A. Grant Phelan

Grant is a co-chair of the Litigation Department. He is a national business litigator with broad experience in both federal and state courts at the trial and appellate levels. He has also represented clients in alternative dispute resolution forums and has been asked to serve as both an arbitrator and mediator on numerous occasions. Grant has authored numerous articles and has frequently been asked to lecture on a wide variety of topics.

His practice involves litigating a full range of business and commercial matters across the country, including contract disputes, shareholder and partnership disputes, real estate disputes, securities fraud, government investigations, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, insurance coverage and employment disputes. In the past five years, Grant has been lead counsel in 33 different states. Clients praise Grant for his steady and discerning counsel citing the calm and insightful guidance he provides to allow them to achieve successful outcomes in their business and legal dealings.

Grant is frequently asked to handle complex, high-exposure litigation for his clients and serves as national ligation counsel for a number of market-leading businesses.

Grant serves as a board member to the Law Firm Alliance, a strategic international alliance of law firms established in 2000, to provide legal clients greater access to high-quality and cost-effective legal services around the globe. The LFA includes more than 50 firms and 2,500 attorneys throughout North America, South America, Europe and Africa. In 2024, Grant was elected Chair-Elect of the Board of Directors of the Law Firm Alliance.

Outside the office, Grant serves as chair of the Board of Directors of Youth Development United, a 501(c)(3) providing mentoring, nutrition education and career discovery opportunities to children from underserved communities, and Chester-Upland Youth Soccer/Soccer For Success, a 501(C)3 providing leadership skills to children in underserved communities through access to the “beautiful game.” Grant previously was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Art-Reach, a 501(c)(3) located in Philadelphia that creates, advocates for and expands accessible opportunities in the arts for physically, mentally and economically challenged individuals. He has been recognized as one of the region’s individuals who provide the leadership, connections and action that hold the community together when he was named a 101 Top Connector by Leadership Philadelphia. Grant served two terms as President for the College of William and Mary’s Alumni Association in Philadelphia and he was previously nominated to the MS Leadership Class for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Delaware Valley Chapter.

Mentioned, “People in The News – October 18, 2024,” The Legal Intelligencer, October 18, 2024

Press Release, “Grant Phelan Elected Chair-elect of Law Firm Alliance Board of Directors,” October 10, 2024

Mentioned, “Klehr Harrison adds to litigation leadership,” Philadelphia Business Journal, October 4, 2023

Press Release, “Klehr Harrison Adds to the Litigation Department Leadership,” September 18, 2023

Press Release, “Law Firm Alliance Adds Klehr Harrison Partner to Board of Directors,” November 14, 2022

Author, “Effective Trial Presentation”

Author, “Application of Spoliation Doctrine in Manufacturing Defect Cases”

Author, “Pennsylvania Premises Liability Update”

Author, “A Summary of Pennsylvania Law”

Author, “Pennsylvania Insurance Coverage”

Business Disputes

• As lead counsel, obtained an injunction barring the deceptive advertising practices and tortious interference of a business competitor on behalf of a national financial institution. Following discovery, Grant secured a permanent injunction and a seven-figure settlement.
• Obtained a mandatory injunction on behalf of a nationally known academic institution for the payment of monies and the provision of source materials for its library against its content aggregator/provider. The injunction, obtained on the eve of the bankruptcy of the content distributor allowed the academic institution to recover over ninety-three percent of actual damages as well as the source materials in question.
• Successfully defended and settled claims against a technology company in the provision and exercise of stock options.
• Successfully settled claims of defamation, tortious interference with business relations, commercial disparagement, and civil conspiracy between business competitors following a five-day trial in federal court.
• Successfully secured the dismissal of strict liability claims for defective design, defective manufacture and failure to warn asserted against a product manufacturer during the pleading phase of civil litigation.
• Successful prosecution and trial of a civil action alleging trademark infringement, theft of trade secrets, and violations of restrictive covenants between business competitors.
• Successfully settled claims days before trial in a securities lending dispute between two broker-dealers in which the client recovered $23 million and other payments representing ninety-eight percent of actual damages.
• Successfully defended the director of compliance of a regional broker-dealer in a failure to supervise investigation brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Represented a national manufacturer in an investigation of sales practices brought by a State Commission of Investigation. Ultimately, the investigation was discontinued without prosecution.
• Represented a nationally known broker-dealer in a series of lawsuits against multiple counterparty broker-dealers following the largest collapse of a SIPC- insured institution.
• Successfully represented a regional day-care provider in various disputes with municipal and state regulators.

Insurance Coverage Disputes

• Successfully intervened, briefed, and argued insurance coverage issues on behalf of the committee of unsecured creditors for a medical facility resulting in summary judgment and a determination of coverage in excess of $4 million.
• Secured insurance coverage under D&O and E&O policies for a property developer and property management firm for claims associated with the development of a condominium project.
• Secured insurance coverage for a national manufacturing firm for certain asbestos claims filed throughout the United States.
• Secured insurance coverage for a property developer for damages associated with water infiltration in a real estate rehabilitation project.
• Represented regional health care network in dispute with its reciprocal risk retention group over the withdrawal of the health care network from the RRG. The matter was successfully resolved on the eve of trial.

Employment Disputes

• Successfully barred the dissemination and use of confidential and proprietary information through a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
• Successfully defeated a request for preliminary injunction seeking relief for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
• Negotiated a severance agreement on behalf of an executive of a national computer consulting firm.
• Successfully asserted a constitutional challenge to a criminal indictment alleging violations of Pennsylvania’s Wage Payment and Collection Law resulting in dismissal of all charges.
• Negotiated employment agreements for multiple managing directors, directors and other officers in the securities and other industries.

Real Estate Disputes

• Obtained a defense verdict before a private arbitration panel in a construction dispute on behalf of a regional contractor.
• Following a day-long hearing, defeated a request for a preliminary injunction where the tenant was seeking to enforce certain exclusive rights contained in a lease agreement.
• Secured a nonsuit following five days of trial where a real estate firm was seeking a finder’s fee in connection with the development and construction of a $17 million regional distribution center.
• Successfully recovered from a tenant twenty years of unpaid OPEX charges on behalf of the landlord.
• Secured a favorable fair market valuation of commercial rent in a baseball-style arbitration against a nationally known retailer on behalf of the landlord.
• Secured summary judgment on behalf of the landlord in a dispute over the exercise of certain options to extend a ground lease.
• Represents a national REIT in all aspects of disputes with tenants.
• Represents a national anchor tenant in all aspects of disputes with its landlords.
• Secured the adjustment and recalculation of OPEX under a commercial lease following a five-day trial in the Midwest.
• Successfully defended landlord in claims of improper calculation of operating expense in a AAA Arbitration Proceeding conducted in the Midwest.