Pittsburgh-based midsize firm Burns White has expanded its Philadelphia presence, bringing on 13 lawyers and 12 support staff from Christie & Young.

The combination, announced Thursday, became effective Wednesday. The smaller firm gives Burns White a presence in Center City Philadelphia, and adds to its health care and professional liability practices.

The Christie & Young lawyers and staff will remain at their existing office space at 1880 John F. Kennedy Boulevard as they join Burns White. The larger firm already had offices in Conshohocken; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware.

James Young Jim Young.

Christie & Young co-founder Jim Young said he began discussing the possible combination after getting to know some Burns White attorneys based in Conshohocken, who were involved in a case he was working on in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

"Both sides of this transaction agreed that it would be really mutually beneficial to both firms, and that it offered a lot of new and pretty exciting opportunities for our firm to have access to more practice areas for our clients," Young said.

"And the geographical footprint is very useful for us," he added. Burns White also has locations in Wilkes-Barre, Cleveland and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Young said his firm was not actively seeking a merger or other combination. It had been approached a few times by other firms, but those conversations were short because it was "obvious to us and probably to those firms that it would not work," he said.

When the discussions with Burns White started, he said, it became clear that the two firms' business models, rate structures and compensation systems, as well as their respective client relationships, made a combination worthwhile.

Burns White CEO David B. White said in a statement Thursday, "The blending of our two firms is a natural fit—allowing us to strengthen our presence in the Philadelphia market as part of a strategic growth initiative and to deepen our bench strength."

Many small firms have sought out combinations with midsize and larger shops in recent years, citing the increased pressures created by cybersecurity expenses and rising real estate costs, as well as struggles with succession planning. While Young said those were not factors in Christie & Young's move to join Burns White, he said those issues have been the subject of internal conversations.

"The day-to-day costs of small law firms and what that means in terms of their operations are certainly very real issues," Young added. "We think we had that under control and had recently made some changes for us that were going to be just fine. I think with Burns White we'll be even better."

As for succession planning, he added, "We were probably beginning to talk about changing the management of our firm, which has pretty much been me for a long time, but hadn't gotten too terribly serious about that." But Young noted that his more junior partners are enthusiastic about the move and what it means for their future.

Burns White has already been the beneficiary of some small law firms reassessing their futures. The firm brought on a group of four lawyers from Pittsburgh's Grogan Graffam when it decided to close in 2016.

It also added a group of three medical malpractice lawyers and two staff from Thomson Rhodes in 2018, including the latter firm's co-founder and president, who at the time cited "tremendous challenges" associated with working at a small firm.

While Burns White has grown in recent years, Christie & Young has gone through some changes of its own, visible on its letterhead.

The firm, which had been known as Christie, Pabarue, Mortensen and Young, became Christie Pabarue & Young in 2013, with the departure of a seven-lawyer insurance coverage defense team led by co-founding shareholder Bradley J. Mortensen and including managing shareholder Ralph J. Luongo. Then in 2015, it became Christie Sullivan and Young, when partner James Pabarue retired and insurance lawyer John C. Sullivan came over from Post & Schell. But that name was fairly short-lived as well.

"All of that was kind of tied into the insurance coverage litigation practice. While we always thought it was a good practice … a few years ago we decided why don't we just settle down and be us for a while," Young said. "The plan of just being Christie & Young and doing what we were doing seemed to be working pretty well."

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