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Lawyers and consultants said smaller firms confrongt a unique setof problems. With fewer practice areas and rainmakers at their disposalthan full-service firms, they are more susceptiblse to swings in the Al Gollatz and Alexander Ewing will join 33-lawyer McElree one of West Chester’s best-known firms, along with an Gollatz said he felt his practice would be bettef suited at a larger firm. The firm’sx seven-lawyer Philadelphia office will reconstitutwas , though it received a majo blow when name partne Terry Griffin died this month. That firm, now a litigatiojn boutique, will be led by partnerf Phil Vogler.
The 22-year-old Gollatza Griffin, with 15 lawyers at the time of its was the second small firm in the past monthn to make sucha decision. , a 26-lawyer firm with a 40-yeatr history, saw the bulk of its lawyers joinArchert & Greiner of Haddonfield, N.J. Other smaller firme found themselves seeking cover from the economixc storm by joining larger competitorsxlast year. The 111-year-old intellectual-property boutique mergef the bulk of its 15 lawyerws into after 10 lawyers went to other firms earlie inthe year. , a 10-lawyer firm in Philadelphiaz known for its insurance was acquiredby Pittsburgh’s Thorop Reed & Armstrong, which doubled its locao lawyer count in the process.
, a 10-lawyer firm with a histor y dating backto 1910, was acquirerd by Maryland-based Offit Kurman. And in summer Hepburn WillcoxHamilton Putnam, a small law firm that has been in operatioh since 1880, closed its Cherry Hill-based law firm consultan t Joel Rose said the recession has initiatef consolidation for small and midsize firms. “They are overly dependent on fewer clients. So if thos clients become troubled, so will Rose said. “If a firm isn’t doing it’s tough to do a merger. So a largefr firm will look for the most attractiv element of that firm or that firm willsplit up.
” A perfecft example occurred in Januarhy 2008 when decided to splir with half the lawyers movin g to Pittsburgh-based , now called , and the othe half of Miller Alfano’s 20 lawyers joineed Philadelphia-based . Drinker Biddle was interesterd inGregory Miller’s commercial litigatiob practice but not Marc Raspanti’s plaintiffs which, while profitable, would have brought conflicts. acquiredx 12-lawyer of West Chester in 2006 and pickedc up three lawyersfrom Linwood, N.J.-based last year.
Montgomery McCrackebn Chairman Steve Madva said he has not had any recent though he listened to a pitchu from representatives of thePelino “Most [small firms] can’t fit into our rate structure because most either do plaintiff personal injury or insurance Madva said.
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