Local Counsel

Earp Cohn P.C. is well known nationally for its role as local counsel for other law firms who have important litigation pending in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Our attorneys have a great deal of experience working with national or lead counsel from other firms located throughout the nation on a diverse range of litigation matters.  When other firms’ require them to have local counsel in New Jersey or Philadelphia, we are ready to assist. Our experience and familiarity with these local state and federal courts make Earp Cohn a logical choice when other firms and clients nationwide are looking for a litigation partner for matters pending in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Our firm regularly appears in all of the vicinages in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey – Newark, Trenton and Camden. We are familiar and experienced with the local rules and judge or magistrate-specific practices in each of the three courthouses. We help expedite the pro hac vice applications of foreign attorneys with whom we are working, and are then prepared to handle as much of the litigation as the case demands.

Our litigation attorneys have comparable experience in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and have been engaged in matters in the Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania as well. For out-of-state counsel and clients, the procedures of the courts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can sometimes be a morass. Our experienced attorneys can assist our co-counsel and clients in navigating these sometimes turbulent waters.

Ed Borden, one of our shareholders, is a Certified Civil and Criminal Trial Attorney in New Jersey.  Only a Certified Trial Attorney in New Jersey is permitted to pay referral fees to referring attorneys when handling a case in New Jersey referred by that out-of-state attorney.  We invite attorneys in other jurisdictions to allow us to handle any important matter for their client, secure in the knowledge that Earp Cohn has the knowledge and experience to handle their clients’ most important matters.

If you would like to discuss your specific needs for local counsel in the state or federal courts of New Jersey or Pennsylvania, or the specific requirements for pro hac vice admission in one of these courts, please contact one of the Earp Cohn litigation attorneys and we will be happy to assist you with your case.

Examples of cases in which we have acted as local counsel include:

• Acting as local counsel for a major pharmacy retailer in a direct purchaser antitrust lawsuit against dozens of generic drug manufacturers.  The drug manufacturers are alleged to have been engaged in a years-long conspiracy to allocate markets and customers among themselves, as well as raising and fixing prices of such generic drugs to anticompetitive levels.  The complaint seeks damages in excess of $2.5 billion. Earp Cohn is pleased to be working with a major antitrust firm in this litigation, filed in federal court in Philadelphia.
• Acting as local counsel, partnered with a large New York law firm, representing a Fortune 500 company in a nationwide consumer fraud class action involving the client’s medical device products, pending in New Jersey state court (which included appeal of class certification to the New Jersey Supreme Court). This highly-publicized matter encountered intensive media coverage during the litigation, including segments on several national news shows.
• Acting as local counsel along with both Chicago and Milwaukee counsel, in professional liability litigation pending in New Jersey state court, involving an environmental liability with damages in the tens of millions of dollars.
• Acting as local counsel in federal court in New Jersey, along with New York counsel, in antitrust litigation between two Fortune 500 companies, based upon an allegedly illegal tying or bundling arrangement, which included a week-long preliminary injunction trial in Trenton. This highly-publicized matter eventually settled for $200 million.
• Acting as local counsel for a prominent insurer in contentious insurance claim denial and bad faith litigation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which was ultimately settled.
• Acting as local counsel to a major airline in various employment and civil rights matters, all favorably resolved.
• Acting as co-counsel for one of the top ten national accounting firms named as a defendant in a substantial professional malpractice action, which was favorably settled with our direct participation.
• Presently acting as local counsel for a major West Coast venture capital firm in a putative securities class action challenging the adequacy of the consideration paid to shareholders in an ongoing private transaction.

In New Jersey State courts, pro hac vice applications for co-counsel (and the requirements for the New Jersey local counsel) are set forth in Rule 1:21-2.

In the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the requirements for pro hac vice applications by co-counsel are set forth in Local Rule 101.1(c).

In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania courts, the requirements for pro hac vice application by out-of-state counsel are set forth in Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1012.1, and in the IOLTA regulations at 204 Pa. Code 81.501, et seq.

In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the requirements for pro hac vice admission are set forth in the relevant sections of Local Rule 83.

In the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the requirements for pro hac vice admission and duties of local counsel are set forth in Local Rules 83.8 and 83.9.