Newsroom
Yana Shapiro presented at the 2019 ALFA International Hospitality & Retail Practice Group Seminar
Yana Shapiro participated in the 2019 Hospitality & Retail Law Practice Group Seminar – Avoiding and Managing Risk in an Era of Constant Changes in the Retail and Hospitality Industries. Panel on Drug & Alcohol Testing in the Hospitality Workplace: The Messy Process of Ensuring a Clean and Sober Workforce.
Click here to open the 2019 ALFA International – Hospitality & Retail Law Practice Group Seminar Brochure.
Jacob Lehman Chairs ALFA Professional Liability Mini-Seminar in Chicago
On Friday August 2, 2019, ALFA’s Professional Liability Practice Group put on its bi-annual mini-seminar. This year’s event, entitled “Triple Play: Three Strategies for Success in the Big Leagues of Professional Liability Defense” featured three hours of CLE on cutting edge topics in professional liability law. Mr. Lehman served as the program chair and host leading efforts to create and coordinate the event. After the CLE portion of the program invitees were treated to a Cubs v. Brewers game on what turned out to be a beautiful day.
Jacob Lehman and Andre Webb Present On the Impact of Criminal Law in Civil Cases
On July 31, 2019, Mr. Lehman and Mr. Webb had the privilege of giving the presentation “What Every Claims Professional Needs to Know about Criminal Law” to a group of claims professionals and lawyers at a major insurance carrier. The talk covered topics including the assertion and effect of the Fifth Amendment privilege in civil cases, potential collateral estoppel resulting from criminal convictions, and the logistics and law of incarcerated clients in civil depositions and trials.
Andre Webb presents 2019 YLD Diversity Scholarship to Five Outstanding Law Students
On June 12, 2019, Mr. Webb in his capacity as Vice Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (YLD), helped honor five outstanding law students and scholarship recipients at the 2019 YLD Diversity Reception.
Super Lawyers and Rising Stars 2019
GGM Announces 2019 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars
GGM is pleased to announce that Dean F. Murtagh, Gary R. Gremminger, John P. Shusted, Gary H. Hunter, Jeffrey D. Laudenbach, and Chilton G. Goebel, have been named Pennsylvania Super Lawyers for 2019. Jacob C. Lehman has been named a “Rising Star” for 2019.
Jacob Lehman and Michael Dolan Publish Article in Legal Intelligencer
Mr. Lehman and Mr. Dolan’s article, Does registering to do Business in Pennsylvania mean Consent to General Personal Jurisdiction, explores the hot topic of whether Pennsylvania’s unique corporate registration statute can serve as an anchor for plaintiff’s seeking to sue in Pennsylvania on the basis of general personal jurisdiction
The full article can be reached here.
Defense Verdict in a Product Liability Case (Tractor Design)
On October 5, 2018, Dean Murtagh and Jacob Lehman obtained a defense verdict on behalf of their client, a manufacturer of agricultural equipment, after a three-week wrongful death jury trial in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
The trial centered on a May 2013 accident at an orchard in Freehold New Jersey where the Plaintiff’s Decedent was killed while operating an agricultural utility tractor (the “Tractor”) manufactured and sold by the Defendant in 1975. On the day of the accident, the Decedent, together with his co-worker, was using the Tractor and a chain to pull downed trees out of a field. The men improperly high-hitched the chain to the Tractor at a point above the rear axle; something that is warned against in the manual and in decals on the machine. When the Decedent drove the tractor forward the log he was pulling became stuck and the Tractor flipped over front to rear landing on top of the Decedent and killing him.
At trial the Plaintiff contended the Tractor was defective for failing to incorporate a rollover protective system (ROPS) when manufactured and sold. Through Mr. Murtagh and Mr. Lehman, the Defendant maintained that this Tractor, which was a custom designed machine for low-profile orchard use, could not have a ROPS in 1975 because it destroyed the tractors utility under low fruit trees and actually made it more dangerous in the orchard. The Defendant also maintained that the cause of the accident was not the Tractor but instead the actions of the Plaintiff and his co-worker in improperly hitching the Tractor and the actions of the farm in failing to train its employees and failing to give them the right equipment for the job. The demand prior to trial was 3.8 million dollars. The jury returned a complete defense verdict.
Jeff Laudenbach Presents at ALFA International Workers’ Compensation Practice Group Seminar
Jeff Laudenbach recently spoke at the ALFA International Workers’ Compensation Practice Group Seminar on the panel: “A Wave (Of New Technology) in the Oasis”.
Click here to open the 2018 ALFA International – Workers’ Compensation Practice Group Seminar Program Brochure.
Chad Goebel obtained a Defense Award for a Primary Care Physician
Chad Goebel obtained a Defense Award for a primary care physician following binding hi/low arbitration where plaintiff alleged a failure to diagnose DVT leading to permanent injury.
Defense Verdict in a Products Liability Case
Dean Murtagh and Jacob Lehman obtained a defense verdict on behalf of their client, an international manufacturer of agricultural equipment, after a three-week jury trial in Philadelphia.
The trial centered on a 2015 accident where the plaintiff, a laborer, was injured when an agricultural utility tractor he was attempting to hotwire-start ran over and crushed his foot. The plaintiff underwent several surgeries and complained of an ongoing diagnosis of reflex sympathetic dystrophy/complex regional pain syndrome that would require amputation of his leg. He also suffered from a severe cervical myelopathy that he said was related to the accident. The plaintiff claimed the tractor was defective in its design because it did not incorporate a certain safety device present on smaller lawnmower type machines. Through Mr. Murtagh and Mr. Lehman’s presentation the manufacturer contended that the product was safe and useful; that the proposed “alternative design” did not make this machine safer and instead made it more dangerous and less useful in other applications; and, that the true cause of the accident was the alteration of the product pre-accident together with the plaintiff’s misuse. The demand prior to trial was 18.5 million dollars.
