Howard L. Shecter of Holland & Knight. (Courtesy photo)

Holland & Knight's latest Philadelphia addition once led what is now the largest firm founded in Philadelphia, as well as M&A practices at multiple Big Law firms.

Howard Shecter, most recently at Reed Smith, has joined Holland & Knight in an of counsel position. The move reunites him with dozens of other colleagues from Reed Smith who recently helped Florida-based Holland & Knight establish and quickly grow an office in Philadelphia.

Shecter, 75, will practice out of the firm's Philadelphia and New York offices.

“Holland & Knight, in creating a Philadelphia office, hired a large group of people who were many of the people I worked closely with in my eight years at Reed Smith,” Shecter said, adding that he had also practiced with some of the same group at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

“I think I can help Holland & Knight enhance its exposure to the type of large public company M&A actions I spend most of my time doing,” he said. Shecter also advises boards of directors on corporate governance issues, which is an area Holland & Knight expressed interest in expanding, he said.

John Martini, executive partner of Holland & Knight's Philadelphia office, has said that building up a corporate practice within the new office was important to him when he and his partners began planning the move.

Before joining Reed Smith as a senior M&A partner in 2010, Shecter led the global M&A practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He started his short run at Orrick 11 years ago, making an unexpected move from Morgan Lewis, where he had been the firmwide managing partner from 1979 to 1983 and head of the firm's business and finance practice.

Shecter said he plans to continue practicing law for at least a few more years. One of the most recent deals he worked on was the sale of Cascadian Therapeutics to Seattle Genetics, which sold for $10 per share, or about $614 million. He also led a team of lawyers that served as counsel to Caesars Entertainment in its restructuring, which involved multiple mergers and dozens of subsidiary bankruptcies.

In statements Tuesday, the co-leaders of Holland & Knight's corporate, M&A and securities practice group, Robert Grammig and George Mencio, called Shecter “one of the most respected M&A lawyers practicing today,” and “among the leaders in our industry.”

Reed Smith declined to comment on Shecter's move Tuesday.

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