Expanding our reach, since 2023.

Philadelphia has a business court. The rest of Pennsylvania does not.

The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas runs the Commerce Case Management Program, established in 2000 and still the only dedicated business-litigation system of its kind in the Commonwealth, one of fewer than a dozen anywhere in the country. It handles business-to-business disputes: internal governance, the rights and obligations among shareholders, partners and members, and the liability of officers, directors and managers. Class actions are routed to Commerce Program judges as well, because they need the same hands-on case management.

The Program brings active judicial case management, settlement conferences, and its own alternative dispute resolution track with judges pro tempore drawn from the commercial bar. In practical terms, a business dispute filed in Philadelphia County can be handled by a judge who sees commercial cases constantly. The same dispute filed in a neighboring county goes on a general civil docket. That difference is worth weighing when a venue or forum-selection clause is being drafted, which is long before anyone is thinking about litigation. Our Civil & Commercial Litigation practice covers how we approach these disputes.

Businesses based in Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks counties litigate in their own Courts of Common Pleas, and federal matters go to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania changed its compliance calendar, and it catches people out

For decades, a Pennsylvania entity filed a decennial report - once every ten years. Act 122 of 2022 repealed that and replaced it with an annual report to the Department of State, phased in from 2025. Nearly every registered entity now files: business corporations, nonprofit corporations, LLCs, LPs, and LLPs.

The deadlines are staggered by entity type. Corporations, including nonprofits, file by June 30. LLCs file by September 30. LPs, LLPs, and other associations have until December 31. The fee is $7 for most for-profit entities and $0 for nonprofit corporations. There is a grace period built in: no dissolution or termination penalty applies for the 2025 or 2026 reports, with full enforcement, a six-month grace period, then administrative dissolution, starting with the 2027 filing.

That grace period is the trap. An entity that quietly skipped 2025 and 2026 has had no consequence yet, and the first real one arrives in 2027. If you are not certain your filings are current, this is a cheap thing to check now and an expensive thing to discover during diligence. See Corporate Governance & Compliance for how we handle it on an ongoing basis.

City taxes are moving, and small businesses feel it first

Philadelphia's Business Income & Receipts Tax is on a long declining path, but the near-term change matters more than the trend. For tax year 2025, with returns due in 2026, the net income rate drops to 5.71% and the gross receipts rate to 1.410 mills. At the same time, the city ordinance eliminates the $100,000 gross receipts exclusion that many small businesses relied on. A company that owed nothing under the exclusion may now have a filing obligation and a bill.

We are not your accountant, and we work alongside one rather than replacing them. But the BIRT change is a good illustration of why we ask about a company's city tax posture when we look at entity structure or a move across the city line: the answer sometimes changes the recommendation.

One Pennsylvania rule worth knowing before you hand out an agreement

Restrictive covenants - non-competes, customer non-solicits - are enforceable in Pennsylvania, but the consideration rule is stricter than employers usually expect. A covenant signed at the start of employment is supported by the job itself. A covenant handed to an existing employee mid-employment generally needs new consideration: a raise, a promotion, or another tangible benefit. Continued employment alone is not enough. An employer who circulates new agreements to the whole team without that step can end up with a stack of documents that do not hold.

North Carolina, where the firm's other office sits, applies a related but distinct set of rules, which is a live issue for our clients with staff in both states. Our Labor & Employment practice covers this work. Nothing here is legal advice on your specific agreement; the analysis turns on facts we would need to see.

In the community

Nathan maintains ties to the Chester County Economic Development Council, the Pennsylvania Small Business Assistance Department, and the PA Business One-Stop Hub, and connects with the region's startup ecosystem through the University City Science Center, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Philly Startup Leaders - alongside academic ties to the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, and Temple. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Media-Upper Providence Township Library and takes on pro bono matters in eviction defense, clemency advocacy, and naturalization cases.