Incoming White & Williams Chair Is a 'Lifer' Who Plans to Work on Firm 'PR Issue'
An insurance coverage partner who has spent his entire career working at White & Williams will soon be the midsize Philadelphia-based law firm’s new chairman and managing partner.
“Lifer” Guy Cellucci, 56, will take over the helm in October from George Hartnett, who is required to step down from management duties when he reaches 64 under the firm’s partnership agreement, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Law & Finance blog.
When Cellucci started work there in 1979, the firm had 55 lawyers and almost half of them focused on insurance defense. Today, there are 230 lawyers on the attorney roster, and less than a third are insurance defense practitioners.
Although its clients know White & Williams does good work in other business practice areas, it needs to get the word out to the corporate community about its broader expertise, says Cellucci. “We do have a PR issue, and I am going to be working to make sure people know that we have a diversified practice.”
He currently serves as chair of the firm’s commercial litigation department and has been a member of the executive committee for more than 15 years, notes the Legal Intelligencer in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
“I’ve been very active in the management of the firm and George and I see eye-to-eye 99 percent of the time, so it seemed like when we were looking for someone to fill the position, I would be a logical candidate,” Cellucci tells the legal publication. He will step down as litigation chair when he steps up to the firm’s top job.
Despite the difficult economy, the firm has managed to avoid mass layoffs, pay decreases and start-date deferrals, he and Hartnett say.
Its partners are looking to develop a bigger footprint in Boston and New York and to enhance its bankruptcy, commercial litigation insurance and insurance regulatory practice groups, the Legal Intelligencer reports.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “White & Williams Acquires 10 Edwards Angell Lawyers for ‘Booming’ D&O Work”
Updated at 1:48 p.m. to include information from Legal Intelligencer.
