Three leading lawyers from trial firm Wilkes & McHugh, best known for its representation of plaintiffs in elder abuse cases, have spun off to open their own plaintiffs firm with offices in Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida.

William Murray, Matthew Stone and Erica Wilson have founded Murray Stone & Wilson, which will focus on personal injury cases, including nursing home abuse and neglect and medical malpractice. Murray, who is based in Tampa, was Wilkes & McHugh's managing attorney. Wilson, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, was the head of its Philadelphia office.

“We all wanted a smaller number of clients, to enable us to provide more individualized service, more face-to-face interaction, and more personalization,” Stone said. “When you get to be of a certain size, a lot of the face-to-face interaction unfortunately has to be tabled.”

“We are looking forward to representing clients who have nowhere else to turn and being able to provide them the personalized attention they deserve,” Wilson added in a statement.

The firm will stick to a three-attorney makeup “for the immediate future,” along with a few staff members joining from Wilkes & McHugh, Stone said. He noted that the three founders also want to broaden their practices.

“Wilkes & McHugh arguably created the elder abuse niche industry nationwide,” Stone said. “We want to continue to do that, but also take cases of medical malpractice and generalized personal injury.”

Stone said the group is bringing on some clients from Wilkes & McHugh, including some ongoing litigation.

Their former firm's founders, James Wilkes II and Timothy McHugh, did not respond to requests for comment on the lawyers' departure.

Wilkes & McHugh has 30 attorneys across its offices in Florida, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Arizona, according to its website. The firm now has just one lawyer whose primary office is listed as Philadelphia, as well as five in Pittsburgh and several more who have a Pennsylvania law license, according to its website.