LAWFUEL – The Law Firm Newswire – Miller Alfano & Raspanti, one of Philadelphia’s commercial litigation boutique law firms, said Wednesday it will be splitting up, with name partners Gaetan Alfano and Marc Raspanti leading a 10-lawyer group that will be joining Pittsburgh-based Pietragallo Bosick & Gordon, BizJournals reports.
Effective on or before Jan. 1, the combined firm will be known as Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti.
Miller Alfano’s other name partner, Gregory Miller, will not be joining his colleagues of the past 18 years. Sources said Miller, who could not be immediately reached for comment, is negotiating to join a large Philadelphia firm. Raspanti said the 20-lawyer firm is essentially splitting in half with Miller not finished his negotiations.
Also joining the Pietragallo firm are partners Kevin E. Raphael, Michael A. Morse and Daniel J. McGravey, five associates, and support staff.
Raspanti said after he was quoted in an article about local litigation boutiques in a July issue of the Philadelphia Business Journal, he began receiving an inordinate number of inquiries from lawyers wondering if he would be interested in becoming part of a larger firm. But Raspanti, who handles a good deal of plaintiffs work, said he found that client conflicts eliminated most suitors from consideration.
“After 18 years we had a great run,” Raspanti said. “I liked the fact that Pietragallo is slightly larger than us but not too big. And there were no conflicts.”
Miller Alfano, formed in 1989, specializes in commercial litigation, with a large focus on white-collar, insurance coverage, and employment cases.
Pietragallo Bosick is Pittsburgh’s eighth-largest law firm, with 70 total lawyers. The litigation-heavy firm specializes in commercial, intellectual property, risk management and products liability but is also looking to grow its transactional component.
It opened a Philadelphia area office in July when Joseph Mancano, a white-collar litigator and partner at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s Philadelphia office, opened a Wayne, Pa., office with risk management litigator Joseph Vaughn, formerly a solo practitioner in West Chester, Pa. They brought with them two associates. That group will most likely relocate to Philadelphia.
Raspanti said he unsure about where the office will be located.
