Real Estate

Hangley Aronchick Lands Real Estate Partners

Since its inception, Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin has been known as a litigation-heavy firm.

A quick check on the firm's Web site shows that 22 of its 37 lawyers and nine of its 18 partners are commercial litigators. Among those litigators are some of the firm's more prominent members, including three of whom have their surnames in the firm's name.

But things are changing at the firm, which was born out of the 1994 split with Connolly Epstein Chicco Foxman Oxholm & Ewing, which merged into Pittsburgh's Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott and serves as its Philadelphia office.

Managing partner David Pudlin, the only non-litigator among the four name partners, said Hangley Aronchick's shareholders decided to diversify its ranks during a February 1999 retreat. Focusing on recruiting quality transactional lawyers, the firm since that time has added corporate and securities partner Thomas Hurley from Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads and veteran bankruptcy lawyer Jim Matour of Middleman & Matour.

The latest acquisition includes the father-and-son real estate partner team of Stuart and David Ebby, who start Monday after an amicable split with their fellow partners at Toll Ebby Langer & Marvin. The seven other attorneys will start their own firm, Marvin Larsson Henkin & Scheuritzel.

Stuart Ebby, the father, a 40-year veteran of the city's real estate bar, initiated the move because he felt his practice needed the support of a firm larger than the nine-attorney Toll Ebby.

The timing was fortuitous because Toll Ebby's lease at 2 Logan Square is up at the end of this month. Ebby, who started his career at Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen and also worked at Mesirov Gelman Jaffe Cramer & Jamieson, said he talked with several large firms before settling on Hangley Aronchick. The reason for the choice was twofold.

"David and I could have gone to a large firm, but we liked Hangley Aronchick because its gives us more [practice] specialties but it's not too big," Ebby said. "I felt it was a big firm in a small firm's body."

The other reason was the opportunity to work alongside his other son, Robert "Bo" Ebby, a litigation associate who joined Hangley Aronchick last year from Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

"How many people can say they got to practice with both of their sons," said Ebby, who could only think of one other case, Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley's Marvin Comisky, who practices with his sons, Ian and Matthew.

Pudlin said Hangley Aronchick does not have a formal anti-nepotism policy as so many other Center City firms do. Because the Ebbys are the first close relatives to work together at the firm, the shareholders decided they would evaluate situations case by case. But Pudlin said that reuniting a family was not the objective of the move.

"They're excellent real estate lawyers with substantial practices," Pudlin said. "Stuart is one of the deans of the real estate bar who can be a mentor to the group we already have."

With the addition of the Ebbys, who start Monday, the firm will have five real estate partners and one associate. The other real estate partners are Richard Goldstein and David Scolnic; the associate is Anne Lubell.

And the firm is plotting a course for additional growth. Hangley Aronchick rents the 27th floor and two-thirds of the 28th floor at 1 Logan Square. Pudlin said the firm had exercised the option to take on the rest of the 28th floor, giving it 17 new lawyer offices. First-year associates will fill three of those in the fall, but the rest are there for future additions.

"We better keep growing or else we are going to have some overhead issues," Pudlin said. "We've been growing by a net of three or four lawyers a year since we started in October of 1994. And we think that's a nice pace, but we don't have any specific size goal."

Stuart Ebby graduated from Harvard Law School in 1961 and started at Wolf Block after a year of military service. He said he learned his craft from legal giants such as Wolf Block patriarch Morris Wolf, D. Hays Solis-Cohen and Louis Goffman.

Ebby left for Mesirov in 1968 and then started the Toll Ebby firm with litigator Spence Toll in 1975. Ebby represents lenders and developers with the full spectrum of real estate transactions as well as with land-use matters. In recent years, he said, his services as an expert witness have been called on frequently in cases in which real estate lawyers are sued for malpractice. His clients include lenders such as Jackson National Life Insurance Co. and State Farm Insurance Co. in addition to the owners of 1 and 2 Commerce Square. He also handles leasing arrangements for the owners of Liberty Place.

David Ebby graduated from Villanova Law School in 1989 and spent the first five years of his career at Drinker Biddle & Reath before joining his father's firm six years ago.

Stuart Ebby said that his son had built his own client base but that the two often work together on matters.

Robert Ebby followed in his brother's footsteps at Villanova Law School, even down to serving as editor of the law review, before graduating in 1994. After a clerkship, he joined the litigation department at Morgan Lewis until moving to Hangley Aronchick in May 2000.

As for the partners who are not moving with the Ebbys, litigator Peter Marvin leads a group that is content with small-firm life. He is joined in the partnership of the new firm by real estate lawyer David Larsson, corporate lawyer Doron Henkin and litigators Paul Scheuritzel and Justin Miller.

Spence Toll, 76, will be cutting back on his litigation practice and taking an of-counsel role. Marvin said Toll would dedicate some of his time toward other interests, such as his writing. One of the most knowledgeable local legal historians, Toll wrote a book titled A Judge Uncommon: A Life of John Biggs Jr. and several other historical pieces about the Philadelphia legal community.

Also assuming an of-counsel position are Michele Langer, who has been with the firm since 1978, and newcomer Donna Moore.

Marvin, a partner with Toll Ebby since joining in 1990, said the new firm would move its offices to the Center Square building at 1500 Market St.

"The Ebbys preferred a bigger platform with more resources, and the rest of