Firm Information
Unparalleled Growth
Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, a professional corporation, was founded in 1962. We are very gratified that our growth, much of which has been client-driven, enables us to make available to our clients 500 lawyers working out of 20 offices throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Florida and New York.
Exclusively Defense
We are exclusively a defense litigation firm with our professional practices encompassing a broad spectrum of litigation matters.
Complex Litigation Experience
Members of our firm have considerable experience handling high-profile and complex litigation, including class actions and mass tort matters.
Regional Presence
The regional presence of our firm affords many advantages to our clients. One client detailed some of these advantages in the publication Of Counsel, where he expressed appreciation of our firm's strategic locations in areas where his company has stores. He praised our ability to handle a wide variety of claims, ranging from fall downs and car damage claims to complex product liability matters. In addition to the six states in which we maintain our offices, we have handled many litigation matters in West Virginia for over 13 years.
Regional Office Statistics
Nearly 60 percent of our attorneys work in our 19 satellite offices. This statistic underscores the importance of our regional offices to our clients, as well as to our firm. Clients report to us that they are comfortable entering into region-wide arrangements for our representation knowing that we are well staffed in these offices. All of our offices are linked via an Intranet and a firm-wide file management system and library. The attorneys at these locations are native to the area, have a good rapport with and knowledge of local judges and opposing attorneys, and are familiar with the population of potential jurors.
Attorneys Selected by Clients
With 500 attorneys on staff, clients have a great deal of legal talent from which to choose. As one of the firm's clients said in Of Counsel, "Their attitude is tremendous. If I say I want a particular attorney on a matter, I have that attorney. If I say I want a conference with the attorney, a conference is arranged."
Minority Hiring
In surveys conducted by The National Law Journal and The Legal Intelligencer, our firm was identified, both on a national and a regional level, as one of the leading large law firms in the categories of minority hiring and advancement. We are especially proud of our minority shareholders and their vitally important roles in the management of our firm.
Peer Ratings
The experience of our firm and our attorneys has been recognized by our peers. At the present time, we have a significantly large number of peer-review rated attorneys as recognized by Martindale-Hubbell, a LexisNexis company. The lawyers of our firm are also recognized in BEST'S Directories of Recommended Insurance Attorneys, as published by the A.M. Best Company. We also have in our ranks lawyers who have been elected as Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Fellows of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. In addition, many of our lawyers appear in the Super Lawyers publications in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, New York and Florida. As well, a number of our lawyers have also been listed in Best Lawyers in America.
Regional & National Coordinating Counsel
We are privileged to serve as Regional Coordinating Counsel and National Coordinating Counsel for a number of major corporations.
Alternative Risk Transfer
Through active membership in the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA), the National Risk Retention Association (NRRA) and similar organizations, our firm is very familiar with the unique needs of the members of the alternative risk transfer communities, including risk retention groups, captives and specialized insurance programs.
Internal Stability
We are very proud of the remarkable level of our internal stability. Many of the attorneys among our shareholders have been with us for a considerable number of years. In numerous instances, this is the only law firm for which these men and women have chosen to work.
Recognized for Service and Leadership
Our firm's commitment to leadership and client service has been recognized by the Delaware Valley Total Quality Consortium. Other recipients of this award include such companies as Ametek, Bell Atlantic, Boeing, Independence Blue Cross, Lockheed Martin and Subaru of America, Inc.
Internal Auditing
In 1985, the firm started an internal auditing program that draws upon the expertise of former claims managers and senior attorneys. This program received national attention in an article about innovative law firm management practices appearing in The National Law Journal.
Successful Business Model
In an article appearing in The Legal Intelligencer dealing with the challenges and opportunities for insurance defense firms, it was stated that our firm has clearly dominated the Philadelphia marketplace. In support of that statement, it was noted that the firm has grown dramatically in the past decade and has maintained a healthy shareholder-associate ratio. It was further discussed that major insurance carriers are attracted to our firm through its extensive use of technology as well as the numerous offices we have established throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and Florida. Charles Maddock, a noted legal consultant with Altman Weil, recommended in this article that some other defense litigation law firms "need to adopt the Marshall Dennehey model" in response to the changing needs and expectations of the insurance industry.
Central Diary System
All of the litigation files entrusted to us are on an electronic diary system that is designed to ensure that action has been taken by the handling attorney on all of his or her files within the past 90 days. Our monthly monitoring of this program discloses a 97-percent compliance rate, and any need for updated attorney reporting or action is immediately addressed. We have further refined this system to provide alerts to our attorneys when a certain percentage of the agreed-to litigation budget has been reached, affording the client and the handling attorney the opportunity to consider the options open to them at that juncture.
Legal Research Supervision
We have a very focused and cost-efficient approach to legal research. Our Director of Legal Research and Legal Information Services is a practicing attorney well-versed in law firm technology and efficient research techniques.
Measured Performance
It is significant to note that our firm's Case Disposition Program enables us to develop statistics reflecting levels of performance in such areas as case cycle times, indemnity payments made, litigation expenses and case outcomes, which can be broken down by law type and jurisdiction.
Breaking Legal Developments
Since 1992, we have provided our clients with our firm's comprehensive newsletter, Defense Digest. During that time, we have never missed a deadline, ensuring that our clients can consistently rely upon us for advice about legal developments, as well as giving them the benefit of our analysis and practical recommendations. We also advise our clients of breaking legal developments through our quarterly electronic newsletter and Law Alerts. We provide our workers' compensation clients with a monthly update, What's Hot in Workers' Comp. We also provide for our clients in the sectors of long-term care and the senior services market a newsletter entitled LTC Trends & Issues.
ADR Commitment
We are strongly committed to alternative dispute resolution vehicles. We are an original signatory to the Law Firm Policy Statement of the Center for Public Resources, Inc.'s Initiatives on Alternatives to Litigation.
Published Works
The expertise and professional commitment of our attorneys is evidenced by the fact that they have had hundreds of articles published in such publications as For The Defense, Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel Quarterly, Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, Counterpoint (the official newsletter of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute), The Compleat Lawyer, The Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer, Lawyers Journal, Pennsylvania Law Weekly, The Widener Law Symposium Journal, Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, The Philadelphia Lawyer, The Specialist: Excess/Surplus/Specialty Lines Quarterly, The PLUS Journal, Pennsylvania CPA Journal, The Pennsylvania Pharmacist, The Florida Bar News, New Jersey Law Journal, Hospital & Healthcare News, and Global Reinsurance. Several of our attorneys were presented with the Andrew C. Hecker Award for Best FDCC Quarterly Article. To see more of our published articles, visit our Publications page.
Community Dedication
We are very deeply involved in and dedicated to the civic and charitable aspects of the communities where our offices are located. Our firm is very supportive of such organizations as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Police Athletic League, the Philadelphia Homeless Advocacy Project, the Philadelphia Bar Foundation—which supports numerous charitable causes including the AIDS Project and the VIP Program—and the United Way. Members of our firm serve or have served on the Boards of such non-profit organizations as the Committee of 70 and the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. We have had shareholders serve on the Boards of Directors of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry and the Boards of Delaware Futures. Several of our attorneys serve at high levels on the Boards of higher educational institutions throughout the country.
Alternative Fee Arrangements
Significantly, the several large annual contract fee and global contract fee arrangements into which we have entered with some of our larger clients have been renewed on an annual basis, clearly evidencing that these arrangements are beneficial to our clients and sufficiently profitable for our firm. Other forms of alternative pricing are also available.