Duane Morris Adds Dealmaker From Pepper Hamilton

Pepper Hamilton corporate partner Michael Gallagher has left the firm to join the Philadelphia office of Duane Morris, where he had a number of close contacts from deals over the years.

Gallagher’s practice includes corporate finance, private equity, family businesses, securities, mergers and acquisitions, workouts and exit planning. His clients include manufacturing, technology, health care and life sciences companies, especially contract research organizations.

Gallagher spent more than two decades at Pepper Hamilton, where he was in the corporate securities and life sciences practice groups. He said the move to Duane Morris gives his practice a bigger platform.

Among Gallagher’s connections to Duane Morris, he said he has a close relationship with Matthew Taylor, the firm’s vice chairman and trial practice group leader. He has also long known partners Kathleen Shay, David Toner, Thomas Spencer, Richard Silfen and Thomas Ostrander through working on deals together and socially, Gallagher said.

“This move for me is more about joining Duane Morris than it is about leaving Pepper, where I spent 20 great years and leave behind many good friends,” Gallagher said in a statement.

Several of Gallagher’s recent matters involved private equity. He recently worked on a roll-up of 12 pharmaceutical service companies in order to sell them as a combined entity, and he assisted in the sale of a private-equity-owned health service portfolio company to another health care company. He also recently counseled a private equity group based in Ireland on several acquisitions in the U.S.

Duane Morris’ chairman, John Soroko, said in a March interview that the firm was looking to expand its corporate and transactional practices, which performed well in 2016. Clients continue to need representation on sophisticated matters, he said, although maintaining a pipeline of work in basic services has become more challenging.

Asked about Gallagher’s departure, a spokesman for Pepper Hamilton said, “We appreciate the contributions Mike has made to the firm and wish him well in the next chapter of the career.”

Pepper Hamilton experienced several other departures early in 2017. But the firm recently brought on H. Peter Haveles Jr. from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, adding to its commercial litigation group in New York, as well as of counsel Rachel Mynhier in the real estate practice from Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman.

Lizzy McLellan writes about the Pennsylvania legal community and the business of law at firms of all sizes. Contact her at lmclellan@alm.com. On Twitter: @LizzyMcLellTLI.