After more than a decade of growth in Montgomery County, Rebar Kelly is taking its insurance defense practice to a national stage, writes Jeff Blumenthal for The Philadelphia Business Journal.
Rebar Kelly, a civil litigation and insurance defense firm based in Blue Bell, has been acquired by Tyson & Mendes, one of the country’s fastest-growing national trial firms.
The deal, announced Monday, brings Rebar Kelly’s attorneys and clients into a platform with more than 300 lawyers across 27 offices nationwide.
The Deal
Cathleen Kelly Rebar founded the firm in 2012 after stints as a prosecutor at the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office. She also previously served as a Deputy Attorney General for the Eastern Region of Pennsylvania, where she prosecuted neglect in long-term care sectors and healthcare fraud.
For her, the acquisition is less about disruption and more about opportunity.
“It’s a big shift on paper, but in reality it’s just integrating our firm into the back office of theirs, because we were pretty aligned with regards to how we do things,” she said.
The firm’s nine local lawyers and staff will relocate to Tyson & Mendes’ offices at the Radnor Financial Center. Attorneys in other Rebar Kelly markets will move into existing Tyson & Mendes locations as well.
What Rebar Kelly Does
The firm has built its reputation defending insurance carriers and their insureds across a wide range of complex matters. That includes coverage disputes, bad faith claims, fraud investigations, professional liability, and employment litigation.
It also covers cases involving health care providers, long-term care facilities, medical colleges, accountants, architects, attorneys, and design professionals.
That specialty focus makes Rebar Kelly a natural fit for the San Diego– based firm. Tyson & Mendes has built its national brand around high-stakes insurance defense and protecting clients from what the industry calls nuclear verdicts, the kind of runaway jury awards that have become a growing concern for insurers and corporate defendants alike.
The Bigger Picture
For Rebar personally, the deal comes with a welcome shift in day-to-day responsibilities. Running a firm means splitting time between practicing law and managing a business. Under Tyson & Mendes, she said, that balance changes.
The acquisition also signals something larger happening across the legal industry. As litigation costs rise and jury awards climb, regional insurance defense firms are increasingly finding that scale matters.
For Blue Bell, it means the end of Rebar Kelly as an independent local firm. For the attorneys involved, it means joining one of the most aggressive national players in their field.
To learn more about the Rebar Kelly acquisition and what it means for the former Blue Bell firm, visit The Philadelphia Business Journal.
