BIGGER is not always BETTER, especially when it comes to the law firm you trust with your litigation and dispute resolution needs.  Too often these days, bigger gets reflected in the size of your legal bills, but bigger is not necessarily accompanied by better outcomes.

Having more bodies to throw at a case doesn’t make a law firm more effective.  It’s not who has the most lawyers attending a hearing or deposition – it’s who has the best strategy and whose analysis, preparation and execution delivers results.

Marashlian & Donahue has no aspirations of becoming a “mega-firm.”  Instead, because we are a boutique law firm, we can offer clients a unique, streamlined approach to litigation.  All of our litigation attorneys maintain a transactional practice, in additional to their litigation practice.  The reason is simple – we believe that any attorney responsible for drafting and negotiating contracts must also be prepared to defend that contract in litigation and vice versa.

The practitioners in our Litigation & Dispute Resolution team have navigated scores of disputes resulting in outcomes which fulfilled the unique objectives and litigation budgets of the clients we have represented.  It may sound boastful, but our team of communications litigation attorneys may be one of the best kept secrets in Washington, D.C.!

Our Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice stresses the importance of negotiation and compromise.  When negotiation fails and litigation becomes necessary to achieve our clients’ objectives, our experienced trial attorneys come prepared to fiercely advocate at trial, in arbitrations, before regulatory agencies and state tax boards, and before appellate courts.  A representative list of recent cases is provided below.

When it comes to Litigation, we provide clients with concentrated teams of highly focused attorneys who will evaluate the legal claims on both sides of a dispute before undertaking representation.  There may be some cases that need an army of litigators thrown at them, but we believe those cases are few and far between.  Even fewer are the number of businesses willing to invest in an army of lawyers.  It’s why our boutique litigation practice and our way of practicing makes sense for today’s clientele, operating in today’s economic climate.

We work with clients to determine their litigation expectations and budgetary constraints upfront.  We will candidly advise our clients whether their expectations are achievable and at what cost.  We do so before committing either our clients or ourselves to a “Money Pit.”  Because no one wins when, at the end of the day, the costs and burdens of litigation exceed the client’s expectations.

Over the past decade, our litigation attorneys have cut their teeth representing the proverbial “Davids” against the “Goliaths.”  Lessons learned in servicing clients with limited resources, but legitimate claims, are applied in our representation of larger enterprises.  Just because your company might be able to afford large teams of attorneys, expert witnesses, and scorched earth litigation doesn’t it should pay a premium to achieve comparable results through Marashlian & Donahue.

As Managing Partner, I invite you to learn more about Marashlian & Donahue’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution attorneys, their proven track record in a diverse range of subject matters, and about our litigation practice philosophies, practices and representative matters by perusing the information provided below.  I also invite you to contact us to discuss impending litigation.  Give us the opportunity to consider the issues, your objectives and budgetary considerations, and we will work with you to determine the viability of prosecuting your claims or advocating defenses under various strategic options.  We promise a candid and honest assessment of all facets of your case — strategically, logistically, and financially — before undertaking representation.

Contact information:

Philosophies and Litigation Management Practices

Our philosophy on litigation is simple: Serve in the Best Interests of our Clients Strategically, Emotionally and Financially

When business negotiations fail and litigation becomes a possibility, management often becomes fearful of taking the next step and retaining litigation counsel.  There are fears about the unknown risks and unintended consequences of litigation, but frequently the primary fear is cost.  That is why the attorneys at our firm approach litigation with all of our clients’ best interests (and fears) in mind.

As simple as it seems, many lawyers ignore the most important first step in any pre-litigation strategy—figuring out where the client wants to go and how to get there.  Defining goals and objectives drive our firm’s litigation strategy. That is why we:

• Meet to identify and understand client goals—business as well as legal—and develop a plan to align our services to those goals
• Perform early case assessment to develop a litigation plan, evaluate the possibility of early settlement and assess costs for different litigation strategies
• Enable strategic success via efficiency, predictability and client satisfaction

Litigation Budgets that Matter

The foundation of managing litigation costs is the budget.  Our lawyers understand this critical financial planning component and make sure our budgets fit the client, the case and the desired result. We achieve satisfactory results by incorporating:

• Leverage our deep knowledge of case costs to prepare detailed budgets
• Provide regular progress reports on budget-to-performance status
• Update budgets as litigation and client needs change

Intelligent Staffing

We utilize the right combination of lawyers and other professionals best suited to clients’ specific case needs.

• Incorporate lean and focused staffing strategies
• Match the right people to the right tasks to optimize value for the client
• Apply project management skills to ensure value throughout all phases of a case

Monitoring Litigation Expenses

We care about the legal expenses clients have to pay and take steps to manage them.

• Contain the scope of discovery through effective meet and confer strategies
• Employ cost-effective document review strategies

Value Matters

Our approach to delivering value works and to prove it, where circumstances are appropriate, we are willing to share the risk of litigation through alternative and flexible fee arrangements.

• Fixed-fee billing, including fixed annual and fixed fee per case
• Performance Based Billing (PBB), subjecting portions of our fees to success criteria
• Blended rates or other alternative fee arrangements

No Surprises

Litigation is inherently unpredictable, but through budgeting, case management and proactive communications, our firm seeks to minimize surprises.

Representative Litigation Experiences

Each of our litigation attorneys has extensive and diverse litigation experience.  Our attorneys have prosecuted and defended cases before state and federal courts and have experience before a number of state and federal regulatory agencies.  We have also represented a variety of clients in arbitrations and mediations before the AAA and other mediation and arbitration bodies.  Finally, our experience is not limited to the trial level.  Our attorneys have handled appeals at the state level, and our federal appellate experience includes cases before a number of federal circuits and the United States Supreme Court.

Our attorneys have experience at every stage of the litigation process, from motions practice, discovery and depositions to first chair trial experience.  While our firm’s practice is focused on communications, we have litigated cases addressing a wide variety of matters, including general contract disputes, access charge disputes, intellectual property cases, tax claims, prosecutions and defense of matters before the FCC, and more.

We have a proven track record of successful trial outcomes and satisfactory settlements.  Contact us for a detailed list of representative cases and outcomes in the following areas:

• Contract / Commercial Litigation
• Access Charge Litigation
• Section 207 FCC Formal Complaints
• FCC Enforcement Actions
• Pro-Competition Litigation
• Trademark Litigation
• Tax Litigation
• Pole Attachments / Right of Way Litigation
• Appellate Litigation

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER:  This information may be considered advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. The determination of the need for legal services and the choice of a lawyer are extremely important decisions and should not be based solely upon advertisements or self-proclaimed expertise. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.