In 2018, the trend was to grab large groups—some all at once, and others at a slower pace— which ultimately led to law firms opening their doors to a new office in Philadelphia or adding a larger presence in the Northeast as a whole. Our top 10 moves of 2018 include a global firm's raid on Reed Smith, a Midwestern law firm grabbing a team to plant a flag in Philadelphia, as well as attorneys landing at new firms after their old firm shut its doors. These groups include name partners, a lateral hire that resulted in two new practice groups and a law firm that picked up an IP boutique that helped double its size in Pittsburgh. 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 to grow their new firm—either by establishing an office in a new location to expand their footprint or to simply add to their overall headcount. Holland & Knight's Raid on Reed Smith It all began in July when national law firm Holland & Knight began it's raid on Reed Smith to set up shop in Philadelphia. The firm took 11 partners and one counsel from Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith to open an office in the City of Brotherly Love. Executive partner John Martini, who had chaired the global executive compensation and employee benefits practice at Reed Smith, took on the leadership role at the new office while Leonard Bernstein, who was Reed Smith's Philadelphia office managing partner, made the move as well, heading up Holland & Knight's financial services regulatory group. Partners Kelly Bley, James DelBello, Robert Frank, Kerry Halpern, Daniel Mateo, David Pardys, Nipun Patel, Tracy Quinn and Matthew Siembieda, as well as of counsel Robert Jaworski all followed suit and joined the new office in Philadelphia. But that was just the beginning of Holland & Knight's march into Philadelphia. Later in the month, 12 more attorneys made the move to the new office, as well as a partner in Los Angeles and a partner in New York. All of these additions also practiced at Reed Smith, though one was most recently at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. Then in August, another group from Reed Smith joined the Holland & Knight team in the city with the addition of partner Carolyn Short who took on the role as the head of Holland & Knight's litigation team in the Philadelphia region. Senior counsel Jonathan Korman and corporate associates Kristin Antario, Megan Cribbs and Samantha Peruto—all from Reed Smith—came over with Short. The moves didn't stop in September and October either. A pair of practice-leading cybersecurity partners from Reed Smith, the leader of the firm's women's initiative and two other labor and employment partners made the jump to Holland & Knight in September, as well as veteran M&A attorney Howard Shecter who came over in early October. In the end, Holland & Knight had well over 30 lawyers in its Philadelphia office, most of whom came from Reed Smith. Several Reed Smith lawyers in California and New York jumped to Holland & Knight as well. Drinker Class Action Team Jumps to Akin Gump Five partners from Drinker Biddle & Reath left to take their national class action defense practice to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Seamus Duffy, Michael McTigue, Meredith Slawe and Kathryn Deal moved to Akin Gump's Philadelphia office, while Michael Stortz jumped to firm's San Francisco office. All five served in leadership roles at Drinker Biddle. Duffy was a former managing partner of the firm and was chair of the class actions team, and McTigue was chair of Drinker Biddle's litigation group. Additionally, Slawe previously chaired Drinker's retail industry group, Slawe and Stortz were class action vice chairs, and Deal chaired the summer associate committee. "We have worked with the Akin Gump West Coast class action litigators on a few cases," Duffy said. "We weren't necessarily looking to leave Drinker, but the opportunity to get together with that group and to join Akin … was just too good to pass up." Stephen Baldini, head of Akin Gump's litigation practice, said his firm was connected with the group through a headhunter and found "the combination of a practice area that was right in our sweet spot, and people that we genuinely want to work with." Cozen Takes Group From Drinker Biddle In April, Cozen O'Connor added a 14-lawyer group from Drinker Biddle & Reath. The commercial litigation team, led by partners Michael Miller, Gregory Star and Stephen Harris, moved to Cozen O'Connor's Philadelphia office. They followed a string of lateral hires in 2017 that allowed Cozen O'Connor to increase revenue by more than 10 percent from 2016. The lateral hires also allowed Cozen O'Connor to launch two new practice groups, led by Miller and Star. The two became the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the firm's new life insurance and annuities practice groups, and they will co-chair a newly created software industry team. Also part of the life insurance and annuities practice were incoming partners Joseph Kelleher, Jennifer Smith and Susan Stauss; counsel Nicole Calabro, Jessica Goebeler and Lisa Stern; and associates Alex Hayden, Sarah Kalman, Daniel Thiel and Laura Zulick. Cozen O'Connor CEO Michael Heller said he got connected with the group through a recruiter and immediately saw them as a good fit strategically and culturally. Their book of business is "very substantial," he said, declining to elaborate further. As for their practice expertise, he said the lawyers have been "creating law on these types of matters." The group's practice includes representing software companies in complex commercial litigation and representing life insurance companies in stranger-originated life insurance cases—"where investors buy large life insurance policies on total strangers and then wait for them to die so the investors can collect on their bets," Miller said. They also handle traditional life insurance claims cases and structured settlement issues and litigation. O'Neil's Litigation Team Jumps to Campbell Firm Boston-based litigation firm expanded its mid-Atlantic presence and changed up its nameplate with a new group hire in Philadelphia back in December 2018. Campbell Campbell Edwards & Conroy changed its name to Campbell Conroy & O'Neil, after trial attorney Joe O'Neil joined the firm along with five other Philadelphia lawyers. The group came from a local firm of similar size, Lavin, O'Neil, Cedrone & DiSipio. "It's representative of the makeup of the law firm. It's a major addition for us," firm president Jim Campbell said of the name change. O'Neil's clients included Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, U-Haul, Lenco Industries and GlaxoSmithKline, according to federal court records and previous reports by The Legal. "Joe joining our firm just will further enlarge our footprint in Philadelphia. He's a highly respected lawyer in the city, and with Joe it will make us all a lot stronger," said name partner Bill Conroy, who is also based in Philadelphia. The move brought Campbell to 45 lawyers in the Northeast United States and Florida, including 22 lawyers in Pennsylvania, according to Campbell. The firm also has offices in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. That geographic footprint was a motivator in making the move, O'Neil said, as was a commitment to the future prospects of the younger lawyers he works with. Armstrong Teasdale Takes 7 From Montgomery McCracken

The executive chairman of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, along with six other lawyers from that firm, left to start a Philadelphia office for Am Law 200 firm Armstrong Teasdale in September.

The Midwestern firm brought on Richard Scheff, Jonathan Boughrum and Carrie Sarhangi Love as partners, as well as Katharine Ladd, who had been an associate but was hired as a partner. Associates David Herman, Bianca Valcarce and Michael Witsch also joined the new office.

Scheff, whose white-collar and investigations practice focused on financial services and pharmaceutical and medical device companies, was chairman of Montgomery McCracken from 2009 to 2016. Since 2016 he had been the firm's executive chairman. Before entering private practice, he was chief of the corruption and labor section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Scheff said he reached out to managing partner John Beulick and chairman Michael Chivell, longtime personal friends of his, last spring. He was looking to join a firm with a strong intellectual property practice, he said, which he saw Montgomery McCracken as lacking. "Is it ever the right time to leave a firm you've been at for 28-and-a-half years?" he said. "Armstrong Teasdale offers some expertise that frankly I wasn't able to offer from Montgomery McCracken." With the moves, Philadelphia became Armstrong Teasdale's first East Coast location. Vorys Sater Picks Up Pittsburgh IP Boutique In April, in its latest merger with a small intellectual property boutique, Columbus, Ohio-based Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease nearly doubled the size of its Pittsburgh office. Vorys Sater added 12 professionals, including 10 lawyers, in the city after bolting on local IP shop Beck & Thomas. The new additions joined a dozen lawyers already practicing with Vorys Sater in Pittsburgh, where the Columbus-based firm set up shop in 2013. The group included three partners—James Dilmore, John Thomas III and Richard Ting—as well as four of counsel, one associate and two contract lawyers. Vorys Sater also brought aboard a patent agent, paralegal and two legal secretaries from Beck & Thomas, whose other name partner, Paul Beck, did not make the move to the Am Law 200 firm. Daren Garcia, managing partner of Vorys Sater's Steel City office, said he reached out to Beck & Thomas after learning about the firm through a former Vorys Sater colleague. "Our law firm has a strategic focus on the IP area," Garcia said. "Pittsburgh is certainly a hot IP market and the Beck & Thomas firm came highly recommended to us." The group from Beck & Thomas brought Vorys Sater's IP practice head count, including lawyers and patent agents, to 30 across seven offices. Blank Rome Gets 3 From Pepper Hamilton A former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania retired from Pepper Hamilton—but only to take another law firm position at Blank Rome. Former Judge James Giles was hired as of counsel to Blank Rome's commercial litigation group. He had been of counsel at Pepper Hamilton since 2008, when he retired from the bench. "It's one thing to plan a retirement, but it's another thing to look it in the face," Giles said. "I decided I still had a lot to offer. The timing was right, and I was encouraged to come out of retirement" by colleagues at Blank Rome. Giles joined Blank Rome on the heels of two other commercial litigation hires from Pepper Hamilton. Blank Rome brought on partner Charles Marion in Philadelphia, and partner Andrew Fletcher in Pittsburgh as well. Marion's practice focuses on intellectual property, franchise, securities, products liability and complex business disputes. Fletcher worked on intellectual property litigation as well, and complex business suits. Grant Palmer, who chaired Blank Rome's litigation practice, said the group will continue to grow, particularly in Pittsburgh. He said litigation has generally been busy, and especially in trade secret and noncompetition matters and in large mass tort cases. Powell Trachtman Moves as Firm Closed After 30 years in business, King of Prussia-based firm Powell Trachtman winded down, as one group of attorneys, including the firm's last remaining founding shareholder, joined Wisler Pearlstine, and another group struck out on its own with a new firm. Powell Trachtman co-founder Michael Trachtman, along with fellow shareholders David Burkholder and Mary Pedersen, joined Wisler Pearlstine in Blue Bell to form a new venture called the Wisler Business and Entrepreneurship Center, which focused on providing legal services to midmarket and small companies. Meanwhile, another group of Powell Trachtman attorneys—shareholders Frederick Brehm, Frank Nofer and Michael McCarter, along with associate Michael Zettlemoyer—announced the formation of a new firm called Brehm Nofer & McCarter, which had a focus on representing design professionals in insurance defense and products liability matters. All four attorneys became shareholders in the new Conshohocken-based firm and, according to Zettlemoyer and Brehm. The final move came from former name partner Bruce Lombardo back in July, who decided to move to Brehm Nofer & McCarter as the 30-year-old King of Prussia-based firm ended its run. Leading IP Lawyer Joins Baker & Hostetler After a short stint in retirement, a longtime leader of Philadelphia's intellectual property bar, Roberta Jacobs-Meadway, returned to the practice of law, joining Baker & Hostetler as of counsel. Jacobs-Meadway retired from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott in December. She had spent nearly a decade at the firm, having launched its Philadelphia IP practice in 2008. She became of counsel at Baker & Hostetler in mid-March. "I had a number of clients who wanted me to continue to be available on a consulting basis and work on some projects I had been involved in previously," she said, adding that Baker & Hostetler presented "an excellent fit for me for the last move of my career." Jacobs-Meadway, 67, said she spoke with Eckert Seamans about continuing her career there, but they could not reach an agreement on terms, so it was "time to move on." She said she continues to hold the firm and its IP practice in high respect. Jones Day Grabs Former Buchanan Finance Chair Jones Day took on a new Pittsburgh partner from a firm native to that city, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, adding a leader of the firm's banking and finance group to their team. Brian Trudgen, who represents PNC Bank among other financial services clients, joined Jones Day's banking, finance and securities practice in June. "It's an opportunity to better serve my clients," Trudgen said, noting Jones Day's "global reach, tremendous size and depth and sophistication." He said he expected his clients to join him at his new firm, as they are generally clients of Jones Day already. Trudgen had chaired the banking and finance practice at Buchanan Ingersoll, in the financial services section. His practice focuses on leveraged finance transactions as U.S. and international counsel, and he has directed bank financing in recapitalizations, refinancings, restructurings and acquisitions. He also works with leasing companies on equipment lease and lease portfolio transactions, and has represented companies as borrowers in secured credit facilities.