Appellate

Lamb McErlane’s Post-trial and Appellate Practice Group is a team of seasoned appellate lawyers with decades of experience. They are well known to Pennsylvania's Appellate Courts and throughout the United States.

The appellate team applies its expertise to isolating and framing the most viable appellate issues, drafting clear and compelling briefs and presenting effective arguments. The appellate team’s goal always is to achieve the most polished, professional and efficient presentation of an appeal.

The team regularly appears before state and federal appellate courts, but is also frequently involved even before an appeal is filed, assisting trial counsel by identifying key issues and offering strategies for issue-preservation before and during trial. Through these efforts the team helps clients to save time and expense in litigation and to maximize the opportunity for a favorable outcome. The Post-trial and Appellate Practice Group is prominent among the Firm’s practice areas and its expertise and work has earned respect throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and beyond.

The Firm’s appellate lawyers have briefed and argued many high profile appeals for major national and multinational corporations faced with complex issues from the correct implementation of class action procedures, to admission of expert testimony, to the proper application of substantive law in cases raising issues of employment law, negligence, the law of contracts, professional liability, land use, taxation, and construction disputes.

The Post-trial and Appellate Practice Group is comprised of former law clerks from appellate courts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Pennsylvania Supreme and Superior Courts, and a former Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Group has prosecuted and defended appeals from verdicts in courts from Philadelphia to Allegheny Counties and throughout the Commonwealth. The Group has appealed multimillion dollar medical malpractice, products liability, warranty, consumer and other commercial verdicts, and challenged trial court decisions in complex commercial, criminal, estates and regulatory matters. The Group also regularly participates in appeals filed on behalf of local municipalities and governmental agencies.

The Appellate Group at Lamb McErlane frequently has sought appellate relief outside of traditional channels, such as through interlocutory appeals of collateral orders (by permission), through mandamus, extraordinary applications, and by Petition for the Supreme Court’s exercise of its King’s Bench Powers.

The Lamb McErlane Appellate Group attorneys hold key positions on state-wide appellate committees on which the Commonwealth’s appellate judges also serve. They participate with other renown appellate specialists as course planners and panelists in continuing legal education programs sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, and they serve on Pennsylvania Rules Committees and participate in appellate publications. Through these efforts the Group constantly strives to improve appellate practice in Pennsylvania.

The Firm’s appellate attorneys include former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Honorable William Lamb, James C. Sargent, Maureen M. McBride, John J. Cunningham and Scot R. Withers, Firm associates and legal assistants.