Philadelphia-based law firm White & Williams is opening a suburban New York office with 10 lawyers from Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

The Pleasantville, N.Y., office will focus on directors and officers liability insurance, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The move by the Edwards Angell lawyers, including partner John McCarrick, leaves the law firm with 10 percent fewer lawyers in its insurance and reinsurance department. McCarrick will be managing partner of the new White & Williams office.

Guy Cellucci, chair of White & Williams' commercial litigation department, told the Intelligencer that D&O is a "booming" practice because of things like "mortgage and securitization fraud and [Bernard] Madoff-type issues.” Celluci said his firm views D&O as "an area that's going to explode."

Robert Zinn, a recruiter with Major Lindsey & Africa, told the Intelligencer that a number of Edwards Angell associates and partners have left the firm in the last 18 months, but he’s not sure if they were asked to leave or if they left on their own. Either way, he told the Intelligencer, White & Williams made a good acquisition