Ballard Spahr

The Ballard Spahr law firm of Center City said Tuesday that John B. Langel has been named chair of its litigation department and William C. Rhodes will head the public finance group. Ballard's litigation department is composed of more than 200 lawyers, while its public finance group, which represents state and local governments and other entities in bond transactions, is composed of 50 lawyers.    - Chris Mondics

Ed Rendell may have left the Pennsylvania governor's mansion just last week, but he certainly isn't out of work. Rendell has added to the list of his post-gubernatorial jobs by rejoining the Ballard Spahr law firm as a partner in its Philadelphia office, the firm announced yesterday. Rendell previously worked at the firm between his terms as Philadelphia mayor and governor. He will work primarily on public-private partnerships and issues relating to infrastructure, energy, the environment, health care and higher education, according to a news release.

To cope with an ongoing decline in business and rising costs, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll L.L.P. is cutting compensation for its more junior lawyers. The move follows the layoffs of nearly 170 staff and more than a half-dozen lawyers in the last year. The firm declined to comment yesterday on the salary cuts, saying that as a matter of policy it would not discuss compensation of its lawyers. But legal-community observers said the firm's 238 associates had been informed their pay would be reduced.

Mayor Rendell will become a partner at the law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll on Jan. 3, the day he leaves office. Rendell has strong personal and political ties to the firm. His former chief of staff and close friend, David L. Cohen, is the firm's chairman. Rendell's friend and loyal political supporter Arthur Makadon is chairman of the firm's litigation department. And its members and political action committee combine to make the firm Rendell's number-one, all-time campaign contributor at $308,947 since 1990.

The Delaware River Port Authority spent nearly $2 million on outside legal firms in 2007 and 2008, and the biggest beneficiary was the former firm of Gov. Rendell, who chairs the DRPA. Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll L.L.P. collected $620,412 over the last two years, DRPA records show. The firm was paid to handle labor issues, trademark matters, and preparation for toll increases, among other things. Rendell was a partner at Ballard Spahr before he was elected governor.

John H. Estey, a trusted confidant of Gov. Rendell and a key player in his administration, plans to leave state government to join the Philadelphia law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll L.L.P., where he will lead a new practice group representing corporate clients before government agencies. Estey, 45, was Rendell's chief of staff from the beginning of the governor's administration in 2003 through April last year, when he stepped aside to fill the role of senior adviser.

TOP-10 law firms used by the school district since 2006 1. Blank Rome: $6.3 million 2. Saul Ewing: $1.16 million 3. Ballard Spahr: $848,997 4. Tucker Law Group, LLC: $581,305 5. WolfBlock: $454,496 6. Cozen & O'Connor: $434,936 7. Feldesman Tucker Leifer & Fidell: $431,015 8. Archer & Greiner: $406,755 9. Fineman Krekstein & Harris: $404,726 10. Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis: $386,655 ...

After Stephanie Franklin-Suber leaves her post as Mayor Street's chief of staff Sept. 3, she will take a job practicing business law as a partner at the politically connected firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, the firm announced yesterday. Franklin-Suber, who was a corporate lawyer before she joined city government, will handle standard corporate matters such as mergers and acquisitions, said David L. Cohen, the chairman of the firm. Though Ballard Spahr has a large public-finance department and represents clients who have business with the City of Philadelphia, Franklin-Suber will not handle any matters that she dealt with while in city government, either as chief of staff or in her previous job as city solicitor, Cohen said.

Five more lawyers are departing from the firm of Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish & Kauffman, which has experienced a steady exodus since its chairman revealed last summer that he had been thinking about leaving with a large contingent. David H. Pittinsky, chairman of Dilworth Paxson's litigation department, and three other litigators are joining the firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, according to Arthur Makadon, chairman of Ballard Spahr's litigation department. The others are Lawrence D. Berger, Carl G. Roberts and Carl W. Hittinger.

Steven A. Arbittier, 72, of Rydal, a lawyer with more than 45 years' experience litigating, arbitrating, and mediating complex construction and commercial disputes, died of cancer Saturday, May 14, at Abington Memorial Hospital. After graduating from law school in 1963, Mr. Arbittier joined the firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia. He was chairman of Wolf Block's litigation department when he left to be a partner at Ballard Spahr in 1995. He had been senior counsel at Ballard Spahr since 2007.

The Ballard Spahr law firm of Center City said Tuesday that John B. Langel has been named chair of its litigation department and William C. Rhodes will head the public finance group. Ballard's litigation department is composed of more than 200 lawyers, while its public finance group, which represents state and local governments and other entities in bond transactions, is composed of 50 lawyers.    - Chris Mondics

David V. Randall, 86, a partner in the Ballard Spahr law firm who was chairman of the watchdog Committee of Seventy in the 1970s, died Saturday, Oct. 15, of multiple myeloma at Springfield Residences, a retirement community in Wyndmoor. Mr. Randall, born in Danville, Pa., graduated from Wyoming Seminary and earned a bachelor's degree in English at Lehigh University. A 1954 Inquirer article reported that he had been associated with his father "in the operation of coal-mining properties in Lykens, Mahanoy City, and Mount Carmel.

TOP-10 law firms used by the school district since 2006 1. Blank Rome: $6.3 million 2. Saul Ewing: $1.16 million 3. Ballard Spahr: $848,997 4. Tucker Law Group, LLC: $581,305 5. WolfBlock: $454,496 6. Cozen & O'Connor: $434,936 7. Feldesman Tucker Leifer & Fidell: $431,015 8. Archer & Greiner: $406,755 9. Fineman Krekstein & Harris: $404,726 10. Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis: $386,655 ...

"Still fat and ugly, how are you?" is how Roberto Rivera-Soto answers the phone at his new job at the law firm Ballard Spahr. Rivera-Soto, who just finished a seven-year term as a New Jersey Supreme Court justice, has used that line for 20 years, he says, because most people aren't really listening when they ask, "How are you?" He is used to saying what he wants. In December, he wrote an opinion that the seven-member court's seating of a long-term temporary justice was unconstitutional, and said he would abstain from participating in cases.

Until Gov. Corbett nominated him to serve on the Philadelphia School Reform Commission last week, Pedro Ramos was billing $325 an hour as an outside attorney for the School District - one of the highest rates the district pays lawyers. During the current fiscal year, Ramos' seven-member firm of Trujillo Rodriguez & Richards L.L.C. has collected more than $300,000 in fees from the district, according to information obtained under the Pennsylvania Right to Know law. Only the large firms of Blank Rome and Ballard Spahr have been paid more this year by the district, which faces a $629 million shortfall.

After a long career trying cases on behalf of pharmaceutical companies and other corporate and institutional clients, Mark Stewart will hang up his litigation spurs July 1 and take over as chairman of Ballard Spahr L.L.P., the prominent Center City law firm. Stewart, who has spent his entire career at the firm, beginning as a summer associate, will have to fill some large shoes. He replaces Arthur Makadon, who will return to the full-time practice of law after leading the firm since 2002.

Steven A. Arbittier, 72, of Rydal, a lawyer with more than 45 years' experience litigating, arbitrating, and mediating complex construction and commercial disputes, died of cancer Saturday, May 14, at Abington Memorial Hospital. After graduating from law school in 1963, Mr. Arbittier joined the firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia. He was chairman of Wolf Block's litigation department when he left to be a partner at Ballard Spahr in 1995. He had been senior counsel at Ballard Spahr since 2007.

LOS ANGELES - For many of the nation's biggest law firms, this sprawling city of glitz and grit is, above all, the golden gateway to Asia's economic boom. But for a steadily growing number of Philadelphia law firms, the city's mammoth entertainment industry - with its studios, its stars, and its seemingly limitless litigation - also is a rich source of revenue. Nine of Philadelphia's largest firms have offices in Los Angeles, and most have entertainment practices they are looking to expand.

NERDS, BRACE yourselves. Philly is in your hands as the inaugural Philly Tech Week gets under way today through Saturday. Please be gentle with us. While the majority of events are geared to the technologically inclined, there's also fun to be had for those who don't know CSS from cloud computing. Tech Week sprang from the minds behind Technically Philly (technicallyphilly.com), a website covering technology and the business behind it in Philadelphia, founded in 2009 and run by Temple grads Sean Blanda, Christopher Wink and Brian James Kirk.

As she pores over files from the Secret Archive of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and weighs the fates of accused priests, lawyer Gina Maisto Smith says she is determined to provide justice to victims. "They have taken a risk in bringing me on, because my lens is fiercely protecting children," said Smith, a former sex-crimes prosecutor. She was talking of the top church officials who hired her last month to help the archdiocese dig itself out of its latest sex-abuse scandal.