Walter M. Stella and Michele Ballard Miller, Cozen O’Connor.

Cozen O’Connor, a Philadelphia-based Am Law 100 firm, has brought on 13 lawyers in San Francisco and Los Angeles, combining with a local women-owned boutique.

All 13 lawyers and six administrative professionals from Miller Law Group have joined the firm. Miller Law Group was one of the largest certified woman-owned employment law firms in the country, according to Cozen O’Connor.

Founder Michele Ballard Miller said her firm’s clients run the gamut from “burgeoning startup” to “Fortune 50 powerhouse.”

“Miller Law Group’s focus for the past 20 years has been helping clients navigate the challenging and increasingly complex California employment law environment,” Miller said in a statement. “Many of our clients, however, have facilities across the country as well as in other countries.”

Joining a larger firm allows the group to provide more services to those clients, she explained.

Cozen O’Connor labor and employment co-chair Joseph Tilson said the firm has been in talks with Miller since last November, when she and Tilson met at an American Bar Association event in San Francisco.

“She has a very strong reputation in California, and I have known of her and her firm’s reputation for a number of years,” Tilson said in an interview Thursday. “We actually have spent a considerable amount of time practicing in California, and she’s clearly one of the top labor and employment lawyers in California.”

Tilson said Cozen O’Connor had two labor and employment lawyers in San Diego before bringing on the Miller group. Miller will now chair the West Coast labor and employment practice, leading its expansion in cities including Seattle and Las Vegas, Tilson said.

“It will be very helpful to have more boots on the ground in California to improve our service to our existing clients in California,” he added. “There’s no question that California is the most fertile area for employment litigation around the country, because of its unique laws.”

Along with Miller, Walter Stella and Kerry McInerney Freeman were shareholders at Miller Law Group, and are joining Cozen O’Connor as members. Attorneys Nicole Herter Perkin, John Carrigan and C. Edward Langhammer are also joining as members.

John Feldmann, Janine Simerly and Elena Hillman will be of counsel to the firm; and Ethan Chernin, Brett Greving and Di Addy Tang will be associates. Kathryn Conard is also joining as a department attorney.

Cozen O’Connor has been steadily building its labor and employment group over recent years. Earlier this year it brought on three lawyers from Ballard Spahr—Robert Kaplan, Daniel Johns and Kelly Kindig. And throughout 2017 and 2018, a group of lawyers that ultimately totaled more than 30 moved from Pittsburgh-based Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney to Cozen O’Connor, across several different locations.

Tilson said the practice group, now at 91 lawyers, has nearly tripled in size since he joined Cozen O’Connor in 2015.

Cozen O’Connor’s managing partner, Vince McGuinness, said the labor and employment practice has been an important target in the firm’s national expansion strategy. “This really helps to give us the visibility and presence out on the West Coast,” he said, referring to the Miller group.

Given Miller Law Group’s history as a woman-owned firm, Miller said her group considered a commitment to diversity as an important factor when choosing where to make a move. Seven of the 13 lawyers joining Cozen O’Connor are women.

Tilson noted that the firm recently signed onto the Mansfield 3.0 certification, which requires that at least 30% of the pool for promotions and hiring to be women, lawyers of color, lawyers with disabilities and LGBTQ+ lawyers.

Read More

Being a Women-Owned Law Firm Can Open Doors

Cozen O’Connor Takes Another From Ballard in L&E Hiring Spree

Cozen O’Connor Resumes Raid on Buchanan Ingersoll