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PRACTICE AREAS

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Business Litigation

A picture of a scale of justice statue in MADEL PA's office.

We have extensive experience in the multitude of areas that comprise  "business litigation," handling virtually every type of business-related matter for our clients who include Fortune 500 companies, executives, and other entities. Many of our cases involve allegations of fraud or, because of the unusual circumstances, require our skills in coordinating efforts between related cases, law firms, interested third-parties, and across the civil/criminal/administrative spectrum. In short, the breadth of our practice and experience allows us to see nuance and room for creativity where others do not. Our business-litigation work includes:

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  • Antitrust and Trade Regulation Counseling & Litigation

  • Appellate Advocacy

  • Class Action Litigation

  • Commercial Litigation (including contracts, fraud, licenses, etc.)

  • Computer Hacking & Cyber-Security Litigation

  • Construction Litigation

  • Corporate-Espionage Litigation

  • Deceptive-Trade Litigation

  • Defamation Litigation (including Slander, Libel, and Commercial-Disparagement Litigation--often involving private facts and sensitive situations)

  • Employment Litigation (including litigation relating to employment agreements (including non-competes), sexual harassment/assault allegations, corporate raiding, and various statutory claims)

  • False-Advertising Litigation

  • Franchise & Dealership Litigation

  • Healthcare Litigation

  • Legal-Malpractice Litigation

  • Minority-Shareholder, Buyout, & "Freeze Out" Litigation

  • Products-liability litigation

  • Securities & Financial-Markets Litigation (including with FINRA and the Securities & Exchange Commission)

  • Sexual assault/sexual harassment (both as plaintiffs & defense)

  • Trade-Secret Litigation

  • Trademark & Trade-Dress Litigation

  • Trusts & Estates Litigation

  • Whistleblower Litigation (including claims under the False Claims Act)

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Criminal Defense &
Government Investigations

We're proud to be a "go-to" law firm for many top executives, professional athletes, and other high-profile companies and individuals accused of crimes and other serious misconduct. We represent clients in the full range of government investigations and regularly defend against criminal prosecutions across multiple jurisdictions. Our acumen has led to jury-trial acquittals for a wide variety of criminal charges, ranging from typically alleged white-collar crimes (including federal mail fraud, federal wire fraud, bid-rigging, tax evasion, misapplication of bank funds, bank fraud, and federal false statements) to first degree felony assault and criminal sexual conduct.  (For example, Chris Madel represented former baseball Hall-of-Famer Kirby Puckett in his widely publicized acquittal of felony false imprisonment, criminal sexual conduct, and assault charges in 2003; his cross examination of the alleged victim is still mentioned to this day.)
 

We also understand and appreciate that the best criminal defense is frequently won outside of the courtroom—before our client’s reputation is dragged through the inevitable onslaught of media and other adverse attention.  Consequently, many of our best successes are only known to our clients through declinations of criminal prosecution and grants of immunity from federal and state prosecution.  We have obtained such declinations and grants of immunity in numerous matters, including matters involving antitrust offenses, assault, health care, fraud, tax, and criminal sexual conduct.

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Our experience includes litigating against numerous government enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission, (FTC) as well as Attorney Generals in numerous states.
 

Internal Investigations

Our internal investigations practice is diverse.  We have conducted sensitive internal investigations for corporations, Audit Committees, Special Committees, and individuals.   


If allegations of misconduct are made, we have the knowledge and experience to conduct a comprehensive internal investigation and to defend and represent clients if a more formal, adversarial government-led investigation is initiated. Our experience includes several investigations in professional sports (including our internal investigation relating to former Minnesota Vikings' punter Chris Kluwe and the Minnesota Vikings' Arctic Blast weekend) and college sports (including our internal investigation of the political contributions and alleged financial improprieties relating to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona).

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Our work has received widespread praise.  For example, commenting on our Fiesta Bowl Report, the Arizona Republic’s Editorial Board stated: “The Fiesta Bowl executive committee should never lose sight of what appears to have saved their event’s bacon, at least for now: the unflaggingly candid 276-page report released by the Fiesta Bowl itself, which exposed all those ugly warts.”  A leading legal commentator stated: “Any lawyer or other person asked to lead a special investigation centered on wrongdoing of the type that now surrounds the Fiesta Bowl should read [Madel's] report first.”  Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne called the report “comprehensive.”  NCAA President Mark Emmert stated that “The [Fiesta Bowl] special report was obviously extremely detailed and outlined behaviors none of us would be supportive of and I think the board was forthright in putting all that information before the various bodies.”

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Our internal investigations have included allegations of:
 

  • Antitrust Violations

  • Bank Fraud

  • Bribery

  • Election-law Violations

  • Embezzlement

  • Export/Import & OFAC

  • False Claims (qui tam) & Whistleblower Retaliation Violations

  • FCPA Violations

  • Financial & Accounting Fraud

  • Government-related contracting fraud

  • Healthcare Fraud

  • Mail & Wire Fraud

  • Money Laundering

  • Obstruction of Justice

  • Privacy Issues

  • Securities Fraud

  • Sexual assault, discrimination, & harassment

  • Tax-related crimes (tax evasion, alleged false statement in returns, etc.)


Representative clients include a national construction company, a national insurance-related company, a national investment-banking firm, former and present partners in law firms, a national agricultural company, a national financing company, major medical-device supplying companies, national for-profit universities, and individual corporate officers and partners.

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