Conshohocken-based plaintiffs law firm Pogust & Braslow is now officially Pogust Braslow & Millrood.

Effective on the first of the year, Tobias L. Millrood, a plaintiffs lawyer who specializes in mass tort litigation, joined the firm as a partner upon his departure from Radnor-based firm Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler in December.

"I've known these guys for a long time," said Millrood, whose friendship with founding partner Derek T. Braslow, in particular, dates back to the mid-'90s when the two were still in law school. "We've all worked side by side on parallel torts over the years and I think we're all very similar in the way we think, the way we work, and in our philosophies."

David Kessler, a senior partner at Schiffrin Barroway, said Millrood's departure was amicable.

"On a personal level, we're all saddened to see him leave," he said. "We hope he does great at his new firm. We're happy for him and we wish him the best."

Millrood, who graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1995, has devoted much of his career to representing plaintiffs in pharmaceutical and medical malpractice cases, including Wallace v. Fraider, a $22 million malpractice verdict in which he served as co-counsel. He also argued Cullen v. Pennsylvania Prop. & Cas. Ins. Guar. Ass'n, which modified state workers' compensation law, and Estate of Magette v. Goodman, which revised medical malpractice law.

"Tobi's as distinguished a pharmaceutical malpractice attorney as you're likely to find," said Braslow. "We're thrilled to have him here."

Millrood brings an experienced background in mass tort litigation to his new position. At Schiffrin Barroway, he managed the mass tort department, which, he said, began as "just me and some files alone," and eventually became a prominent branch of the firm with more than a dozen attorneys working under his guidance.

He said he left Schiffrin Barroway not because he was unhappy with the firm, but because of the opportunity he saw with Pogust & Braslow.

"I can't thank [Schiffrin Barroway] enough for the opportunities they presented to me and managing a department there was great," he said. "But there's certainly a difference between managing a department and managing your own firm. [Going to Pogust & Braslow] was the next natural progression for my career."

Currently, Millrood has several-hundred cases pending involving hormone therapy, a topic he has spoken at seminars and published an article about.

Pogust & Braslow is also largely invested in mass tort cases, particularly pharmaceutical litigation, including those concerning the alleged link between Paxil and suicides, in which the firm is liaison and lead counsel.

Millrood expressed interest in the opportunity to help the firm grow through a "synthesis of leadership abilities."

"I'm looking forward to being able to merge our talents and abilities to build something very special," Millrood said.

According to Braslow, the firm is looking to Millrood to help them expand their practice to possibly include more mass tort and consumer class action cases, as well as more litigation involving other types of negligence such as predatory lending and automotive accident cases, both of which the firm has begun to dabble in recently.

"He fits right in with what we've already been doing," Braslow said.

As far as which areas of practice the firm will ultimately concentrate most heavily on in the future, Millrood said they'll let the legal climate dictate that.

Right now, he said, the firm remains committed to the victims of corporate negligence.

"As long as there continue to be corporations making products that hurt plaintiffs, we'll be there to fight them," he said.

While he acknowledges the challenges facing a smaller firm that is looking to expand, especially in the time-intensive and often laborious area of mass tort litigation, Millrood believes it can be done provided the firm has an effective system in place.

"Everyone in the firm has to be dedicated to organization and efficiency," he said. "And one person needs to be able to do the work of three or four people."

That's not to say the firm is against hiring temporary attorneys for tasks like document review when the hourglass is running out on a case.

"When we get heavy into discovery sometimes we'll hire temporary attorneys," he said.

Susan Rubinovitz of Abelson Legal Search, which provides law firms with temporary attorneys and vice versa, said a lot of smaller firms turn to her company periodically when they need to do battle with bigger firms.

"Using temporary attorneys can make smaller firms very competitive and can save a lot of time and money," she said.

Regardless of the size of the staff, Millrood said he believes quality trumps quantity when it comes to going head to head with the big firms.

"We'll never have the resources to outgun big corporations," he said. "But if we work intelligently and efficiently, we can out-lawyer them."

And while temporary attorneys are a cost-effective resource for firms to use in a pinch, Millrood said his firm has placed no limit on the amount of full-time attorneys it would consider adding if necessary to appropriately staff cases and continue its growth in the future.

"We do view this is as something of a long-term expansion," he said.

For now, Millrood sees an advantage to being a smaller firm, especially one with what he calls a "family atmosphere."

"[The atmosphere of closeness] flows down to the clients and they pick up on it," he said. "It sets their minds at ease. They can tell that we care about each of their cases because they can see that we care about each other. They know that they're not just numbers to us."