Practice Areas - Commercial Litigation

 

           The Firm's experienced litigators represent corporate clients in a wide range of commercial cases in the federal and state court systems, from class actions to collections. They have successfully defended businesses and their officers and directors against complex claims including antitrust, breach of contract, construction defects, fraud, interference with contractual relations, violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, libel, product liability, sexual harassment, slander, and wrongful discharge. They have successfully represented plaintiffs in partnership dissolutions, enforcement of covenants not to compete, breaches of construction, bonding, confidentiality, and other contracts, corporate malfeasance, privacy violations, insurance coverage disputes, insurance bad faith, will contests, unlawful discrimination, and other claims.

Labor:

          The firm’s attorneys regularly represent management in regulatory proceedings before the EEOC, OSHA, NLRB, and other federal and state boards, as well as in arbitrations, mediations, condemnation proceedings, and injunction petitions opposing unlawful picketing. In one condemnation matter involving a parking lot that was taken as part of the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the firm got a million-dollar increase in the amount that the government proposed paying our client.

 

          Representative Commercial Litigation Matters

 

  • Class action that drew national and worldwide attention, successfully representing students against a school district that violated student privacy rights by surreptitiously activating Web cameras in school-issued laptop computers.

 

  • Successful litigation involving issue of first impression regarding Advertising Injury coverage under standard commercial general liability insurance policy for claim of Internet trademark infringement. The appellate decision upholding the insurer’s duty to defend in such circumstances is reported at: CAT Internet Services, Inc., v. Providence Washington Ins. Co., 333 F.3d 138 (3d Cir. 2003).

 

  • Successfully defended the gay partner and primary beneficiary of a prominent decedent in a multimillion-dollar will contest, against testamentary capacity claims made by decedent’s distant relatives with the support of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

 

  • Successfully represented shareholders of nationwide business in federal and state court litigation involving corporate control and ownership issues, and in ultimate negotiations to settle the litigation and divide the business sites.

 

  • Successfully defended insurance broker against claims of negligence and breach of contract involving the sale of a life insurance policy.

 

  • Successfully defended a leasing company in a proceeding seeking an injunction to prohibit the company’s sale of tractor-trailers that had been repossessed and were being sold pursuant to UCC Article 9.

 

  • Successfully represented physician in American Arbitration Association action involving partnership dispute.

 

  • Successfully represented the name-partner of a large Philadelphia law firm in litigation arising from junior partners’ attempts to steal major firm clients and start their own firm.

 

  • Successfully represented business brokerage in claim for unpaid commissions due.

 

  • Successfully defended residential property owners against foreclosure actions by proving that alleged mortgagees were not lawful assignees of Mortgages and Promissory Notes.

 

  • Successfully represented high-scoring group of Philadelphia Police Sergeants who were passed over for promotion in favor of lower-scoring candidates in unlawful reverse-discrimination cases of first impression which went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

 

  • Successfully defended prominent area cardiologist against federal antitrust claims brought by foreign-born cardiologist who had begun practicing at same hospital, and won a million-dollar jury verdict on defamation counterclaims.