Litigation

For more than two decades, the members of our Antitrust practice have represented individual clients in some of the biggest and most complex antitrust cases in the country. The practice regularly handles cutting edge issues at the intersection of the antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory laws.

Our clients frequently attempt to avoid the cost, delay, and publicity of traditional courtroom litigation by seeking out alternative dispute resolution methods, such as arbitration and mediation. We are skilled in all aspects of ADR, and have handled ADR proceedings before many tribunals. Many of our attorneys have themselves acted as neutral parties, serving as Judges Pro Tem, mediators, special masters, or arbitrators.

Clients seek us out to handle their most high-stakes appeals. We are frequently retained when cases are on appeal to seek relief from multimillion-dollar trial verdicts. We regularly navigate appeals involving highly complex substantive and procedural issues. On several occasions, we have persuaded higher appellate courts to reverse the decisions of intermediate appellate courts. We have also been called upon to take on cases at the trial level with the goal of taking important, unsettled legal questions to appellate courts.

Our clients benefit from our ability to combine broad litigation experience with in-depth knowledge of creditor’s rights and bankruptcy law and procedure. Our bankruptcy and creditor’s rights lawyers are experienced in workouts and bankruptcy reorganizations, the acquisition or sale of financially troubled businesses and assets privately or through receiverships and bankruptcy proceedings, and bankruptcy litigation, including preferences and fraudulent transfers.

We regularly handle disputes between businesses, as well as internal disputes involving the management and ownership of businesses. For example, we litigate claims flowing from mergers, acquisitions, dissolutions, shareholder disputes, joint ventures, and other corporate activities. We assess and handle lawsuits involving such issues as contractual breach and interpretation; technology use, licensing, and sale; insurance coverage; trade secrets; and “raiding” of employees.

Together with our Environmental Law attorneys, we defend clients against government enforcement actions such as civil penalty actions for unpermitted discharges and emissions or violations of other regulatory requirements; defend and prosecute Superfund and other environmental cost recovery claims; handle appeals from administrative agency actions; and litigate private contractual cases, insurance recovery claims, citizens’ suits, natural resource damages actions, toxic tort claims, and other environmental cases.

We have significant experience at the Orphans’ Court and appellate levels in litigating challenges to wills or to the actions of executors. For example, in an appeal on behalf of an executor to a large estate, we successfully argued to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that a lower court’s removal of previous executors was proper. In another matter, we successfully challenged the executrix of an estate on behalf of the decedent’s widow. On behalf of the executors of other estates, we have twice resisted discovery against our clients on the grounds that would-be challenges to wills or executors’ actions cannot proceed unless the challengers have a reasonable basis for their allegations.

While our renowned Family Law practitioners seek out collaborative solutions for their clients whenever possible, they also have a tremendous amount of experience litigating at the trial and appellate levels in Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.

Our litigators, several of whom are also members of our Education Law practice, are often called upon to render advice to public institutions and government entities and, when necessary, to represent them in high-profile litigation projects. We have represented various Departments of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in litigation relating to, among other things, electronic voting machines, school district receiverships, and challenges to legislation. We have also represented the City of Philadelphia in a number of matters, including, most recently, the defense of the city’s 2016 Sweetened Beverage Tax. On behalf of the Township of Lower Merion, PA, we recently defeated a challenge to a redevelopment plan; we also represent a school district in litigation involving charter schools and other issues.

We have represented insurers, hospitals, vendors, practice groups, and individuals regarding a wide variety of health care issues, including those relating to reimbursement and those flowing from sales and acquisitions of assets, vendor agreements, and employment decisions. We have represented managed care and health maintenance organizations in cases brought by health care providers alleging improper claims processing or payment procedures. We have also guided health care providers through the legal issues created by changes in the health care system, such as managed care and vertical and horizontal consolidation. Our litigators have also represented health care clients in parallel criminal and civil proceedings.

Our dedicated team of Insurance Coverage litigators and counselors tries insurance coverage, reinsurance, and bad faith cases and handles appeals for the world’s largest insurers and specialty insurers in courts and ADR proceedings across the country and abroad. We have extensive start-to-finish experience in coverage and bad faith litigation, including the handling of post-trial motions and appeals, in some of the most difficult jurisdictions for insurers nationwide and in Bermuda, London, and the Cayman Islands.

Technology clients, recognizing our skill in explaining highly technical issues to juries and judges, have retained us to act as lead trial counsel in patent cases. We have been called upon by major international corporations, local technology corporations, law firms, and small family-run businesses to obtain immediate protection from their competitors’ patent, copyright, and trademark infringement, as well as from misuse of their trade secrets. In our Antitrust practice, we often address complex issues of patent law in the course of our representation of retail pharmacy chains against prescription drug manufacturers.

We regularly advise employers and management-level employees on employment termination issues, including prohibitions against competition, protection of confidential information and trade secrets, wrongful discharge, tenure rights, employment discrimination, and harassment. Our litigators represent parties in disputes involving covenants not to compete in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, seeking either to enforce or to prohibit enforcement of such covenants. We also have an active ERISA practice, in which we represent plaintiffs and
defendants in breach of fiduciary duty, prohibited transaction, ESOP, and other ERISA-related
disputes.

We have represented a variety of clients in cases involving claims of defamation and other reputational torts. For example, we recently successfully represented a Philadelphia newspaper in a defamation lawsuit brought by a local union official. We also assist non-media entities facing First Amendment issues.

Working closely with our Real Estate and Bankruptcy departments, we have developed a strong practice in litigation involving real estate interests. We have a great deal of experience addressing questions relating to the valuation, taxation, use, leasing, zoning, and encumbrance of real estate, as well as specific performance of contracts, foreclosures, condemnation actions, defending against foreclosures, and deficiency judgment actions. We also regularly represent both landlords and tenants in litigation of commercial lease disputes. Several of our lawyers also handle complex local real estate tax litigation. In one of our cases, our clients successfully challenged school districts’ practice of selectively appealing the assessments of commercial property owners, in violation of the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution; we handled their appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and obtained a favorable decision.

We are well known for our skill in representing other lawyers and their law firms in litigation, and we have defended many of the Philadelphia region’s most prominent law firms in professional misconduct and malpractice actions. We also litigate malpractice claims involving other types of professionals, including accountants. In some cases, we represent the professionals accused of misconduct; in others, the plaintiffs.