March 30, 2006
by Daniel Ostrovsky
Volume: 5 - The Daily Record

Baltimore-based readers of Fortune, Forbes, Business Week and similar publications may be surprised to stumble upon an advertisement for a relatively small Maryland and South Carolina-based law firm.

Perhaps even more surprising is that the firm, Janet, Jenner & Suggs, is not touting its widely recognized medical malpractice or pharmaceutical products liability practices.

According to partner Howard A. Janet, the firm is launching an advertising blitz to highlight its expansion into a different area of law: business-to-business litigation.

“We are frequently tangling with major corporations, whether it’s in the health care industry [or] the pharmaceutical industry,” Janet said, adding that this has provided the firm with “a lot of experience and expertise in going up against formidable opponents.”

Kenneth M. Suggs, this year’s president of the American Association for Justice, will head the business litigation practice, the firm announced.

The new practice will take on contract and bidding disputes as well as fraud, among other things. And Janet said that businesses will realize many advantages in hiring a “plaintiff firm” to represent them.

For instance, his firm expects compensation “by the outcome, not by the hour,” Janet said. That gives it an incentive to thoroughly investigate every prospective case before proceeding with litigation.

In addition, Janet said some law firms that focus on business litigation tend to defend the perpetrators of “egregious or wrongful behavior,” while his firm makes its living by going after those who commit such actions.

“Businesses can fall victim to that type of conduct as well, and we’d like to bring to the business community what we’ve brought to individuals over the years,” Janet said. Indeed, Janet said his firm has already represented several business clients who felt that they had been wronged.

“We are more diverse than people know,” he said.

Of course, the advertising campaign is designed precisely to let prospective clients know about the expertise of the 13 lawyers at the firm.

So far, it has purchased spots in the Baltimore- and South Carolina-zoned editions of Business Week, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Inc. and Money magazines.

The ad also will run in The Wall Street Journal in nine southeastern states, and nationally in Corporate Counsel and the Journal of Accountancy.

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