Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani has hired three partners from Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Philadelphia and New York, in the same week that it lost a partner to Holland & Knight in Philadelphia.

Holland & Knight announced Monday that it brought on Eugene Chikowski as senior counsel in its financial services practice group. Chikowski had been a partner at Gordon & Rees since 2016.

Chikowski said he has several clients in common with his new firm, as well as some that will be new to Holland & Knight, such as the television network AMC. Other clients include well-known credit card companies, he said.

The potential for a relationship with AMC Network is something that is very interesting” to Holland & Knight, said partner Leonard Bernstein, who leads the firm’s financial services practice group in Philadelphia.

Chikowski, who joined Holland & Knight’s one-year-old Philadelphia office, also focuses on consumer compliance issues, particularly with regard to credit cards, and handles bankruptcy and risk management matters. His clients in those matters are large corporate institutions, including a Fortune 100 financial services company, an international media company and a petroleum refining company.

Bernstein said the Philadelphia location is now up to about 45 lawyers, and is working on expanding its space at the Cira Centre in Philadelphia.

With regard to the firm’s fast growth in the city, Chikowski said, “I think it shows Holland & Knight’s strong commitment to the Delaware Valley as well as the financial services practice.”

After Chikowski’s move, Gordon & Rees was not far behind in announcing that it brought on partners Andrew Schwartz, Lawrence Bartel and Lori Quinn from Marshall Dennehey. Schwartz and Bartel are in Philadelphia, while Quinn is in New York.

Schwartz’s practice focuses on professional liability with a concentration on creditors’ rights defense, defamation and privacy issues, business and commercial law and legal malpractice, while Bartel focuses on consumer financial services litigation and compliance. Their clients include financial institutions, debt servicers and buyers, auto finance companies, collection attorneys, student lenders, telecommunication providers, mortgage lenders and credit reporting agencies.

Quinn, like Schwartz, focuses on professional liability and creditors’ rights defense. But she also has experience in maritime litigation and is a proctor in admiralty.

“We are very pleased Andrew, Larry and Lori have joined Gordon & Rees,” William Shelley, managing partner of Gordon & Rees’ Philadelphia office, said in a statement. “They are first-rate practitioners who are well known and respected in practices which dovetail seamlessly with our own.”

Marshall Dennehey declined to comment on the three departures.

While Gordon & Rees provided information on its new hires, a spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on Chikowski’s departure.

|

Read More

How Holland & Knight Built a Philadelphia Office on Reed Smith Talent