Goldberg Segalla Courtesy photo

After two decades at Philadelphia-based Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, where he was a member of firm leadership, insurance coverage shareholder Eric Fitzgerald is taking his practice to another go-to firm for clients in the insurance sector, Goldberg Segalla.

Fitzgerald was a senior vice president on Marshall Dennehey's board of directors and assistant director of the firm's professional liability department, which has 150 lawyers in 16 practice groups. He also served as the firm's risk manager, practicing out of its Philadelphia headquarters.

In an interview Tuesday, Fitzgerald, who remains based in Philadelphia, said he has long known Goldberg Segalla, and his insurance carrier clients were attracted to his new firm's national platform. Marshall Dennehey has a more regional footprint, he said.

The bulk of Marshall Dennehey's offices are in the Northeast. It has locations all across Pennsylvania, as well as offices in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Connecticut and Florida. Goldberg Segalla also has a robust presence in the Northeast and locations throughout the Southeast, and it has offices in the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, on the West Coast and one international location in London.

Fitzgerald has known Goldberg Segalla managing partner Richard Cohen for decades, the two lawyers said. Before Cohen was a founding partner at Goldberg Segalla, he was a partner at Buffalo, New York-based Saperston & Day, and Fitzgerald was a "superstar" senior associate there, in the firm's Rochester office, Cohen said.

"Eric is one of the most spectacular coverage lawyers that I've ever interacted with," Cohen said in an interview Tuesday. "He fits the specific profile of the people we look to bring into this firm."

Cohen said Goldberg Segalla has existing relationships with "close to two dozen" of Fitzgerald's clients. And he highlighted Fitzgerald's role within firmwide leadership as well, noting that his responsibilities at Marshall Dennehey seem quite close to Cohen's own responsibilities at Goldberg Segalla.

Asked how much business Fitzgerald is expected to add to the firm, he and Cohen declined to answer. While Fitzgerald has "a vast number of relationships in the insurance marketplace," Cohen said, the move was "not about whether he can make us more money, but about whether he can make us better."

Cohen said Fitzgerald will immediately become part of the leadership group within Goldberg Segalla's global insurance services practice, along with current practice co-chairs Jeff Kingsley and David Brown. And will likely become "heavily involved in our administration," given his experience as a law firm risk manager, Cohen said.

"Eric is a leader in the insurance industry [and] a leader in the legal industry," Brown said. "He's going to be a leader in our firm, and a leader with our clients going forward."

In a statement Tuesday, Marshall Dennehey president and CEO G. Mark Thompson said partner Craig Hudson will take over Fitzgerald's leadership position within the professional liability department. Also a senior vice president on the firm's board of directors, Hudson is currently regional managing director of the firm's four Florida offices, but he will return to Philadelphia to take on his new role.

"Within a firm of 500 lawyers exist individuals who, from time to time, are going to make personal choices that surprise us," Thompson said. "Eric has altered course and chosen a path different from the one he was on. We respect his unilateral decision and are grateful to have a reservoir of talented leaders from which to replace him."

While Goldberg Segalla has boots on the ground in more regions across the United States, it is smaller than Marshall Dennehey in terms of head count and gross revenue. Both are Am Law 200 firms.

According data from ALM Intelligence, Marshall Dennehey had 518 lawyers and $219.7 million in revenue in 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. The same year, Goldberg Segalla had 396 lawyers and $128.75 million in revenue.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Fitzgerald's tenure with Marshall Dennehey, and said he was both the firm's general counsel and risk manager. He was only its risk manager.

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