Duane Morris LLP

Duane Morris has a broad trial practice with emphasis on commercial litigation, franchise litigation, products liability, patent litigation, software litigation, construction law and related litigation. More detailed descriptions of our practice in these areas are contained in separate overviews and are available upon request.

Range of Services

The firm's commercial litigation practice encompasses all aspects of commercial relationships, including disputes involving the Uniform Commercial Code, contracts, business dissolutions, leveraged buyouts and other financial arrangements.

Antitrust and Trade Litigation. Our trial lawyers represent clients in private treble damage actions, individuals and corporations indicted for criminal violations of the antitrust laws and companies that have received grand jury subpoenas. In addition to matters involving monopolization, price discrimination, dealer termination, territorial restraints, price-related restraints and restrictive covenants, we have represented clients in cases involving Lanham Act unfair competition claims and trademark infringement. The firm also handles trade regulation work, counseling clients on the legality of business and distribution arrangements under the antitrust and consumer protection laws.

Corporate Litigation. Duane Morris represents clients in litigation involving public and closely held corporations and corporate officers, directors and shareholders. This includes litigation involving management and corporate control issues, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder appraisal rights, contract disputes, employment agreements, covenants not to compete, financial transactions and insurance coverage disputes. We also represent partnerships, partners and sole proprietors in similar types of commercial litigation.

In addition to our commercial litigation practice in the state and federal courts, our lawyers handle declaratory judgments, preliminary injunctions, alternative dispute resolution, domestic and international arbitrations, mini-trials and mediation proceedings.

Securities Litigation. The firm represents clients in litigation brought under state and federal securities laws. Our securities litigation practice ranges from litigation resulting from initial public offerings to shareholder disputes stemming from mergers and acquisitions and tender offers, as well as insurance coverage issues raised in these contexts. The firm also represents clients in securities class actions.

Our lawyers have represented management, as well as outside directors, in various cases involving challenges to public disclosures in connection with public offerings, derivative actions involving fiduciary duty claims and claims brought by regulators and rehabilitators. In addition, Duane Morris has represented both the acquirer and the target in hostile takeovers that have involved issues of securities law, as well as corporate litigation.

In the retail brokerage area, the firm has represented brokerage firms, registered representatives and public customers in litigation and arbitration in all aspects of securities law, including broker-customer cases, intra-industry disputes and employment claims. Our lawyers also have served as arbitrators for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, providing a unique perspective on how such cases are viewed by those who decide them.

Franchise Litigation. Duane Morris represents both franchisors and franchisees in disputes arising out of their business relationships, including claims for trademark infringement, breach of the franchise agreement and fraud, as well as actions for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief in connection with the termination of the franchise relationship.

RICO and Consumer Protection Litigation. Our lawyers handle treble damage cases for clients arising under the RICO statute, as well as class action lawsuits against businesses for violation of various state consumer protection laws in connection with the advertising and merchandising of their products and services.

Real Estate and Tax Assessment Litigation. Our lawyers have represented businesses in cases involving land use issues, including easements and condemnation, and have been involved in tax sale disputes with local governments, as well as disputes relating to the financing of real estate transactions. The firm also has a substantial practice representing both small and large businesses against municipalities, challenging real estate tax assessments on grounds of improper rates and ratios and improperly assessed valuations.

Injunction Practice. Duane Morris maintains a group of lawyers who are available to appear in both state and federal courts to obtain injunctive relief for the firm's business clients. The firm has represented businesses in a variety of proceedings seeking injunctive relief including restrictive covenants, letters of credit issues, protection of collateral, franchise terminations, public and private nuisance claims, and theft of trade secrets and other proprietary business information.

"In my discussions with Duane Morris leaders, they frequently speak about how diversity within their firm has enabled them to better serve their diverse clients. They understand that investing in diversity is a wise business decision that positions them for the marketplace of the future."

Don Liu
Senior VP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
Xerox Corporation

At Duane Morris, achieving diversity is paradoxical. By supporting and celebrating the differences of our attorneys - and the individual strengths that they bring - our firm culture expands, fostering creative solutions for our clients. But diversity at Duane Morris does not mean that we have a certain number of diverse attorneys; true diversity means that it is no longer noteworthy to see diverse lawyers leading our practice groups or managing client relationships. Ascending to positions of leadership and greater responsibility and providing the highest levels of client service is simply what is expected of all our lawyers. Diversity is another strong asset that adds to our collective abilities to meet the needs of our clients.

Our vision of diversity at Duane Morris is to realize an environment in which our lawyers' outstanding qualities are not just measured by ethnicity, race, gender and sexual orientation, but more importantly, that our lawyers are remarkable as excellent attorneys above all else. Only then can we celebrate our differences while focusing on the common pursuit of legal excellence which everyone shares at Duane Morris.

To reach this goal, Duane Morris understands that the familiar diversity strategies and policies that most law firms have are needed. Without demanding results from such policies, most law firms are bound to fail in even achieving numerical hiring and retention goals. Duane Morris has been proactive and ambitious in its efforts to improve diversity at the firm, and has set deadlines for reaching the milestones which mark our progress. To create a more diverse law firm, Duane Morris is:

• Committed to strategically increasing our diversity levels, which is currently at 10 percent.
• Bringing together our Diversity Committee and our Hiring and Retention Committee to raise diversity as an important factor in our hiring decisions.
• Dedicated to improving retention by building upon our monitoring and mentoring program for all diverse associates.

Combining new initiatives with our longstanding diversity efforts, Duane Morris has seen increasingly positive results. In the Minority Law Journal's annual diversity survey of the nation's largest 260 firms, Duane Morris continued to improve its regional and national ranking, rising to number 136 of all firms surveyed. Our strides in Philadelphia are encouraging; in a city known for both the racial diversity of its population and the lack thereof in its law firms, Duane Morris is one of only two law firms to exceed the national average of minority partners at all law firms. Additionally, Duane Morris leads all national law firms based in Philadelphia in the number of Latino partners. Nearly 30 percent of all of our attorneys are women, and more than 20 percent of our partners are women.

In our approach to diversity, progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity cannot be measured in numbers alone. Duane Morris has focused our diversity initiatives on both increasing the number of diverse associates and addressing the challenges diverse attorneys face in building lasting careers and rising to senior and leadership positions. While several of our key practice groups are led by diverse partners and female partners, Duane Morris endeavors to create a culture which will foster a deep pool of such attorneys who can then develop into the firm's future leaders. Duane Morris understands that simply hiring diverse associates will not change the diversity of the firm; Duane Morris is working to mentor and retain diverse associates so that our progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity is also reflected at the highest levels of leadership within the firm.

Our progress on gender diversity has been profound. We have no glass ceilings: women hold positions of leadership at all levels of management at the firm. Women lead a number of our key practice groups, including our Energy, Immigration and International practices, and serve on the firm's Executive Committee. The success of our female attorneys at Duane Morris has not gone unnoticed. Barbara Adams was chair of the firm's Finance Practice until her appointment by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell to serve as General Counsel of the Commonwealth. In 2004, our longtime General Counsel, Gene E.K. Pratter, was approved by the United States Senate and is now a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Our efforts to improve diversity extend beyond our firm's walls. The chair of our Diversity Committee, Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr., recognized the lack of diversity in Philadelphia's legal community and formed the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. Nolan now serves as the chair of the organization, a consortium of 25 law firms and corporations that commits to employing at least one diverse first-year law student each as a summer associate. From this program, law students of diverse backgrounds gain access to what was once an exclusive legal community, and now have the opportunity to learn and develop their legal careers with experience at Philadelphia's top law firms.

In addition to our involvement in the Philadelphia area, Duane Morris has increased our presence at national conferences and events focused on diversity. We sponsor the Hispanic National Bar Association and its job fair. Duane Morris is also a longtime supporter and sponsor of the Equality Forum, a national gay and lesbian rights organization. Duane Morris continues to sponsor the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and is active in other associations of diverse attorneys including: the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley; the Charles Houston Bar Association; Cuban Bar Association; Korean American Lawyers Association; National American Indian Housing Counsel and the National Bar Association.

The challenge of improving gender, ethnic and cultural diversity at Duane Morris is an ongoing effort that has the support of the entire firm. Duane Morris has been at the vanguard in supporting gender diversity throughout the firm beginning a generation ago. Our diversity programs are leading to similar success in improving racial and national origin diversity at Duane Morris. But even as we share these examples of Duane Morris attorneys and our involvement in numerous legal events, associations and programs for diversity, our hope is that such examples will no longer be necessary to mention in the future. We hope that through our efforts, and the efforts of other law firms, these stories become so common that they are no longer the remarkable accomplishments they are today, but simply routine aspects of the legal world tomorrow.