Patrick Matusky

Of Counsel

  • Patrick Matusky
  • Phone: +1 856 874 4210

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  • Duane Morris LLP
    1940 Route 70 East, Suite 100
    Cherry Hill, NJ 08003-2171
    USA

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.

A summa cum laude graduate of Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law (J.D. 1982) and of Temple University Fox School of Business Administration (B.B.A. 1977), Pat is admitted and has actively practiced in the courts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida.

Areas of Practice

  • Lawyers Professional Liability and Responsibility
  • Commercial and Securities Litigation
  • Employment Litigation
  • Insurance

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.

  • As lead trial counsel for a defendant financial institution, tried to judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware a multimillion-dollar securities fraud claim arising out of a multibillion-dollar sale of a subprime mortgage business. A major issue in the case was the valuation of residual interests in subprime mortgage securitizations that were a subject of the sale. A defense judgment was rendered on the securities fraud claim, after which the case was settled on terms the client found favorable.

  • 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 major bi-state agency in various employment discrimination and whistleblower litigations.

  • 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 major aircraft, truck, automobile and component part manufacturers and suppliers in high exposure products liability, personal injury and wrongful death litigation, including summary judgments in favor of a turboprop engine manufacturer on a multimillion-dollar aircraft hull claim and in favor of a helicopter manufacturer on multiple multimillion-dollar wrongful death claims.

  • Prosecuted on behalf a prominent real estate developer a federal antitrust action alleging unlawful restraint of trade in a competitor's efforts to block the redevelopment of a major regional shopping mall.

  • 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.

  • Prosecuted a shareholder's action involving the cash out of minority interests, including extensive litigation regarding shareholder access to attorney-client privileged information between a corporation and its counsel.

  • Represented defendants in Piel v. National Semiconductor Corp., an early, major securities fraud class action lawsuit litigated over the course of 10 years. The case spawned a number of important reported decisions, including one by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, reported at 759 F.2d 312, which remains a leading authority on the interaction between the work-product doctrine and the doctrine requiring production of documents used to refresh a witness' recollection prior to testifying under F.R.E. 612.

Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey
  • Florida
  • 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 Third Circuit

Education

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

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2009-present
  • WolfBlock LLP
    - Partner, 1990-2009
    -- General Counsel, 2002-2009
    -- Managing Partner, New Jersey Office, 1998-2003
    - Associate, 1982-1990

Professional Activities

  • Pennsylvania Bar Association
    - Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee
  • American Bar Association
    - Center for Professional Responsibility
    - Torts and Insurance Practice Section
    - Litigation Section

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2009-2023

  • Listed in Best Lawyers Greater Philadelphia, 2016

No aspect of these rankings has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Selected Publications

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Presenter, Loss Prevention Program, "All in the Family: Daylight Greetings, Inc. v. Hauptmann DVK, LLP," Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society Ltd. (ALAS) Annual General Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 18, 2015
  • Speaker, "Before the Doors Close: Management and Liability Lessons Learned from Failed Law Firms," American Bar Association's Fall 2013 National Legal Malpractice Conference, San Diego, California, September 18, 2013
  • Speaker, National Business Institute Seminar, "Legal Ethics for Everyday Practice: Responsible Management of Attorney Fees and Trust Accounts," Atlantic City, New Jersey, December 17, 2012
  • Speaker, "Ethics Implications of the 'Bounty Hunter' Whistleblower Rules," Delaware Valley Association of Corporate Counsel - In House Counsel Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 16, 2012
  • Speaker, "Comparative Legal Ethics - PA & NJ: You Mean They Are Different," Pennsylvania Bar Institute's 17th Annual Employment Law Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 27, 2011
  • Speaker, "Internal Investigations: How the Investigators Have Become the Investigated," ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility, Seattle, Washington, June 4, 2010
  • Speaker, "Firm Counsel Project Roundtable—'This is Privileged, Right?' The Scope of the Privilege for Internal Firm Communications," American Bar Association's Fall 2009 National Legal Malpractice Conference: Identifying Risk in a Changing Law Firm Landscape, Chicago, Illinois, September 24, 2009
  • Speaker, "Ethical Minefields for In-House Counsel," Delaware Valley Association of Corporate Counsel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 21, 2007
  • Speaker, Lateral Partner Due Diligence and Integration, Aon Large Law Firm Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, October 12, 2006
  • Speaker, Corporate Crisis Management, Association of Corporate Counsel Greater New York Chapter, New York, New York, June 21, 2006
  • Speaker, "Multijurisdictional Practice," Aon Large Law Firm Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, October 20, 2004
  • Lawyer Client Seminars: Mr. Matusky has regularly participated in CLE seminars presented for the in-house law departments of client companies.