Former NJ-Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner Steven J. Picco, who for years in private practice has advised such prominent industry clients as the New Jersey Chemistry Council, recently headed up what LAW.COM describes as:

“a five-lawyer defection from the Princeton, N.J., office of international giant Reed Smith to the cozier confines of 250-lawyer regional firm Saul Ewing.”

Taking the 2.1-mile trip with Picco, from Reed Smith’s Princeton offices on Route One’s Forrestal Village to Saul Ewing’s digs at 750 College Road East, were fellow environmental lawyers Andrea Lipuma, Tom Burns and Cristina Stummer and insurance lawyer Paige Berry.

The move doesn’t exactly wipe out Reed Smith’s Princeton office. They still have 50 attorneys there and the firm, overall, has been growing by leaps and bounds. In 1999, Reed Smith was a Pittsburgh-based regional firm with 510 lawyers pulling in $165 million annually. Since then, the firm has more than doubled in size while expanding to 18 offices around the globe.

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