Practice areas
Recognitions
- AV rated in Martindale Hubbell
- Pennsylvania’s Super Lawyers in Philadelphia Magazine since 2004
- Harrisburg Magazine’s Reader’s Choice for Business Law Attorney 2007-2010
Education
- Duquesne University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 1983
- Editor-in-Chief of the Duquesne Law Review
- Shippensburg University, B.A., 1979
Military
- Major, US Army; Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 2003-2011, Active Duty, Afghanistan, 2005
Thomas French is a senior business and litigation attorney with 28 years experience counseling clients in all forms of commercial transactions, decisions, and dispute resolution matters. He advises senior management on corporate, contract, employment and regulatory concerns, and consults with chief financial officers, and human resources and information technology directors on compliance issues. Mr. French has extensive experience protecting clients' intellectual property, proprietary information, trademarks and trade secrets, and enforcing non-disclosure agreements and non-compete restrictions. He has spent his career defending clients in trials, arbitrations and mediations, in proceedings throughout Pennsylvania.
Mr. French serves as local trial counsel in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret cases. He also has extensive experience representing clients in Orphans' Court litigation involving claims against trustees, executors and legal guardians, and in Will challenges. Mr. French also advises clients and litigates disputes concerning insurance coverage issues.
As the firm's most experienced commercial litigator, Mr. French has served as outside counsel to business corporations, banks, insurance companies, municipalities and school districts, and other professionals and individuals, as both legal advisor and as an effective advocate in court. He has tried numerous cases involving products liability, banking disputes, insurance law, corporate ownership and control controversies, securities fraud, defense of professional malpractice suits, contract, trade secret and unfair competition claims, employment law issues and fiduciary liability issues.
He has successfully concluded numerous jury trials, bench trials and injunction hearings, and has argued appeals before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals, and served as lead counsel on petition for certiorari before the United States Supreme Court.
Bar & Court Admissions
- Supreme Court of the United States of America
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Third Circuit
- United States District Court for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania
News
Seminars & Speaking Engagements
- Thomas French will return as a guest speaker to the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of Certified Fraud Examiners.
- Thomas French will return to the Pennsylvania Bankers Association School of Trust, for his fifth year serving as an instructor of fiduciary law and Orphans' Court litigation
- Lecturer, Certified Trust Financial Planners
- Lecturer, Pennsylvania Bankers Association
- Lecturer, Pennsylvania Bar Institute
- Lecturer, Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Publications
- , September 21, 2011
- , Penn Live.com
- Author, “Tender Offers, Lock-ups and the Williams Act: Critical Analysis of Mobile Corp. v. Marathon Oil Co.”,21 Duq. Law. Rev. 669
- Author, “Note: Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego”,20 Duq. Law. Rev. 637
- , 75 Pa. CPA Journal 18
- Contributing author “Evaluating, Settling and Proving Business Damages in Pennsylvania”
Professional & Community Affiliations
- Trial Advocacy Faculty, The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, 1996-2004
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Widener University School of Law (Pennsylvania Civil Practice and Procedure, Trial Advocacy), 1993-1996
- YMCA of Harrisburg Area, Board of Directors, 2001-present; Chairman 2006-2008; West Shore Branch Board of Managers, 1993-2001; Chairman, 1997-1999
- Member, Professional Liability Defense Federation
- Member, Pennsylvania Defense Institute
- Member, Defense Research Institute
- United States Military Academy Selection Committee of U.S. Senator Patrick Toomey