Patrick Matusky

Patrick Matusky is a Partner in Duane Morris LLP. He concentrates his practice in the areas of complex commercial litigation, with a focus on lawyer professional liability and responsibility. He is a member of the Firm’s Trial Practice and Professional Liability Practice Groups.

Pat has extensive trial, appellate and alternative dispute resolution experience in complex commercial litigation in a broad range of substantive areas. Pat regularly represents lawyers and law firms providing counselling and training in the areas of legal ethics, the law governing lawyers and law firm risk management.

He has defended lawyers and law firms in disciplinary matters and legal malpractice and other professional liability claims, including claims alleging fraud, conspiracy and aiding and abetting client misconduct.

He has also represented lawyers and law firms in business disputes arising out of lawyer departures and law firm break ups. He has served in a fiduciary capacity in connection with a major law firm dissolution.

Pat formerly served as General Counsel to a mid Atlantic regional law firm. In that role, Pat was responsible for the ethics, loss prevention, risk management, insurance acquisition, and claims handling, reporting and defense functions of that firm’s multi-jurisdictional law and government relations practices. He currently serves as Loss Prevention Counsel of Duane Morris’ Cherry Hill office.

Representative Matters:

• Obtained on behalf of a mayor a ruling from the Commonwealth Court upholding two Berks County Court of Common Pleas rulings that the mayor had not violated the city’s Home Rule Charter in separate instances.
• Lead counsel in defending a loan servicer in an action brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by a major bank alleging breach of loan servicing agreements. Following the court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of the servicer, the case settled on terms the client found favorable.
• Lead counsel in representing a major insurer in litigation brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey arising out of the insurer’s sale of real estate to a casino operator. The issue concerned whether a contingency in the sale contract concerning the ability to use the premises for gaming triggered a post-closing purchase price adjustment. Secured settlement that insurer found favorable.
• Lead counsel in defending a major Delaware Valley food processing concern in twin wage and hour collective and class actions simultaneously pending in state and federal courts. Following extensive motions practice and mediation efforts before a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, the case was settled on terms the client found favorable.
• Lead counsel in defending a major Delaware Valley health care provider in twin wage and hour collective and class actions simultaneously brought in state and federal courts.
• Lead counsel in defending a governmental agency in a proceeding brought by a public employee labor union seeking to enjoin the agency’s privatization of a county prison, the first prison privatization effort north of the Mason-Dixon line.
• Defended a major health care provider against federal RICO, antitrust and state tortious interference claims challenging certain business practices in the home health care industry.

Education:

• Temple University School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude, 1982
• Temple University, BBA, Accounting, summa cum laude, 1977

Admissions:

• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• Supreme Court of the United States
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Professional Activities:

• Pennsylvania Bar Association, – Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee
• American Bar Association, – Center for Professional Responsibility