Attorneys
Houston's Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin will
transform next month from a regionally recognized tax boutique to a
national one when three partners and one associate leave the
Philadelphia office of Washington, D.C.'s Miller & Chevalier to
open a Philadelphia branch of Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
"We have always enjoyed a great reputation as a tax law firm
regionally. With these additions, we will now be national," Chamberlain
Hrdlicka managing shareholder Wayne Risoli says.
Miller & Chevalier partners Herbert Odell, Philip Karter and Kevin
Johnson will start as shareholders in Chamberlain Hrdlicka on Feb. 1.
Miller & Chevalier senior associate Jonathan Prokup will join
Chamberlain Hrdlicka's Philadelphia office as a senior associate. Odell
says he and the three other Miller & Chevalier lawyers joining
Chamberlain Hrdlicka "needed a different platform to work from" and
Chamberlain Hrdlicka -- having established itself as a leader in the
tax field -- provides that platform. Odell began his legal career in
the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice where he worked with
Chamberlain Hrdlicka founding partner George A. Hrdlicka. The three
departing partners joined Miller & Chevalier seven years ago,
leaving a firm Odell founded known as Odell & Partners, Risoli
says.
"They were really good people and we are sorry to lose them," says
Samuel M. Maruca, chairman of Miller & Chevalier's executive
committee, about the defections. He says the departing lawyers
represent the bulk of the firm's Philadelphia office, which will now
operate with two or three lawyers. The Philadelphia branch is Miller
& Chevalier's only office outside D.C., he says, adding that the
firm will concentrate on building its tax practice in the nation's
capital.
Risoli says Chamberlain Hrdlicka -- which started in Houston in 1965
and also has an office in Atlanta -- may open a fourth office by the
beginning of the summer in Washington, D.C. He says Chamberlain
Hrdlicka is in negotiations with a group of prospective laterals from a
Washington tax firm, but he declines to name it. Chamberlain Hrdlicka
has 64 lawyers in its Houston headquarters and 31 in Atlanta, in
addition to the four in Philadelphia.