Financial Services Shareholders Sean M. Girdwood and Brian D. Trudgen Talk Move to Buchanan with Law360, Media Note Addition

As Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's newest Financial Services shareholders Sean M. Girdwood and Brian D. Trudgen explained to Law 360, "the real factors [for joining Buchanan] were the breadth and depth of the firm's finance practice and the ancillary practices," including the robust Real Estate Section.

"All the practice groups feed to each other and work with each other," Girdwood said.

Both attorneys joined Buchanan's financial services and real estate practices on January 3 from Thorp Reed's Pittsburgh office, where Girdwood chaired the commercial, real estate and public finance practice.

Trudgen has extensive experience on commercial real estate financing and leasing deals and indicated it was important to join a finance practice with an impressive real estate side.

"Not a lot of development transactions are occurring now," Trudgen explained. "The real estate practice here is quite robust, and that presents opportunities for me to do some borrow-side work in real estate transactions."

The articled noted Girdwood and Trudgen "primarily work on front-end financing deals for lenders, though they do represent a sizable minority of borrowers as well."

Girdwood and Trudgen explained the transition to Buchanan has been relatively seamless given the large number of the firm's clients that the pair worked with while at Thorp Reed.

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney CEO John A. "Jack" Barbour praised Girdwood and Trudgen's hire as testament to the firm's commitment "to strength its foothold in providing legal services to clients in the financial services and real estate industries," noted the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Girdwood and Trudgen's addition to Buchanan was also covered in the American Banking & Finance Journal.