Civil Litigation Attorney

The Civil Division’s general civil practice is both sophisticated and complex, and includes every phase of litigation, including discovery, use of experts, pretrial motion practice and trial work. It is sophisticated because of the level of attention, trial preparation, and resources the Division is able to bring to bear on each case that it handles. Team defense is practiced at PDS. Depending on the nature of the criminal matter and its posture, there is frequently close coordination with the criminal defense attorney. PDS’s resources allow us to staff even complex civil cases. For example, the Civil Division has utilized the services of medical experts, drug addiction experts, housing experts, psychologists, forensic experts (in the area of cell phone and tower data analysis), DNA experts, fingerprint experts, child abuse/pediatric medical experts, and even a cultural anthropologist in a child abuse and neglect case. Our Civil Division attorneys have ready access to the Trial Division’s Forensic Practice Group to assist with certain types of scientific evidence.

It is complex because of our clients’ involvement in the criminal justice process and the many obstacles that creates and burdens it places on clients. Fifth Amendment concerns are implicated in any case where the client has a parallel criminal case pending or potential criminal exposure. As an initial matter, this means in many cases clients are not available to testify in the civil case. More broadly, what is done in the civil case, for example in discovery, implicates the Sixth Amendment’s Assistance of Counsel and Right to Present a Defense Clauses, each of which strongly protect against requiring the defense to disclose its evidence, strategies or theories to the government. Because these constitutional safeguards can be adversely impacted by how the civil case is handled, these concerns necessarily drive many tactical and strategic decisions in the Division’s civil cases. This dynamic adds a layer of complexity to discovery. Thus, civil discovery and work-product issues abound in many of our cases. The cases are intellectually challenging and require the highest level of skills to navigate these issues and achieve good outcomes for our clients.

Civil Division generalists must be able to work on a broad array of civil issues and be comfortable lawyering in unfamiliar areas of the law, often with short notice or on an emergency basis. Further, the attorney must be able to work well with clients and work collaboratively with colleagues in the Civil Division and across PDS’s other Divisions. Other responsibilities include assisting in the preparation of practice guide materials on civil issues for use by PDS’s other Divisions and advising PDS attorneys in other Divisions on a wide array of civil legal issues.