As it is every year, the task of selecting the top 10 lateral moves of 2012 was a difficult one that yielded a surplus of notable moves.
Unlike years past, however, none of the runners-up involved moves to or from government positions and only a handful involved moves either to or from in-house departments.
Instead, the vast majority of this year's runners-up list comprises what could be considered "traditional" lateral moves: lawyers leaving one firm and heading to another.
PAUL LANCASTER ADAMS
Employment attorney Paul Lancaster Adams has made his way back to Philadelphia by way of Redmond, Wash., and Washington, D.C.
The former Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads partner spent more than three years in-house with Microsoft in various capacities before deciding he wanted to return to private practice and the town in which he spent most of his career. The opportunity to head up the relatively new Philadelphia office of labor and employment boutique Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart was the icing on the cake for Adams.
"I knew that, leaving Microsoft, I wanted to go to a place where I had at least a national platform," he said.
Ogletree Deakins has 40 offices in 23 states and represents employers of all sizes across the country, including more than half of the Fortune 50, he said. One of the firm's largest practices right now, immigration work, is one in which Ogletree Deakins represents Microsoft, Adams said.
Another selling point for Adams was Ogletree Deakins' collaborative approach to practicing across offices and a business model that encourages and rewards such collaboration.
As the head of the 10-lawyer Philadelphia office that opened in 2007, Adams and his fellow shareholders are charged with growing the firm's presence in the city. He said he hopes to have 30 to 40 attorneys in Philadelphia within the next two years.
KEVIN P. ALLEN
Kevin P. Allen joined the litigation practice of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott in Pittsburgh as a member from Thorp Reed & Armstrong, where he had been chair of the commercial and corporate litigation group.
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