Rubin, Fortunato & Harbison P.C.

View the profile as it appeared in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2009 (PDF)

In less than two months, Mike Fortunato (listed in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® 2008 and 2009 and Pennsylvania Rising Stars 2005) won two separate Sarbanes-Oxley five-day jury trials in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a defense verdict in July and a $1.8 million plaintiff’s verdict in September. “It was that kind of a year for Mike and his trial team,” says Greg Rubin, Rubin, Fortunato & Harbison’s founder and chairman, and six-time Pennsylvania Super Lawyers honoree (2004 to 2009).

Our 40 lawyers continue to focus on the litigation of employment claims and enforcement of restrictive covenants, says Rubin. Half the firm chases down opportunistic employees who “jump ship,” take the books and records, and try to pirate the customers. The other half litigates employer/employee disputes, claims of discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, SOX and the rest of the alphabet—ADA, ADEA, FMLA, etc. And when we’re not busy wearing our litigation hats, we counsel clients embroiled in raiding/recruitment turf wars, advising on risk management, litigation avoidance, and the “do’s and don’ts” of hiring and firing. As Michelle Liebesman (listed in Pennsylvania Rising Stars ’06) says, “before you hire them, hire us.”

When litigation is necessary, it’s “déjà vu all over again,” says Mark Harbison, managing partner of the litigation section. The firm has the experience and the personnel to skillfully navigate the rapids of litigation, having appeared in all courts—state and federal, trial and appellate, and in all 50 states … and he has hundreds of court orders to prove it. The firm’s accomplishments are well chronicled in Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times and in numerous other publications, periodicals and reported opinions.

“We try to replicate the big-firm model,” says Rubin. Fortunato agrees. This model is a compliment to their former firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. “All and all, we are a little firm providing big-firm services, with big-firm attorneys to big-firm clients, at small-firm prices.”

“We have been servicing clients from Wall Street to Main Street for four decades,” says Rubin. “They hire us for the same reason. We are a collection of smart, well trained, hard-working, no nonsense, serious-minded, button-down professionals. We are pro-active, anticipatory, competitive, committed and focused. We’re fast, efficient, effective and economical. We know the drill, we’ve done the dance. We win.”