The Legal Intelligencer

August 16, 2005

ERISA Partner Leaves Pepper Hamilton for McCarter & English.

By Jeff Blumenthal

One of Alexander Kerr's chief goals upon becoming managing partner of McCarter & English's Philadelphia office was to expand its transactional capabilities.

Two years later, the litigation-heavy, 23-attorney office is still striving to achieve that goal. It has been slow going, but Kerr announced his first lateral partner addition yesterday in the form of Pepper Hamilton's Joel E. Horowitz, an employee benefits and executive compensation lawyer.

Horowitz, who has also practiced at Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll during his 26-year legal career, said he wanted to come back to Philadelphia after spending the past few years in Pepper Hamilton's Princeton office. And he said he wanted to have the opportunity to build a practice from scratch.

After being contacted by some ERISA lawyers in McCarter & English's main office in Newark, N.J., Horowitz said he jumped at the opportunity.

"This presented me with an opportunity to start an employee benefits and executive compensation practice in Philadelphia to complement the one they have already in Newark," Horowitz said. "I think the strategic plan here is to expand the business presence in Philadelphia. I have always been interested in building and what's around the corner, and this is consistent with that. Also, most of my contacts live near Center City Philadelphia so this is an opportunity to see and be seen in my home base."

Kerr said this is the first of what he hopes will be many additions on the transactional side. When he became managing partner for the office in September 2003, Kerr told The Legal that he planned to double or triple the size of the Philadelphia site within five to eight years. Prior to adding Horowitz, the office was the same size - 23 attorneys.

He said McCarter & English has been working hard on the lateral recruiting trial over the last two years. And the firm has added some younger lawyers, such as Dechert tax lawyer David Shipley, who joined the firm as special counsel.

"We still want to grow the office," Kerr said. "And we are speaking to a lot of people but we just haven't found the right fit. Either the person or group in question chose another firm or we just didn't think it was the right situation.

"It's especially difficult in the transactional areas. It's hard finding individuals or groups that will provide a credible mass in that area."

Kerr said in addition to corporate lawyers, the firm would eventually like to add attorneys with intellectual property, employment and possibly real estate experience. The firm does have bankruptcy partner Rosetta Packer, who joined the firm three years ago from Stevens & Lee. Kerr said with Horowitz and four first-year associates starting next month, the Philadelphia office will have 28 attorneys.

Pepper Hamilton executive partner Robert Heideck said the loss of Horowtiz does not greatly affect the firm's ERISA practice, which is led by partner Andrew Rudolph and includes three other Philadelphia partners and four more associates. Because of the overwhelming presence in Philadelphia, Heideck said the firm did not need another ERISA lawyer here. And he said the ERISA lawyers located in Philadelphia and Great Valley, Pa., can provide service for clients working with the firm's Princeton office.

Heideck said the firm's ERISA lawyers work closely with Pepper Hamilton's corporate department but also have some independent clients. He said Horowitz will no doubt take some client files with him and both sides are currently working out those arrangements.

"He's a fine person and a fine lawyer, and he has a chance to become the employee benefits lawyer in Philadelphia for that firm," Heideck said. "Here we have four ERISA partners and four ERISA associates in Philadelphia."

Horowitz is a 1978 graduate of the New England School of Law who went on to earn his LL.M in tax at Georgetown Law Center in 1982. He spent the first four years of his career working at the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., where he was a staff attorney in the chief counsel's office handling ERISA matters.

In 1982, he joined Morgan Lewis as an associate and joined Ballard Spahr three years later, becoming a partner in 1987. He joined Pepper Hamilton in 1996 and spent most of his time in Philadelphia before migrating to the Cherry Hill office to be closer to his South Jersey home. When that office closed, he moved up to Princeton.

Horowitz said his practice has evolved along with the ERISA world, as he has picked up more work in the health care and technology industries as well as more executive compensation work. He concentrates on tax-qualified retirement plan design and compliance; executive compensation, retention and severance; employee health plans; and employee stock ownership plans. He also counsels mutual funds and financial institutions on retirement products and fiduciary conduct, universities and other tax-exempt organizations on executive compensation and employee benefit arrangements, and venture capital funds on ERISA regulation.

Horowitz is not the only Pepper Hamilton partner to recently leave the firm. Litigator Philip Katauskas left the firm to join 18-attorney Semanoff Ormsby Greenberg & Torchia in Jenkintown. Katauskas said he wanted to join a firm that would have a more liberal billing rate structure to appeal more to his traditional clientele in the commercial, products liability and environmental litigation areas.

Semanoff Ormsby managing partner Charles Ormsby was a former colleague at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis in the 1980s, and the two quickly reached an agreement in which Katauskas joined the firm as of counsel. Semanoff Ormsby, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, handles a mix of corporate and litigation work.

As was the case with Horowitz's departure, Heideck said he understands why Katauskas decided to move on and wished him well at his new firm.

Katauskas is a 1977 graduate of Villanova University School of Law who spent two years clerking for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. before joining Schnader Harrison as an associate. He joined Baskin Flaherty Mannino & Elliott in 1987 and stayed there for two years before joining Pepper Hamilton.