George Vinci Jr. (Photo courtesy of Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci)

The Philadelphia law firm long known as Spector Gadon & Rosen has added to its nameplate for the first time since its inception, following the elevation of insurance and professional liability practice chair George Vinci Jr. to equity shareholder and director.

The firm is now called Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci. Vinci is the first new equity shareholder to be named at the firm since the early 1990s. For much of the firm's existence, the equity shareholders were Paul Rosen, Steven Gadon and Edward Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, who died in December 2016, had joined the firm in 1991 and resigned his ownership in May 2014. Gadon died in July 2014. Since then, Rosen had held the sole equity stake in the firm.

Rosen said the decision to give Vinci an ownership interest in the firm is, at its core, part of a succession plan.

“He's a considerable amount younger than I am, and while I'm still pounding away, there's going to have to be an ending,” Rosen acknowledged.

But the idea was first pitched by Vinci.

“My feeling was that I've been at this firm forever, I was very close with Steve Gadon and, with Steve's passing, it was time for me to become an owner,” Vinci said. “I didn't want to be just another lawyer at the firm, another nonequity partner at the firm. I want to take this firm into the future.”

Rosen said the idea “absolutely made sense” because of Vinci's value and contributions to the firm, including leading “one of the largest divisions of our firm financially.”

Vinci, who joined the firm in 1992, chairs its insurance coverage and casualty litigation and professional liability and malpractice litigation practices.

“He wanted skin in the game,” Rosen said. “Now he's really got a reason to stay … because he's got an interest in the firm.”

“The last thing in the world I wanted to do was try and tackle him as he tried to leave here,” Rosen added.

Adding Vinci to the firm's moniker, on the other hand, took a bit more convincing.

“The name change caught him off guard a little bit when I suggested that,” Vinci said, laughing.

But ultimately that move made sense to Rosen, too.

“The fact is that it was really important to show the future of the firm in the name,” Rosen said.

And once it was established that the name would indeed be changed, Rosen dove headfirst into the rebranding process, hiring an outside marketing consultancy to come up with a new name and logo, and working with Vinci to provide input on what those should look like.

Ultimately, they decided on “Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci,” no ampersand, and a black-and-red logo with bold lettering.

“They took what we were saying to them and put it in bold because that's what we are—bold,” Rosen said.

It's not lost on Rosen, however, that his firm elected to lengthen its name at a time when most other firms are opting for brevity.

“We always like to buck the trend,” he said.

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