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Philadelphia boutique Bardsley Benedict + Cholden has kicked off the New Year with five lateral hires and a new office in New York, all well before its second birthday.

The spinoff firm, which was founded in 2018 by lawyers from three different midsize firms in the Philadelphia region, has now nearly doubled in size from when it opened, reaching 29 total lawyers.

Starting the New York office are four lawyers from New Jersey-based McGivney, Kluger & Cook—partners Richard Leff and Anthony Nwaneri, and associates Jessica Shirinian and David Sasser. Both Leff and Nwaneri were partners in McGivney Kluger's general liability department. Leff managed the New York general liability practice, and he was one of the lead counsel liaisons in the World Trade Center litigation.

The firm also recently added partner Marcella "Marcy" Schell, a former in-house lawyer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, in Philadelphia. In her former role, she managed medical malpractice claims and other litigation for the hospital system.

Thomas Geroulo, a partner at Bardsley Benedict who works on catastrophic litigation, including numerous cases involving medical care, said hiring Schell is "like landing the No. 1 draft pick."

"I was looking to get something together that wasn't just getting a young associate to train" for what he referred to as "an unusual national practice." Much of Geroulo's work is focused on mitigating damages in catastrophic litigation, including medical malpractice, which he said has become particularly in-demand in the age of the "nuclear verdict."

To that practice, he said, Schell brings inside knowledge of "the way hospital systems work and manage risk."

Andrew Benedict, co-founder of Bardsley Benedict, said the growth in Geroulo's practice is "a perfect microcosm" of the firm as a whole. "Tom's doing something that's clearly different from anyone else in the country" in the catastrophic litigation space, he said, and the firm's other groups aim to take a different approach to the practice of law as well.

He said the firm connected with the New York group through a recruiter, but quickly learned they had some shared connections. Benedict had previously worked with Nwaneri at Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby, and Leff had previously worked with Bardsley Benedict partner Marc Zingarini at McGivney Kluger.

Coming across the group was "a happy accident," Benedict said. The New York office is currently using temporary space, and the firm plans to sign a lease agreement downtown soon.

"This all happened a little bit quicker than the timing we thought it would be," he said. He attributed the firm's fast growth in part to the fact that it has a CEO, Brian Reeves, who is not a practicing lawyer, but who is fully dedicated to running the business.

"We can confer on decisions and strategy and implement plans, as opposed to doing it piecemeal," Benedict said. The next two places where the firm plans to create a presence are Pittsburgh and central New Jersey—though Pittsburgh is tricky, he said. The firm already expanded into Scranton and South Jersey.

McGivney Kluger managing partner Charles McGivney did not respond to a request for comment on the New York group's move.

The Penn Health System Office of General Counsel also did not respond to a request for comment on Schell's move.

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