Legal News

Pepper Names Replacement for Position Left Vacant by Dusty Kirk

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella

Pepper Hamilton said Friday that partner Matthew J. Swett has been named co-chairman of the firm?s 30-attorney real estate practice.

The position was left vacant when Pittsburgh-based partner Dusty Elias Kirk took a team of six other lawyers and seven staffers to the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith in one of the biggest lateral moves that market has seen in the last few years.

Swett, based in Philadelphia, joins Norman B. Berlin, who has been co-chairman of the group since 2003. Swett has been in Pepper Hamilton?s real estate practice since 2000.

He concentrates his practice in the acquisition, sale, development, leasing and financing of commercial real estate properties, representing real estate investment managers, entrepreneurial developers, national retailers, manufacturers and companies in diverse industries.

?Matt is a well-respected, experienced lawyer who knows the practice well,? Robert E. Heideck, Pepper Hamilton?s executive partner, said in a statement.  ?We expect his transition to the role of co-chair to be seamless.?

At the time of Kirk?s departure, Heideck said the firm was already looking to bolster the Pittsburgh office, but that her move would put an increased emphasis on that goal. He said the firm would look to add attorneys not only in the real estate practice, but in other groups as well.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on June 11, 2010 (boomark / email).