in the new Pittsburgh office.

Fourteen other lawyers left Buchanan Ingersoll for Cozen O'Connor. They included four lawyers in Pittsburgh, nine in Philadelphia and one in Wilmington, Delaware. Most were from Buchanan Ingersoll's labor and employment practice group.

On the initial Pittsburgh hires, Cozen O'Connor CEO Michael Heller said the firm had been seeking entry to the Pittsburgh market for about three years, amid a “renaissance” driven by the city's education, medical and technology industries.

“I'm very bullish on the Pittsburgh market,” he said. “It really took until now to find the right group of folks we thought could really lead the effort to build a large, full-service office in Pittsburgh.”

All three of the Buchanan Ingersoll partners were leaders within their practice groups. Thomas Giotto was chairman of the labor and employment practice, Garvey was co-chair of the corporate practice, and Gene Giotto was co-chair of the post-acute and long-term care practice.

Thomas Giotto was tapped to lead Cozen O'Connor's labor and employment practice with Joseph Tilson, in Chicago, who joined the firm through its acquisition of Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson in 2015.

Thomas Giotto said he was attracted by the opportunity to build out a national labor and employment practice. He and Gene Giotto, his brother, became part of Buchanan Ingersoll when it merged with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling in 2006.

Thomas Giotto noted that more firms seemed to be interested in entering the Pittsburgh market. The city, once a manufacturing and industrial center, transformed into a “technology hotbed,” he said, while the energy sector was likely to create further opportunities in the city.

The new office allowed Cozen O'Connor to continue its geographic expansion, while growing its labor and employment department, Heller said. The firm now has four offices across Pennsylvania, including its largest office in Philadelphia.

Top L-R Matthew Clyde, Lynn Brehm, John Wilson.Bottom L-R William Moorhead, Gabrielle Lee, Brian Casal

Cozen O'Connor continued  a slow-motion raid on Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, with the addition of six more lawyers in October.

The firm hired two partners and two associates in Pittsburgh, a partner in Philadelphia and a partner in Charlotte, North Carolina, bringing the tally of Buchanan defections at Cozen O'Connor to 26.

Partners John Wilson and Lynn Brehm and associate Matthew Clyde focus on employee benefits and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Wilson was the chairman of that practice at Buchanan. Partner Brian Casal is in the labor and employment practice, while partner William Moorhead and associate Gabrielle Lee are commercial litigators.

Wilson, Moorhead, Clyde and Lee moved to the firm's new Pittsburgh office, while Brehm went to Charlotte and Casal to Philadelphia.

Cozen Launches Sexual Misconduct Practice Group