CLIENT UPDATE
Published for the Clients and Friends of Zegarelli Associates Professional Corporation

OUR GOAL

At the law offices of Zegarelli Associates, we are very proud of our clientele, and we are delighted that you have chosen us to provide your legal representation.

We are determined to provide you with the very best legal services. To that end, first and foremost, we reiterate our four-goal mission:

1. Quality. To provide you with the highest quality legal services. To provide legal services by taking advantage of the latest laws and technologies.

2. Responsiveness. To be responsive to your needs and deadlines. To be prompt in returning phone calls. To implement your suggestions for improving our service.

3. Personability. To be personable, so that you enjoy your relationship with the members of the firm. In a subtle way, to let you know that we appreciate the responsibility with which you have entrusted us, and to let you know we care about solving your legal issues.

4. Value. To provide the legal services that you need in a cost-effective manner, and with due consideration for your budget.

If our responsiveness was not quite as prompt in December, we apologize. In addition to our usual activities, we were negotiating and implementing our entire office growth strategy (see related story, following). We believe that our time was well-invested and it will allow us to serve our clients more efficiently and effectively in the long-term future.

We never forget that we work for you—please share with us your thoughts and ideas about how we can (always) improve our services.

WE'VE MOVED UP
(BUT, ONE FLOOR DOWN)

In December 29, 1993, Zegarelli Associates expanded and relocated its Pittsburgh office to the 11th floor of the Allegheny Building. We negotiated a superb lease for approximately 2,000 square feet—which is more than double our former size. Please mark your records as follows:

Zegarelli Associates Professional Corporation
Allegheny Building, Eleventh Floor
429 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1616

Of course, we are having all mail forwarded from the 1208 Allegheny Building address; therefore, there should not be any difficulty with corresponding during the transition. We have retained all of our telephone numbers.

We will be moving into our fifth year of existence during 1994, and we sincerely thank you for your confidence in our services. Many of our clients have commented that we have grown from a new, startup law office into an aggressive, established law office. We hope that statement is true, and will continue to be so.

In addition to the growth of the office, we have now revamped our computer system. For clients that transmit documents to us electronically, we are now on the following software platform:

Windows for Workgroups, 3.11
WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows
Paradox 4.5 for Windows
Quattro Pro 4.5 for Windows

Excellent suggestions from our clients have allowed us to be at the forefront of law office technology.

We remain committed to serving you with high quality legal services at an affordable cost.

RATES & RETAINERS

We are pleased to continue to provide legal services at an hourly rate which remains extremely cost-effective. The standard attorney hourly rate is $125 per hour, with the Legal Coordinator rate at $65 and legal assistants at $45. In addition, we continue to offer retainer-based relationships which can provide an even greater savings for legal services, if services are needed on a more consistent basis. With regard to payment methods, we accept all major credit cards at no additional cost to our clients, and we continue to establish tailored payment plans.

AREAS OF SERVICE

Zegarelli Associates conducts a diverse general practice of law in a variety of areas, but concentrates in transaction-oriented legal issues. For example,

Zegarelli Associates concentrates in:

•The avant-garde areas of law, such as computer law, copyright law, media and advertising law, trademark law, trade secrets, and commercial transactions.

•Business representation, including corporations and proprietorships, formations, mergers and acquisitions, financings, franchising, and employment issues.

•General practice and commercial litigation. Real estate issues, such as closings on the purchase of commercial and residential real estate. Drafting and review of leases. Estate issues, such as drafting wills and the administration of estates.

To best serve you, we retain specialty counsel to assist you with your legal needs relating to criminal law, personal injury law, and child custody law. Retaining specialty counsel permits us to concentrate on the transactional aspects of the law.

We are pleased that referrals from clients have been our greatest source of new client relationships.

PLAIN MEANING LAW

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania General Assembly recently passed a law entitled the "Plain Language Consumer Contract Act." Basically, the law is a consumer protection law which creates linguistic and formal standards for consumer-related contracts. Sound good? Just what we needed? Maybe, it depends upon your circumstances.

Generally, if you are a consumer, and you are not a business owner or a person responsible for compliance, the law is probably favorable to you. In short, it gives you more causes with which to initiate a lawsuit. Otherwise, this law can have a very serious impact on your business policies.

In short, the law is intended to be read liberally for the benefit of consumers, and it is generally full of vague standards. For example, the law provides: "The contract should use short words." In addition, there are visual guidelines. For example, "The contract should have type size, line length, column width, margins and spacing . . . that make the contract easy to read." Easy for whom?

The law should provide objective standards, but, for example, would a sophisticated consumer have a more difficult time obtaining the benefit of the law than an unsophisticated consumer? If so, then how does a business, trying to mass-produce a business procedure with a standard contract, calculate its risk in advance so as to properly price its products and services? And, generally, insurance policies disclaim coverage for these types of claims.

These are certainly questions that the law offices of Zegarelli Associates Professional Corporation will be active in answering.

As a result of the new law, the firm is suggesting that our clients contact us, as soon as possible, with regard to having us review and revise their standard agreements.

TRADEMARK/PRODUCT
NAME SEARCHES

One of the most interesting services that we offer is the ability to perform preliminary computerized trademark research in the office—generally for less than $50 per search. Because we have the technological ability to perform this research in the office, we can often save you hundreds of dollars. Before you use a new business, product or service name, consider having us perform this research. You not only save considerably on our in-house search costs, but the search information could save you thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of dollars later.

COMPUTERIZED DOCKET

To ensure that we provide you with the proper protection for performing legal services, we have developed an in-house software package to track the schedule of your various due dates and filing deadlines. For example, a state filing this year may require a renewal filing in the year 2010. A "docket" is basically a legal term for a schedule of deadlines. If you need a copy of your docket at any time, please let us know.

As always, please call us if you have any questions or if we can be of assistance to you in any way.

Articles and information are for general information only, and often address issues, without expressly indicating, in generalizations. Laws vary between and among jurisdictions.  You should not rely upon any information provided by or on the website, including articles, as applicable to your particular situation. The law, filing fees, etc., change often, so the information in this document may not be current. The laws of various jurisdictions may be different than provided here.  Please contact us at info@zegarelli.com if you are interested in becoming our client--only then would this office be in the position to provide advise with regard to your particular situation.  It is important for you to review Terms of Use.

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Corporate Office:
429 Forbes Avenue, 12th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1616
Voice: 412.765.0400
Fax: 412.765.0531

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