Practice Areas

Preventive Law and Risk Management Services

In the law, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure. Claims, disputes, lawsuits, regulatory proceedings – it all consumes time, money and energy. We can best serve our clients by preventing, not just resolving problems, and we have made "preventive law" and risk management a hallmark of our firm. Many of the articles in the Publications section of our website demonstrate the kinds of strategies we have developed and regularly employ for our clients.

Some examples:

The “Legal Audit.” You can’t prevent a nascent problem unless you know it’s there. We “audit” a company’s policies, practices, personnel capabilities, history and other factors in order to identify potential problem areas. Depending on the client’s preferences, we focus on such matters as employment practices issues (for example, compliance with overtime payment requirements, ADA, FMLA and Title VII compliance, unionization susceptibility, and so on), regulatory compliance issues, collection risks, damage exposure, training deficiencies, problems in forms and procedures, succession planning weaknesses, and so on. Based on what we find, we develop a prevention plan that becomes a part of the fabric of our client's business culture.

Executive and Management Training. We are retained by large and small companies to train their executives and managers in the art of staying out of trouble in such fields as employment practices, protecting trade secrets and intellectual property, Federal Acquisition Regulations, minimizing breach of contract and collection issues, professional malpractice avoidance for architects, engineers, accountants and others, and construction industry issues.

Risk Management Engagements. Many clients and their insurers engage us when they suspect that a legal problem may be developing involving, for instance, a professional malpractice situation, an impending shareholder dispute, a potential products liability or breach of contract claim, and so on. We work with these clients, often behind the scenes, to help them minimize their exposure.

Books and Publications. National publishers have recognized our expertise and published our works. Our attorneys have authored such books as What Every Executive Better Know About the Law (Simon & Schuster), The Four Mistakes: Avoiding the Legal Landmines that Lead to Business Disaster (Sterling Publishing, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble), and State-by-State Guide to Construction Contracts and Claims (Pennsylvania) (Aspen Publishers). Our articles appear in numerous professional and trade publications.

Seminars, Lectures and Teaching. Organizations such as the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (the educational arm of the Pennsylvania Bar Association) regularly engage our lawyers to train other lawyers on topics such as constitutional law, employment law, commercial law, construction law, and law firm administration. Professional associations such as the American Institute of Architects, the MidAtlantic Employers’ Association, Vistage and TAB regularly engage us to train their members in the finer points of doing business. Our lawyers serve as adjunct law school professors.

The “Attorney Hotline.”The MidAtlantic Employers’ Association, an organization comprised of hundreds of companies, has hired us to staff an “attorney hotline” which its membership can call to seek legal advice on business and employment matters. Typically, we help several businesses a week stay out of legal trouble, before it’s too late.

See the PROBLEMS PREVENTED AND SOLVED section of the website.