With no end in sight to the COVID-19 global pandemic, which continued to rage on in its second year with new variants taking hold—keeping most employees in their work-from-home offices—2021 was surprisingly still a good year for lateral moves in the Pennsylvania legal market. A few new plaintiffs law firms were launched, including VSCP LAW. Some other notable shifts included Kline & Specter's move to take Pogust Millrood name partner Tobi Millrood as the firm's new mass torts chair and Holland & Knight grabbing Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's class action co-chair Kenneth Racowski. There were a few big moves out of Pittsburgh law firms, with Frost Brown Todd adding a group of real estate and transactional lawyers from Jackson Kelly and Duane Morris taking four litigation attorneys from Eckert Seamans back in October. After an extensive search through our archives from the past year and hearing from reliable sources on lateral moves in Pennsylvania, the staff at The Legal talked over which moves made the biggest impact on the legal landscape. All in all, these moves made significant impressions on their new and old firms. Below is a list of moves that were either major additions to their new firm, a big loss to their former firm or were instrumental in adding to their new firm's practice groups. Ex-Ross Feller Casey, Anapol Weiss Attorneys Launch Plaintiffs Firm In February, a new catastrophic injury law practice in Philadelphia was formed out of a collaboration among litigators from Ross Feller Casey and from Anapol Weiss. Partners of the newly formed catastrophic injury law firm VSCP LAW—Joshua Van Naarden, Gregory Spizer, Ryan Chase and John Pinto—said they were joined by some of their clients involved in ongoing cases and a small group of paralegals at the newly established law practice. With offices in Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, VSCP LAW partners said they specialized in medical malpractice, birth injury, wrongful death, products liability, civil rights and wrongful incarceration and mass torts cases. Van Naarden, Pinto and Chase came from Ross Feller Casey, where they were partners, while Spizer came from Anapol Weiss, where he was a shareholder. The formation of VSCP LAW was the latest example of litigators at established personal injury firms splitting off to form their own competing practice, in a shake-up of the Philadelphia plaintiffs bar that's played out in recent years. Kline & Specter Takes Pogust Millrood Name Partner In November, Kline & Specter added Tobias "Tobi" Millrood to the firm as a new partner and mass tort department chair. Millrood was one-half of the name partners at Conshohocken-based firm Pogust Millrood. Millrood replaced chair Lee Balefsky after Balefsky served in the role for 18 years, leaders at the Philadelphia-based personal injury firm said back in November. As the 2020-2021 president of the American Association for Justice, Millrood was initially contacted by Balefsky after advising his colleagues at Kline & Specter last summer of his plans to step away from his duties as head of the mass tort department, firm leaders said. But that conversation shifted toward discussing whether Millrood was himself the right fit. The move came as Pogust Millrood geared up to expand internationally through a merger into global firm PGMBM, according to leaders at the five-lawyer firm. Frost Brown Todd Adds 4 Real Estate, Transactional Lawyers Also in November, a group of Pittsburgh lawyers from West Virginia-based midsize firm Jackson Kelly made a move to Frost Brown Todd, where firm leaders expected them to tap into the local market's well of real estate ventures and tech startups. Transactional lawyer Jason Ott, who led Jackson Kelly's tech and data practice groups until his departure at the beginning of November, joined Frost Brown Todd as a member, along with IP lawyer Curtis Wadsworth, who joined as counsel to help clients navigate IP strategies. Wadsworth is also the founder and CEO of DorothyAI, a patent search platform that uses artificial intelligence to perform specific searches that are important for patent lawyers and their clients. They were joined by real estate attorney Leah LaFramboise, a member working with energy clients in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia with solar and mineral leasing and acquisition transactions, and associate Derrick L. Maultsby Jr., who advises a wide variety of clients on capital transactions. Ott and Maultsby previously worked together at Pittsburgh firm Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote. Firm leaders said the group was recruited because of an emphasis they share with the firm on understanding a specific industry's legal needs in a competitive market like Pittsburgh. Duane Morris Nabs 4 Pittsburgh Litigators From Eckert Seamans Duane Morris' Pittsburgh office gained four commercial litigators from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott in October, including partner Kevin Allen who took on the role as the office's co-managing partner to help grow the firm's local presence in one of the nation's most heavily lawyered legal markets. Allen was joined by partners Daniel B. McLane and Michael Pest and special counsel Thomas Sanchez, who officially started at Duane Morris on Oct. 1. In a statement released by the firm, leaders at Duane Morris said the group joined amid a "robust market for trial activity," and the group's diverse industry mix would serve as a "growth accelerator" for a now 16-lawyer office in Pittsburgh. Allen, who previously served as a member of the board of directors at Eckert Seamans, was tapped to lead the Pittsburgh office as co-managing partner with Kenneth M. Argentieri. Members of the group said Allen and McLane typically take on case matters independently from each other as first chairs, deploying Pest and Sanchez to support them as needed. Their books of business, which include energy companies and supply chain logistics companies, are joining them at their new firm, members of the group said. Buchanan Loses Class Action Co-Chair to Holland & Knight Holland & Knight continued to build its bench strength in the region by poaching lateral partners from native Pennsylvania firms with the addition of the departed co-chair of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's class action litigation practice. Kenneth Racowski officially joined Holland & Knight's Philadelphia office May 10. He said he moved to the Florida-born firm to provide his clients a broader geographic platform. Racowski represents life sciences and health care clients, in addition to those in finance, manufacturing, transportation and consumer products in class action litigation and antitrust actions, he said. His recent trial work has involved public and private antitrust matters, defending clients against anti-competitive actions by the FTC and class actions brought by state attorneys general, he said. Post & Schell Takes 11-Lawyer Group From Litchfield Cavo A group of 11 Litchfield Cavo attorneys and their support staff moved their litigation practices to Post & Schell's offices in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Allentown, as the latter firm aimed to grow its casualty litigation and toxic tort practices. The group included seven former Litchfield Cavo partners now working as principals at Post & Schell. They were joined by three associates, one counsel and six professional staff members. Concentrated in the firm's Pittsburgh office with some located in Allentown and Philadelphia, they brought a mix of client business in premises liability, products liability, toxic tort, industrial accidents, property damage, consumer class actions and breach of contract matters. The departure of 17 legal professionals from Litchfield Cavo left the firm with only three partners, three associates and one counsel in Pittsburgh, according to recent changes made to Litchfield Cavo's online roster of attorneys. Kline & Specter Partners Leave to Form PI Firm Two attorneys involved in the record-breaking Salvation Army building collapse litigation and suing Boeing over its deadly Boeing 737 Max 8 plane left Philadelphia's Kline & Specter to open their own personal injury practice in the city. Andrew Stern and Elizabeth Crawford exited the high-profile firm in January to launch Stern & Crawford P.C., which focused on catastrophic injury cases. At the time, Stern, who had been with Kline & Specter for 16 years, said he and Crawford had essentially been operating as a "firm within a firm," acting very independently from the rest of the firm while at Kline & Specter. Unfortunately, the firm never really got off the ground, as Stern, remembered as a 'gifted advocate,' died following an accident in the bay off his Longport, New Jersey, home in May. Crawford has since returned to Kline & Specter. Raju Steps Down as Dilworth Paxson Leader, Taking 3 Partners With Him Ajay Raju, who served as chairman and CEO of Philadelphia-based law firm Dilworth Paxson for the last seven years, officially stepped away from his leadership position Dec. 31 to focus on other business ventures. Raju said he would continue to be affiliated with Dilworth Paxson, even as he stepped away from firm management. The leadership change had been the subject of talks among firm executives in recent months, and was due in large part to Raju's interest in advancing his other business ventures. Raju is the chairman and founder of consulting firm Indigo Global, investment management firm 215 Capital and the Pamela and Ajay Raju Foundation. Three Dilworth Paxson attorneys, all partners, left the firm to join the outgoing CEO in his mortgage services business. 4 Phila. Deal Lawyers Leave White and Williams for Ballard Spahr As Big Law firms throughout the country looked to bolster their corporate practices, Ballard Spahr brought on a group of four Philadelphia lawyers from White and Williams back in April, who were eager to join up with a national footprint and private equity practice at the Am Law 100 firm. Partner Maulin Vidwans, who was previously chair of White and Williams' business department and spent 21 years at the firm, joined Ballard Spahr's finance department along with of counsel Jennifer Santangelo. Ryan Udell, who was at White and Williams for 23 years, joined Ballard as a partner in the firm's business and transactions department, along with associate Adam J. Chelminiak. Vidwans and Santangelo said they share many clients with Udell. That multidisciplinary approach will provide Ballard Spahr with a recurring source of revenue, they said. One of the major draws to Ballard Spahr, Vidwans said, was the lack of overlap between the lateral attorneys' client mix and those already at the firm, which he said "will hopefully lead to symbiotic and cross-market opportunities." McNees Absorbs Pittsburgh Construction Boutique McNees Wallace & Nurick brought on the eight remaining attorneys of Pittsburgh-based construction boutique Blumling & Gusky, giving the Harrisburg-based midsize firm its first outlet in the western Pennsylvania city in December. McNees chair Brian Jackson said the firms were a perfect fit because of the natural synergies between McNees' office in Columbus, Ohio, and the Pittsburgh-based Blumling practice. The announcement comes on the heels of several challenges to Blumling & Gusky's succession, according to multiple sources familiar with the firm. Long regarded as an aggressive player in the Pittsburgh construction and real estate arena, the small firm lost five lawyers in 2021, including founding partner Henry Gusky, who died on Sept. 17, according to an analysis of online records that were confirmed by multiple sources. The eight-lawyer Pittsburgh team brought McNees' roster of construction and procurement attorneys to 15 and real estate attorneys to 29. In total, the firm reported a lawyer head count of nearly 150. McNees set up shop in Blumling & Gusky's former office in the Koppers Building in downtown Pittsburgh, firm leaders said.