With so much other news swirling in 2020, one item may have gone unnoticed: the plaintiffs bar in Philadelphia, which has not seen much dramatic leadership change over the past few years, experienced quite a shakeup.

According to many in the field, this could be largely due to the nature of the business—part of the lifecycle of the bar, which typically sees most of its growth not through mergers and lateral moves, but by high-profile partners spinning off and venturing out on their own. But new factors, including nuclear verdicts and a slowdown in trial work because of the pandemic, may be playing into that dynamic as well.