Attorneys and staff of Marks, O’Neill, O’Brien, Doherty & Kelly participated in the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s, “Week of Giving” by volunteering for Northern Children’s Services, an organization that supports the healthy development of children, while stabilizing their families to build stronger communities.

Marks, O’Neill, O’Brien, Doherty & Kelly’s Philadelphia and New Jersey offices recently hosted a clothing drive to benefit Career Wardrobe. The staff members joined together, successfully collecting hundreds of ­professional items for the local charity which provides a continuous system of employability support as women and men transition into the workforce.

Sean X. Kelly of our New Jersey office successfully obtained summary judgment in favor of Atlantic County in a long-running, putative class action law suit which challenged the constitutionality under the Fourth Amendment of the county’s policy of strip-searching incoming detainees to its jail.  We successfully argued that Atlantic City’s strip search policy did not violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizure.  This extensive litigation included the filing of an amicus brief on behalf of Atlantic County in a related and successful appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 132 S. Ct. 1510 (2012), in which the constitutionality of such policies was established.  Prior to Florence, thirty years of case law had held the contrary, that the routine strip-search of non-indictable pre-trial detainees violated the Constitution.

Benjamin J. Tursi of our Philadelphia Office successfully prevailed before the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, affirming summary judgment in a psychiatric malpractice case. Plaintiffs, husband and wife, brought suit against a hospital and its attending physician alleging that the failure to admit the husband to voluntary inpatient mental health care treatment was grossly negligent and resulted in a purported suicide and homicide attempt against the wife by the husband. We successfully argued that plaintiffs’ claims were barred by the Pennsylvania Mental Health Procedures Act and that plaintiffs had failed to present sufficient evidence from which a jury could reasonably find gross negligence.