Every business dispute – like every business – is unique. At Archer, we work with you from the beginning to understand how the dispute impacts your business and we design a case strategy specific to your goals. Our extensive experience and skills can help your business get the right result in a cost-effective manner. Where it makes sense, we will help you resolve your business disputes early, often without the need for courts or arbitrators. We know that litigation is not always the best business strategy, and that clients can often succeed by finding creative solutions that avoid protracted legal battles.
But, when litigation is inevitable, you need attorneys who know how to win effectively and aggressively. Our business litigators are capable and willing to take a case through trial and every level of appeal, and our adversaries know it. Sometimes that enables us to achieve successful settlements, and other times it means going the distance. Archer’s business litigation attorneys have helped our clients succeed before the United States Supreme Court, at all levels of state and federal courts throughout the country, and in arbitrations, mediations, and administrative proceedings.
As Archer’s largest practice group, with diverse experience, and backgrounds, we start every case with years of hard-earned knowledge. Our collective knowledge enables us to be lean and efficient, and to staff cases with the right combination of skills and experience to fit the case and deliver value to our clients. We know where and when to choose the right battles, and how to avoid unnecessary petty disputes that waste your time and money. With our detailed business and legal knowledge, we deliver practical advice and significant results, while never losing sight as to how the case fits into the bigger picture.
Range of Services
Alternative Dispute Resolution
At the heart of our ADR practice are our attorneys who bring substantial professional and life experiences to each case, and who make it their goal to deliver innovative, creative and cost-effective solutions. Our roster of ADR practitioners, which includes former judges, as well as certified arbitrators and mediators, have experience in all aspects of dispute resolution and have handled significant arbitration cases in a wide spectrum of industries and business situations, from minor two-party conflicts to complex corporate and commercial matters, in state and federal courts, both locally and nationwide.
Antitrust
Our business litigators represent clients in individual and class action antitrust matters, including matters between businesses, as well as government investigations. We have litigated matters involving claims of monopolization, attempted monopolization, price restraints, dealer termination, restrictive covenants, trade secrets, unfair trade practices, and many state and federal statutes, including claims under the Lanham Act, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.
Archer has enjoyed a long history of excellence in appellate advocacy. Our appellate team has won cases for clients before the United States Supreme Court, state Supreme Courts, United States Courts of Appeals, and many other appellate tribunals. Our attorneys are skilled advocates who are able to quickly master complex factual and legal matters, to identify critical issues, to evaluate the merits efficiently, and to reduce and communicate complicated problems simply, practically, and persuasively. Their efforts have culminated in establishing significant legal precedents in a variety of legal areas.
Breach of Contract
Our group has decades of experience litigating complex and basic contract disputes, including construction contracts, commercial leases, real estate purchase agreements, employment contracts, business debts, licensing contracts, operating agreements, buy-sell agreements, and many other types of agreements. That experience enables us to guide you through the litigation process and to assess resolution opportunities, often helping clients find creative ways to resolve their contractual disputes.
Business Interference & Unfair Competition
Our group has litigated thousands of cases across the country that affect business and individuals, which have involved, among others, non-compete and confidentiality agreements, misappropriation of trade secrets, employee defection and piracy, breach of the duty of loyalty, business torts, disparagement and defamation, and anti-trust matters.
Class Actions
Archer’s experienced class action litigators represent plaintiffs and defendants in class action matters and are well-versed in all phases of class action litigation, including class certification, discovery, motion practice, and resolution.
Our attorneys have extensive experience in litigating all of the issues that traditionally arise in construction projects, whether they involve payment disputes, lien claims, insurance coverage, allegations of defective design or construction, professional negligence, changed or unforeseen conditions, product defects, delays, disruptions, loss of productivity or similar claims. We possess similar experience in litigation involving condominium associations and the “transition” of ownership from the developer to the unit owners.
Our health care litigators have successfully handled significant benefits claims on behalf of health care providers, insurers, and individuals. We also litigate claims arising under ERISA related to employee benefits, class-actions, challenges to plan qualification and fiduciary breaches.
Our labor and employment attorneys are deeply experienced in handling employment-based arbitration and litigation, including discrimination, wrongful discharge, “whistle-blower,” workplace defamation and other tort-based employment claims and individual contract actions. Our experience encompasses both federal and state courts, including all phases of pretrial discovery, motion practice, settlement negotiations and trial of all issues to both judges and juries. In addition, our attorneys also routinely represent clients before administrative agencies with jurisdiction over discrimination and other employment-based claims, such as the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Public Employment Relations Commission, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Merit Systems Board, and the U.S., New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware Departments of Labor.
Over the last 30 years, we have served as lead counsel in hundreds of environmental cases, including cost recovery/contribution claims involving landfills, former mining locations, former manufacturing facilities or Superfund sites, underground storage tank claims, groundwater contamination cases, and natural resource damage claims. These cases have involved hydrogeological issues, air modeling, hydrocarbon fingerprinting, aging analysis, forensic accounting and other complex issues. We have litigated in federal and state courts in various jurisdictions throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Attorneys in the group handle litigated matters in both state and federal administrative, trial and appellate courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, often working closely with Archer’s Computer and High Technology Law Group. Among other things, some of the firm’s work has resulted in precedential reported opinions on First Amendment jurisprudence, as well as public records and access issues.
Group members represent clients in trial and appellate courts, as well as administrative agencies in litigation matters, such as antitrust, guardianships, patients rights, medical staff discipline, licensure, insurance coverage, medical malpractice, discrimination, unfair labor practices, contracts, corporate and partnership dissolution, and intellectual property.
Our attorneys have represented policyholders in complex, often multi-party coverage actions involving numerous types of insurance disputes implicating both indemnity and the duty to defend. We have successfully pursued coverage, for example, under policies for Commercial General Liability (CGL), Errors and Omissions (E&O), Directors and Officers Liability (D&O), commercial crime coverage (employee dishonesty), worker’s compensation, homeowner’s insurance, health, life and disability insurance, and for businesses covered as additional insureds on subcontractors’ policies in construction litigation.
Experienced litigators within the group handle a broad range of intellectual property litigation matters in the state and federal courts and administrative agencies. They handle copyright, patent and trademark infringement cases, as well as U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings, including trademark cancellations, oppositions, and appeals. In addition, they frequently litigate trade secret and covenant against competition cases, and Internet domain name disputes, including those arising under the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Act.
Internet & Technology
We represent both established and emerging media, entertainment and technology companies and handle our clients’ most important and complex litigation cases. Our litigators are well-known for their decades of experience in handling the full array of media and entertainment-related matters, including accounting, contract and profit participation disputes and enforcing film and television distribution agreements. We have defended and prosecuted high-stakes copyright disputes, as well as trademark, rights of publicity, patent and other IP-based matters.
Our real estate attorneys have a broad range of experience in handling real estate litigation matters and are well-versed in the unique controversies involving real estate ownership, development, acquisition, disposition, leasing, foreclosures and bankruptcy, as well as matters involving zoning, condemnation/eminent domain, partition work, landlord-tenant and easement issues.
Our white collar defense attorneys represent corporations, their officers and directors, as well as other highly placed or high-profile individuals in complex criminal cases, civil fraud cases, regulatory enforcement matters and internal investigations, and at every stage of the enforcement process. Group members also have substantial experience investigating, analyzing and recommending courses of action for public agencies and governmental entities facing challenging issues which require independent analysis and evaluation to ensure that the public trust is preserved.
Shareholder and Partnership Disputes
Our business litigation attorneys have extensive experience in handling business disputes between members, partners and shareholders. Our knowledge of contract and corporate law enables us to create creative and effective claims and/or defenses. Our firm’s many years of experience structuring such relationships help us to understand the position of the parties and thereby represent our clients more effectively.The business litigation attorneys at our firm understand what parties risks losing in partnership or shareholder disputes. Our detailed focus helps us identify viable solutions while seeking to minimize any legal or financial implications.
