Connon Wood Scheidemantle LLP is a civil litigation and business counseling law firm. The Firm's partners are experienced litigators and counselors, each of whom formerly practiced with large international law firms. The Firm litigates matters in Federal and State courts throughout the United States and also handles international arbitrations worldwide.
The Firm maintains the highest levels of skill, dedication, integrity and commitment to excellence. Client matters are handled by the Firm on a pro-active basis that remains mindful of pursuing creative ways to achieve the best possible results through cost-effective and innovative fee arrangements. It is for this reason that most of the Firm's clientele have been represented by the Firm's attorneys for many years. The Firm embraces the use of the latest technology and litigation resources in handling matters. Attorneys at the Firm are fluent or conversant in French, Arabic, Norwegian, Armenian, Russian, Korean, Dutch as well as English. With relationships throughout the United States and the World, there is scarcely a venue that the Firm is unable to assist its clientele in navigating through complex and challenging legal issues and problems, at home or abroad. The Firm's major practice areas include the following:
US LITIGATION
The Firm's practice is focused on complex civil litigation matters, including defense of major class and representative actions, prosecution and defense of unfair business practice cases, intellectual property litigation, business tort litigation, environmental and toxic tort litigation, product liability litigation, insurance recovery, misrepresentation and fraud claims, contract disputes, and real estate disputes. Our clients rely on the Firm's extensive litigation expertise to vigorously advance their interests both as plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts across the country and before administrative tribunals. The Firm's attorneys have successfully represented clients in jury and bench trials and in appellate proceedings nationwide. We also incorporate expertise from our other key practice areas to develop compliance programs and perform risk assessments to help reduce a client's overall litigation exposure.
INTERNATIONAL LITIGATION
The Firm represents its US and international clientele in a variety of transnational complex litigation matters arising out of international business transactions, foreign investments, and joint ventures, and in cross-border multi-jurisdictional litigation often involving simultaneous lawsuits in different countries. In doing so, we assist clients throughout the US as well as in the courts of various foreign countries in Europe, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. The Firm's attorneys have been granted the right to represent our clients' interests in foreign courts when they appeared there as parties or as witnesses. We have represented clients in numerous high-value international disputes arising out of events located in various countries and in simultaneous proceedings in the US and the courts of different nations. In many of those instances, our clients have asked us also to act as coordinating counsel for their worldwide litigations and foreign counsel to ensure that both the US and non-US legal proceedings are conducted as cohesively, efficiently, and effectively as possible. Our clients have also looked to the Firm's attorneys to represent them in evidentiary proceedings abroad under various international conventions, such as The Hague Convention On The Taking Of Evidence Abroad In Civil Or Commercial Matters. In addition, clients rely on our extensive experience to coordinate evidence gathering endeavors abroad in aid of defending their interests in both US and foreign litigations.
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION
The Firm's lawyers have represented clients in numerous high value arbitral proceedings, including in some of the world's most complex and largest international arbitrations. Our attorneys have extensive experience with arbitrations governed by the rules of numerous different arbitration institutions, including those of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the International Center of Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Our attorneys appear for clients in arbitration proceedings across the world. Our knowledge of and familiarity with civil as well as common law legal systems, both when it comes to procedure as well as substantive law, has enabled us to optimally represent our clients before arbitral tribunals composed of arbitrators from both civil and common law countries. Dual law degrees from countries in both the civil and common law world, language skills, and cultural awareness born of having lived and practiced law extensively both abroad and in the US, are but a few of the many qualifications that make our attorneys the "go-to" choice of clients when they need to have their interests protected in an international arbitration ¿ be it offensively as claimants or defensively as respondents. In addition, our extensive experience with cross-examination, oral and written argument, disclosure procedures, and international cross-border ancillary proceedings (such as anti-suit injunctions, foreign document discovery proceedings, and international witness and evidentiary hearings) have enabled the Firm's attorneys to achieve optimal results for our arbitration clients even under the most difficult of international circumstances.
MEDIATION AND OTHER ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR)
The Firm's attorneys have extensive experience representing and assisting clients in mediating a broad range of disputes and in a variety of other alternative dispute resolution processes to insure that our clients' business and commercial disputes are handled as effectively and cost efficiently as possible. The Firm strongly believes that litigation risks and fee expenditures should be evaluated on an ongoing basis relative to the issues in dispute and possibilities for alternative dispute resolution to insure that client objectives and interests are accomplished. The Firm's mediation and alternative dispute resolution practice includes mediation, mini-trials, conciliation, expert determination proceedings, expert evaluation, fact-finding procedures, and early neutral evaluation. In addition to representing our clients in ADR proceedings, we help clients establish dispute handling systems, structure dispute resolution clauses in contracts, and advise clients in creating individually tailored ADR proceedings. The Firm's attorneys have also served as mediators and other neutrals in such proceedings. Rather than treat mediations as a distraction from litigation, as is far too often the case, the Firm's attorneys bring to bear significant ADR experience, having dealt with billions of dollars worth of claims in mediations. Accordingly, we bring to every ADR situation a high level of specific, targeted experience. Mediation and ADR proceedings require a special skill set and awareness of the issues, and demand an ADR-specific approach ¿ often different from or supplementary to what is required in litigation or even arbitration. There is no substitute for the extensive international specific experience we bring to such situations. It enables the Firm's clients to extract maximum benefit from such proceedings.
EMPLOYMENT LAW
The Firm's lawyers provide representation and counsel to assist clients with the myriad of challenges that arise in the workplace. The Firm represents employers and executives in all aspects of employment law and litigation, including in the areas of wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, wage and hour, family and medical leaves, disability discrimination and accommodation, health and safety, non-competition covenants, protection of trade secrets, employment defamation, structuring/drafting of executive compensation packages and agreements, indemnification rights, privacy rights, workers compensation leaves and discrimination, governmental investigations by administrative agencies, reductions in force and corporate restructuring, employment policies and procedures and employee handbooks, and day-to-day counsel on a broad range of employment law matters to assist clients to avoid costly disputes and litigation in this area, and, when necessary, aggressively and strategically defend such disputes.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT AND LITIGATION
Our intellectual property practice offers clients a full range of legal services relating to the acquisition, enforcement, and commercial exploitation of intellectual property assets. The Firm litigates matters related to trademark infringement and dilution, trade secret, copyright, patent infringement, unfair competition, false advertising, and right of publicity actions in the federal and state courts throughout the US. We also advise clients on technology transfer and licensing agreements, as well as trademark and copyright registration and portfolio management.
INSURANCE RECOVERY
The Firm's insurance recovery practice is dedicated to protecting and maximizing policyholders' insurance assets. To achieve these goals, we counsel clients generally on their risk management practices, assist clients in pursuing existing coverage for pending claims, engage in negotiations with insurance carriers, pursue coverage-in-place agreements in large, multi-insurer matters, and, if necessary, engage in coverage litigation. Our coverage practice is national and, at times, international in nature and very often involves highly complex matters with multiple insurers, allocation disputes among them, and multiple layers and types of coverage implicating the laws of multiple jurisdictions. We handle coverage matters involving the full range of business insurance, including products completed operations, property damage and loss, construction, errors and omission, environmental, directors and officers liability, technology, employment, entertainment, bodily injury, mass toxic tort, workers' compensation, wrongful death, and business interruption. We have recovered significant benefits on behalf of our clients and advised them on the principal coverage issues that arise under standard liability and first-party property policies, as well as many specialty coverage. The Firm's lawyers have expertise in the thicket of procedural issues that arise in major coverage litigation, including choice of law, forum non convenient, party joinder, case management issues, and duty-to-defend issues such as independent counsel and fee rate limitation issues.
COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS
The Firm assists clients with matters related to all aspects of commercial agreements, from the development, protection, licensing, financing, and sale of technology, services, and products, to the agreements integral to the growth and expansion of our clients' businesses. We augment the legal services we provide with experience in varied industries both nationally and worldwide through our international network of associated firms. We have expertise in each of the various transaction structures and vehicles inherent in such arrangements, including services agreements, joint ventures, strategic alliances, share and asset transactions, distribution agreements, reseller agreements, co-branding agreements, and other common commercial agreements.