Montco Commissioner Bruce Castor leaves Elliot Greenleaf, joins firm of Rogers and Associates

Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor announced last week that he is leaving his position with the Blue Bell, Pa. firm Elliot Greenleaf and taking a job as a partner with the Bryn Mawr law office of Rogers and Associates.

According to lead partner Lance Rogers, Castor, a lifelong Montgomery County resident and two-term county district attorney who is now in his sixth year as a county commissioner, will be joining Rogers and Associates effective July 1.

Castor, a county mainstay who worked in the D.A.’s Office for more than two decades, was most recently in private practice with Elliot Greenleaf, serving as a director and shareholder in that firm, which he joined back in 2008 after serving as Montgomery County’s top prosecutor for close to 10 years.

As a private practice attorney, Castor has focused on everything from personal injury litigation to white-collar criminal defense.

In a news release, Rogers stated that his firm, which represents nationwide clients including Fortune 1000 companies, professional athletes, and high-end automotive dealers, is happy to welcome someone of Castor’s legal caliber.

“With Commissioner Castor’s experience especially responding to crisis [sic] as they arise and his proven ability to make rapid decisions and provide timely advice, our firm will be tailor made to his strengths,” Rogers said in the release. “This is over and above Bruce’s extensive courtroom experience and unparalleled knowledge of trial tactics and strategy.”

Castor, who has been recognized numerous times as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, and has also been named as a national “Top 100 Trial Lawyer,” formerly served as the president of the state District Attorneys’ Association.

He graduated from the Washington and Lee University School of Law.

In a statement, Castor said he is “tremendously honored to be asked to join a firm so obviously on the rise with youthful, new, innovative ideas, and an established clientele.”

Castor went on to say that while he wasn’t necessarily looking to take a job with a new firm at this point in his professional life, it was hard to pass up this opportunity.

“I’m glad Lance found me,” Castor stated. “Lance represents his clients with such zeal it appealed to me strongly because his fervor matches my own so closely that I couldn’t resist his enthusiasm and commitment. This is a great opportunity for us, but more importantly, it is what I want for our clients.”

In a joint statement, Rogers and Castor said they were excited to join forces, and bring the “best possible service to clients of any size located anywhere.

“Our firm will provide our clients with excellent and responsive advice and ideas they expect, but will aggressively fight for them in court when litigation is a necessity,” the pair said.

Rogers practiced law with two large Philadelphia firms, Dechert LLP and Pepper Hamilton, before starting his own firm, according to a biography.

Castor, according to his own biography, served in various roles at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office prior to becoming the top prosecutor.

This included positions as deputy district attorney in the trial division, assistant district attorney in charge of the Major Crimes Unit, and as an assistant district attorney on the Sex Crimes Unit.

Castor also has past experience acting as a special prosecutor for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, and often lectures on topics relating to investigation and prosecution.

Castor, who resides in Lower Salford Township in Montgomery County, also serves on a variety of boards and committees, and has received various accolades for his work in public service, his bio states.

In 2010, Castor was appointed to a Blue Ribbon Panel designed to help bring about reform efforts in the City of Philadelphia’s court system.

His tenure as Montgomery County commissioner, however, was mired in some controversy, and led to what was often described as lively public meetings.

Past news reports told of dissention among the ranks during the commissioners’ previous makeup, beginning with a so-called power-sharing grab between former Commissioners Jim Matthews and Joseph Hoeffel, a move that supposedly left Castor out of the deliberative loop.

Hoeffel, a Democrat who previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Matthews, a Republican, and brother of MSNBC host Chris Matthews, engaged in a bipartisan partnership that was said to irk Castor, a Republican.

During the time all three were on the county board together, there seemed to be near-weekly news reports in local media telling of spats between Castor and the Matthews-Hoeffel team.

Matthews and Hoeffel are no longer on the county Board of Commissioners.

They were replaced by two Democrats, former state representative Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards.

The election of Shapiro and Richards marked the first time the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners has been controlled by Democrats in more than a century.

Castor had also mulled a run for governor, earlier signaling his intentions to mount a Republican primary campaign against Gov. Corbett.

But he later told the media he was abandoning his bid to be the commonwealth’s chief executive, opting instead to remain in his commissioners post and focus on private practice.