Summary: The Philadelphia office of Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg has been closed after all the attorneys left for other law firms.
Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg opened an office in Philadelphia just a year ago. Now that location has no attorneys left and is no longer listed on the firm’s website as a location. The latest attorneys left to join Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.
On Thursday Buchanan Ingersoll announced that they hired Alfred W. Zaher as an intellectual property shareholder and Shawn S. Li as counsel. While it is unclear when Zaher and Li left Novak Druce, as of June 23, the firm was still highlighting his work on their website. Zaher and Li joined Novak Druce a year ago in Philadelphia to open the office.
Buchanan Ingersoll also hired James S. Lawlor, a Reed Smith corporate partner. He will now be a shareholder in the financial services practice at Buchanan Ingersoll. Buchanan Ingersoll has been making many changes, including a leadership change to start next year. Joseph Dougherty will be taking over for current CEO Jack Barbour.
Zaher had stated they had a big interest in the Philadelphia market when they opened the office a year ago but the firm seems to be struggling to keep attorneys. The Wilmington, Delaware office has had a surge of departures since the office opened in 2013. They had merged with Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz in what many saw as a big move. Soon after the merger, several lawyers left with a big part of the firm’s business. In one month, 12 attorneys had left the Wilmington office to join Drinker Biddle & Reath.
The Wilmington office had a “skeleton crew” of five attorneys left, only one as a partner when they decided to open the Philadelphia office.
Source: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202732892695/
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