Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP is pleased to announce that the Firm has added ten new attorneys since the beginning of the year. The New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices have all added to their ranks, and the Firm has gained strength in multiple areas, including: antitrust, bankruptcy and creditor’s rights, complex commercial litigation, class action, consumer fraud, criminal, labor, employment, insurance coverage, intellectual property, product liability, securities, toxic tort, and warranty litigation.

“These additions represent the kind of smart, targeted growth that the Firm is seeking,” said Chairman David Smith. “Each of our new colleagues is a strong, experienced professional in their respective practice area, and add to the overall depth, experience and capability of the Firm.” Smith went on to note that Schnader has successfully weathered the business and economic challenges of the past several years and remains in a position to compete regionally, nationally and internationally for a wide variety of work, including complex “bet-the-business” litigation, and high level transactional matters, multi-million dollar real estate deals and sophisticated tax matters.  

The new additions, by office, are noted below. 

Kevin C. Taylor joined Schnader as a partner in the Business Services Department. Before joining Schnader, he was with Taylor & Mrsich, LLP, a firm he founded and in which he played a significant role with regard to building the firm’s reputation as one of the best technology law boutiques specializing in information technology, corporate, and intellectual property law. He counsels clients on complex outsourcing, technology, commercial and intellectual property transactions.  He also has experience negotiating technology and corporate transactions involving computer systems, outsourcing, e-commerce, patent licenses, intellectual property, content distribution and computer hardware. He has litigated information technology and intellectual property issues in federal and state courts, and appeals, including litigation of software, outsourcing, electronic component industry, copyright and trademark infringement and general commercial claims.  He received a J.D. from New York Law School in 1993, an M.A. in Economics from The Catholic University of America in 1990, and a B.A. in Economics from Eckerd College in 1986.

Lawrence T. Hoyle, Jr. and Arlene Fickler, joined the Firm as partners, and Arleigh P. Helfer, III, George P. Podolin, and John R. Timmer, joined the Firm as associates. All are resident in the Litigation Services Department and were previously with The Hoyle Law Firm of Philadelphia. Mr. Hoyle and Ms. Fickler were founding partners of that firm in 1985. 

Lawrence T. Hoyle, Jr., who has handled complex litigation for numerous Fortune 500 corporations, has extensive experience in the fields of securities, insurance coverage, antitrust, and products liability litigation. His client representations include serving for many years as national coordinating counsel for a major building products manufacturer in asbestos litigation. He also tried and won the first two asbestos-in-buildings cases ever tried in the U.S.  A former officer in the United States Marine Corps, Mr. Hoyle is rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell® and has long been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” in the area of Business Litigation (2004 – 2011). 

Mr. Hoyle is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has served as chair of that organization’s Committee on Complex Litigation. He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Fox Chase Cancer Center (1992-present), and served for many years on the Board of Directors for the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (1976-2002). He also was a member of the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors and a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School.  He is a graduate of Duke University (A.B., 1960) and the University of Chicago (J.D., magna cum laude,1965).  

Arlene Fickler concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation, including cases involving securities laws, products liability, toxic torts, and consumer protection claims, and has extensive experience as an advocate in trial and appellate courts. She has been particularly active in litigating the propriety of class certification, both mandatory and voluntary, in federal and state courts throughout the United States. She also has counseled clients with respect to the utilization of class action settlements to resolve large blocks of claims and potential liability. In this context, she has negotiated class action settlements — both fixed fund and claims made — to facilitate global resolution of clients’ liabilities.

Ms. Fickler is a member of the American Law Institute and the University of Pennsylvania Law School American Inn of Court. She was a co-reporter for the Manual on Mass Tort Litigation published by the American College of Trial Lawyers. She has served as chair of the Federal Courts Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association and as President of the University of Pennsylvania Law Alumni Society. Early in her career, she served as a staff attorney to the Commission on Revision of Federal Court Appellate System and as an executive assistant to the Bicentennial Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. She has been listed with Marquis Who’s Who in America since 1996. Ms. Fickler is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., cum laude, 1971) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1974), where she served as Comment Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review (1973-1974).

Arleigh P. Helfer, III’s has a broad range of commercial litigation experience, ranging from antitrust litigation to consumer financial services and products liability class action defense. He has counseled clients concerning effective legal compliance programs and with respect to Hart-Scott-Rodino filings. He assisted in the defense of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Philadelphia casino licensing decisions in proceedings before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and has worked on several appellate matters before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Judicial Circuit. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1999, where he served as a staff member and later managing editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. He also was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif. Mr. Helfer also holds an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Maine and a B.A. in English Literature from Lawrence University.

George P. Podolin maintains a litigation practice in matters involving general commercial litigation and the representation of companies in class action litigation. He has significant experience in all aspects of civil litigation and has worked on a wide variety of matters, including insurance litigation, commercial contract litigation, and ERISA fiduciary breach litigation. From 1999 to 2001, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stewart Dalzell of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Prior to law school, Mr. Podolin was a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, where he served aboard cruisers and destroyers and earned qualification as a Surface Warfare Officer. Mr. Podolin received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1999. He also holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B., summa cum laude, in Economics from Duke University.  

John R. Timmer’s practice involves commercial litigation, appellate practice and insurance. He also has significant experience in the defense of product liability claims involving pharmaceuticals and medical devices. He received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2002, where he served as an editor of the Journal of Entertainment Law & Practice. He also has a B.A. in Politics and Economics from Wake Forest University.

Sheila Doyle Kelley joined the Firm as a partner in the Litigation Services Department from Becherer Kannett & Schweitzer, where she specialized in product liability, toxic tort, consumer fraud, and warranty litigation. She also has been a partner with Bronson Bronson & McKinnon and was a founding partner of Preuss Walker & Shanagher, a San Francisco-based product liability boutique that merged with and became the San Francisco office of Drinker, Biddle & Reath. She has litigated and tried a wide variety of cases in state and federal courts throughout California. The products she has defended include automobiles and their components, drugs and medical devices, forklifts and other material handling equipment, boats, roof coatings, power tools, cranes, monorails, elevators, escalators, motorcycles, and many household products. Before entering private practice, she worked with the California Supreme Court as an extern to the late Justice Stanley Mosk. Currently, she acts as National Coordinating Counsel and/or National Discovery Support Counsel for auto manufacturers and distributors in friction asbestos litigation, directing all aspects of defense strategy, discovery, expert development and support, corporate witness development, and trial preparation.  In the fall of last year, she directed Nissan’s trial team to a defense verdict in their first friction asbestos trial.

Ms. Kelley is a member of the American Bar Association’s Section on Tort and Insurance Practice and Automobile Law and Products Committee; the State Bar of California’s Litigation Section; and the Defense Research Institute’s Committee on Product Liability.   She has authored papers on evidentiary issues in trial practice and recent trends in product liability and consumer law published by the American Bar Association in their Tort & Insurance Journal, the Defense Research Institute and the National Business Institute.  From 1988 through 1991, she guest lectured on the topic of recent developments in products liability at the University of San Francisco School of Business; and, she has presented at numerous conferences of the American Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.  She received her B.S. from Santa Clara University and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Craig L. Hodgson joined Schnader as a partner in the Litigation Services Department. He also was previously with Becherer Kannett & Schweitzer, where he provided litigation services to product manufacturers and distributors in a variety of areas including toxic tort, consumer, consumer class action, and personal injury/product liability litigation. Mr. Hodgson directed and coordinated all aspects of defense strategy, discovery coordination, and trial preparation for several hundred asbestos cases as both local counsel and as part of a National Coordination Counsel team for several major automobile, motorcycle, and materials handling equipment manufacturers and distributors. Mr. Hodgson has assisted clients with case strategy development, litigation management, discovery support, national expert support and development, corporate witness development, and has directed the collection and preservation of client documents both domestically and abroad. Prior to and during law school, Mr. Hodgson worked as a senior litigation paralegal and litigation support department manager for a San Francisco law firm where he specialized in defending the firm’s chemical manufacturing and pharmaceutical clients with the management of worldwide, mass tort discovery efforts including the management of large-volume electronic document collections. 

He is a member of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Defense Research Institute, and was recognized among Northern California’s Super Lawyers-Rising Stars in 2009 and 2010.  In 2006, he was the co-author of “Recent Developments in Products, General Liability, and Consumer Law,” which was published in the American Bar Association’s Tort and Insurance Law Journal.  He received his B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990 and received his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, San Francisco in 2001.

Valerie Bantner Peo joined Schnader as an associate in the Firm’s Business Services Department. Prior to joining Schnader, Ms. Peo served as a law clerk to the Hon. Edward D. Jellen at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. During law school, she was an extern to the Hon. Vaughn R. Walker at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She is a member of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation and has served as president of the Symphonix League at the San Francisco Symphony. She received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 2008, where she served as Managing Editor of The Hastings Law Journal. She received a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Smith College in 1999.

Angela Hart-Edwards joined the Firm as a partner in the Litigation Services Department. She has extensive litigation experience handling both individual and class action lawsuits, from oversight of an investigation up through judgment and appeals. Ms. Hart-Edwards represents clients in employment related-litigation, agency proceedings, arbitrations, mediations and investigations; counsels regarding federal and state employment regulatory compliance; negotiates and prepares employment and related agreements; prepares employment manuals and policies; serves as investigations counsel; and, advises management on preventative measures to avoid litigation in the context of human resource, diversity and regulatory compliance counseling and training.  She received her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1990, and went on to receive her LL.M. in Trial Advocacy from Temple in 1996. She graduated with a B.A. from Rutgers University in Labor Studies in 1987.