Ernie Choquette. Courtesy photo

Stevens & Lee has named its longtime CEO as its new chairman as part of a larger leadership transition plan.

Ernie Choquette, who has been the firm's CEO for 10 years, will take over the chairman role at the law firm Stevens & Lee and its affiliated companies, which all fall under the Stevens & Lee/Griffin platform. He succeeds Joseph Harenza, who has led the firm as chairman for 22 years.

It was long assumed that Reading-based Choquette would be Harenza's successor, Choquette said in an interview Friday, and the shareholders officially voted in spring 2019 for him to take on the role at the beginning of this year. He noted that he realistically will not be in the role for as long as Harenza was, but his term as chairman is part of a broader transition.

"I'm going to stay in this role as long as it takes for the platform to move ahead" to where the next generation can take over, he said.

Choquette said he will continue as CEO, but he will be passing some of the administrative tasks to the firm's new chief operating officer, Steven Mauro. Mauro was previously the CEO for Lancaster firm Brubaker Connaughton Goss & Lucarelli, and was a COO for Fisher & Phillips and Drinker Biddle & Reath before that.

"That's a significant piece of what we're doing here," Choquette said. "Bringing a COO in allows me to spend more time being chairman and less time being CEO."

Harenza will continue to work with non-legal businesses on the Stevens & Lee/Griffin platform, the firm said.

"We have been working on this succession strategy for some time and I am confident that under new leadership our professionals will continue to deliver superior outcomes for our clients," he said in a statement.

The succession strategy included a number of other leadership changes. Steven Buck, E. Thomas Henefer, Edward Renenger, Lisa Scidurlo, Stacey Scrivani, William Thornton Jr. and Jay Wagner were all named to practice group leadership positions in the last two years, and Matthew O'Leary was appointed CEO of Griffin Financial group, one of several non-legal affiliate businesses.

Choquette said the firm always had an emergency contingency plan in place, but started working on a succession plan "in the normal course" about three years ago.

"We view transition and succession in a broad sense as opposed to just focusing at the top," he said. All of the firm's practices and business entities are "part of the plan," he said.

Under the new leaders, he said the firm will likely add new practice areas and lines of business.

The Stevens & Lee/Griffin platform already includes the 180-lawyer full-service law firm and the Kent Franchise Law Group, a boutique that handles franchising, distribution and IP matters.

The other entities are Griffin Financial group, an investment bank; SES ESOP, which provides services for employee stock ownership plans; Financial S&Lutions, which provides swap and derivative advisory to governments and nonprofits; Griffin/Stevens &Lee Tax and Consulting Network; Pinnacle Risk Services, which provides D&O and E&O insurance consulting; and a government affairs and public policy unit.

Across its footprint, Stevens & Lee/Griffin has 19 offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, South Carolina and Florida.

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