Duane Morris has brought on a former Commonwealth Court judge to help organize and grow its appellate practice.

Robert Byer joined the firm as a partner from the Pittsburgh office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, where he has practiced for the past 14 years since his term on the bench ended in 1992.

Duane Morris does not currently have a formalized appellate practice, with that work being handled as a subgroup of the firm's trial practice group, Byer said.

He will work with the head of the trial group, John Soroko, in formalizing the appellate group and "bringing the talent to bear in an organized way," Byer said.

Byer began at the firm on Monday and said the details as to how the group will be formed have yet to be decided.

That doesn't mean Byer is without a plan.

"Some of the most valuable work appellate lawyers can do is to be involved in the trial level" by "framing" and "preserving" issues, he said.

According to Byer, his time as a judge has helped him realize some arguments that seem persuasive may actually have the opposite effect on the court.

Byer said he has a background in general commercial litigation and will not focus solely on appellate work.

A number of his clients, some of whom have followed him over to Duane Morris, rely on Byer to act more as a counselor on strategic business issues, he said. He has done risk analysis, strategizing, corporate governance and compliance work over the years. Most of his clients are major corporations, he said.

Other areas of practice Byer focuses on include intellectual property litigation and administrative law.

Byer will split his time between Duane Morris' Philadelphia and Pittsburgh offices, but he said the opportunity to work in Philadelphia was an important part of his decision to make the move.

Talks of his moving to Duane Morris started a while back when a former colleague from Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, George M. Medved, moved to the firm to start up its Pittsburgh office.

That office opened back in August 2003, and Byer said he has been thinking about the move on and off since then. He said it was not until now that the switch was possible.

Byer is no stranger to building an appellate practice. That was what he did at Kirkpatrick Lockhart as the founder and leader of its appellate practice.

He said the split with the firm was "professional" on both sides.

No one from Kirkpatrick & Lockhart responded to a request for comment about Byer's move.

Frank D'Amore of Attorney Career Catalysts said that there are some firms in the city that have really strong appellate practices, but said that the addition of appellate attorneys as a whole is not on the rise.

He said for large firms, particularly with strong and deep litigation practices, appellate attorneys are necessary.

Charles L. Becker of Reed Smith is the chairman of the Philadelphia Bar Association's appellate courts committee.

He said that firms in Washington, D.C., and California, as well as government agencies, have had formalized appellate practices for years. They are common in insurance defense firms as well, he said.

It wasn't until about five years ago that large Philadelphia firms started to think the same way, he said.

"The culture of Philadelphia law is, by and large, one where lawyers expect to shepherd a case from start to finish," he said, adding that that line of thinking has begun to change.

"It is emblematic of a larger development of how law firms organize themselves," Becker said.

It is important for firms to have practitioners that specialize in the area because of the increasingly complex guidelines of how to operate in appellate courts as well as the cultural differences between appellate and lower courts, he said.

When it comes to Byer, Becker said he is known in the Pittsburgh area as "one of the leading appellate practitioners."

Byer is a founding steering committee member of the recently formed 3rd Circuit Bar Association.

After serving on the Commonwealth Court, Byer spent four years as a judge of the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline while at Kirkpatrick Lockhart.

He is a former director of the American Judicature Society and elected member of the American Law Institute.

He taught courses focusing on appellate review of administrative agency decisions at the National Judicial College and on civil procedure as an adjunct faculty member at Duquesne University School of Law.

Byer was chairman of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court advisory committee on appellate court rules for five years.

Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.