Though not immune to the dilemmas brought on by the global recession, Cozen O’Connor, one of the country’s largest law firms and headquartered in Philadelphia, has been opportunistic enough during the last six months to expand. The firm last week announced it has opened offices in Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, adding six employees and possibly more in the next several years.
It was only mid-February when Cozen O’Connor laid off 61 support staff. About a month later, Wolf Block, the city’s oldest firm, voted to dissolve and within days, Cozen O’Connor welcomed 30 former Wolf Block attorneys. Since then, the firm has added about 40 more attorneys, paving the way for expansion.
Cozen O’Connor now has 24 offices (22 in the U.S.) and, more importantly, has footholds in regions that figure to be key as the state develops energy, corporate and environmental policies.
“The opportunistic part… probably allowed us to expand a bit sooner than anticipated,” says firm administrative managing partner Vincent McGuinness. “Part of our strategy is to grow our practice in the areas of energy, alternative clean technologies, climate change matters and corporate regulatory matters.”
The Harrisburg office, located on North Front Street and led by office managing partner Frances Roggenbaum, will concentrate on state and federal affairs with a special emphasis on tax, insurance regulatory, energy, environmental and public utilities matters.
Longtime Northeast Pennsylvania attorney John P. Moses will be a one-man show in the Wilkes-Barre office. He is known as a premier trial attorney with experience working with government, corporations and individuals.
“Pennsylvania is our home territory,” says McGuiness. “We have strong relationships in Pennsylvania and we wanted to make sure we can continue to capitalize on that.”
Source: Vincent McGuiness, Cozen O’Connor
Writer: Joe Petrucci