Paul F. Carvelli

Paul Carvelli, a partner and co-founder of the firm, concentrates his practice in the area of complex commercial litigation in the federal and state courts. For more than thirty years, he has provided strategic guidance to clients ranging from individuals to closely-held businesses to conglomerates on all legal aspects of their businesses. Paul has extensive litigation experience serving as lead counsel and has achieved a high rate of success for his clients at the trial and appellate levels, including numerous bench and jury trials, arbitrations and appeals.

Paul represents closely held companies and large corporations across a variety of industries, including professional services, retail and manufacturing, trucking and transportation, restaurants and hospitality, franchising and technology providers. His clients rely on him for guidance on shareholder disputes, employment matters including restrictive covenants, business counseling and valuations, corporate transactions such as acquisitions and divestitures and environmental litigation and remediation matters.

In addition to his day-to-day legal practice, Paul is a passionate advocate for special-needs children and their families. He has served in numerous leadership roles for charitable organizations, most notably serving as a Trustee and/or outside General Counsel to various nonprofit organizations for individuals with special needs.

While Paul’s success in hundreds of cases has garnered recognition from industry organizations and professional societies, his most important measure of success is the trust that his clients have continued to place in him case after case and year after year, allowing him to form close, long-term relationships as a trusted business partner.

As a true problem solver and counselor, Paul is guided in his profession by the sentiment expressed by Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view …”

Education

• University of Notre Dame Law School, 1989
• University of Notre Dame, B.A., 1986

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey, 1989

Court Admissions

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2003
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 1993
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 1991
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, 1989

Honors/Awards/Recognitions

• Martindale Hubbell, Rated AV^© Preeminent
• Thompson Reuters, Super Lawyers®, New Jersey, 2005- 2022
• Thompson Reuters, Top 100: New Jersey Super Lawyers®, 2019 -2020, 2022
• The Best Lawyers in America^®, Commercial Litigation, 2013-2023

Professional Memberships

• Alumni Board of Directors, Notre Dame Law School for the New Jersey, Southern New York, and Southern Connecticut Region.
• Fellow, Association of Trial Lawyers of America
• New Jersey Bar Association
• Morris County Bar Association
• Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America (since 2011)

Community Involvement

• Morris County Chancery Division – Mediation Panel, 2018-present
• Autism Tomorrow Corporation – Trustee and outside General Counsel, 2015-present
• Garden Academy – outside General Counsel, 2009-2015; Trustee, 2009-2015
• Somerset Hills Learning Institute – outside General Counsel, 2002-2009; Trustee, 2003-2009
• Autism Center at Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Morristown Memorial Hospital – Steering Committee member, 2015-2017
• Special Needs Internship and Volunteer Program in the Morris/Sussex Vicinage, co-creator and organizer of project for individuals with autism

Publications

• “Can We Talk? Speaking of and to Former Employees,” Corporate Counsel magazine (December 2004)