Representative matters
Represented two of the three shareholders of a Philadelphia food distribution company in claims that the third, who ran daily operations, had steered customers and corporate opportunities to a business he owned separately. Lead trial counsel in a six-day bench trial in the Commerce Program on claims for breach of fiduciary duty and an accounting. At stake: control of a company two families had owned for two generations, and the price at which one side would buy out the other.
Represented a Montgomery County precision-machining company against its former sales director and his new employer under the Pennsylvania Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, in the Eastern District. Ran expedited discovery, including a forensic review of the former employee’s laptop and phone, and examined witnesses at a two-day preliminary injunction hearing. At stake: twenty years of customer pricing and the accounts built on it.
Defended a regional beverage distributor sued for breach of contract by a national supplier after the distributor ended their distribution agreement. Lead counsel through discovery and summary judgment in the Eastern District, and argued the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. At stake: a damages claim the supplier measured as several years of projected profits.
Represented the sellers of an HVAC services company in an arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association over the buyer’s calculation of post-closing earn-out payments. First chair at a five-day evidentiary hearing. The case turned on how the purchase agreement defined EBITDA and who controlled the books after closing. At stake: the final two years of earn-out payments.
Tried a breach of warranty and fraud case to a jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas for a manufacturer of commercial kitchen equipment, then handled post-trial motions and the appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. At stake: the cost of replacing equipment across a restaurant group’s locations, and the manufacturer’s standing with its largest distributor.
Representative matters describe the lawyer’s role and what was at stake. Each matter turned on its own facts and law, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
How the work is done
Within the first month of a matter, she sends the client a written assessment: what the case is likely worth, what it will cost to take through trial, and what would have to change for a settlement to make sense. She drafts the trial outline before discovery is served and uses it to decide which depositions are worth taking. When a client needs a temporary restraining order, the team is prepared to file and be heard within days. She argues the appeals of the cases she tries. When a dispute grows out of a job site, a workplace or a regulatory investigation, she tries it alongside the lawyers in the firm’s Construction, Employment or Health Care Regulatory groups who know the underlying work.
Before Harwell Brandt
She clerked for a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, then spent four years as a litigation associate at a large Philadelphia firm. She joined Harwell Brandt in 2008 and became a partner in 2014.