Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Photo: Shutterstock

Cozen O'Connor has an eye on Pennsylvania state and local government with its first two lateral hires of the new year.

In Harrisburg, Scott Mehok joined the firm as a member in its corporate practice, coming from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. Mehok is a public finance attorney who recently helped establish the Infrastructure Bank in Pennsylvania, which helps municipalities fund infrastructure projects.

In Philadelphia, Joe Hill has rejoined Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, now as a government relations principal. Hill left Cozen O'Connor just over a year ago to work on Gov. Tom Wolf's re-election campaign as political director and deputy campaign manager.

Hill rejoined at the start of the year, and will be leading an expansion of the public strategies team's Philadelphia and Southeastern Pennsylvania presence. ”The common thread throughout it will be building unique and unlikely coalitions both at the city and state level,” he said.

Before joining Cozen O'Connor the first time, he worked for the Hillary for America campaign in Pennsylvania, and served as director of public participation for the 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee. He also previously worked for U.S. Sen. Robert Casey.

Hill said he was drawn to return to Cozen O'Connor in part because of recent growth in the Public Strategies arm. The firm added a number of professionals to its government relations subsidiary throughout 2018 in New York; Chicago; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, D.C. The public strategies group has a presence in those cities as well as Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Albany and Santa Monica, California, according to the firm.

“I think the growth is pretty amazing that the practice has experienced in the past year, which made it a unique opportunity to come back,” Hill said.

A few of the professionals who joined Public Strategies last year came from Eckert Seamans, like Mehok. He knows those professionals, he said, but their moves were unrelated.

The move to Cozen O'Connor “seemed like a good opportunity to join a great firm with a very visible public finance practice,” Mehok said. “They're still growing their practice, which was important to me.”

Mehok referred to his practice as diverse. His funding work with municipalities and developers has centered on projects including airports, hospitals, retirement communities and higher education facilities, according to the firm. He also works on public private partnerships, with clients including school districts, townships, boroughs, counties, municipal authorities, financial institutions and businesses.

“Outstanding finance attorneys must be trusted advisers and aggressive deal makers—and Scott brings to us the requisite skills to excel in both of those roles,” Harrisburg managing partner David P. Zambito said in a statement.

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