Fox Rothschild, LLP, a national law firm with 19 offices and more than 600 attorneys, is bragging about two of the female attorneys at its Exton office.

Ashley Lerch recently secured a ruling by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in favor of Citadel Federal Credit Union. Marilou E. Watson has been selected to receive the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Minority Business Advocate Award which recognizes influential business leaders who are making a difference in the community.

In the 2012 Citadel case, Citadel filed a complaint for deficiency judgment against the defendant/debtor for more than $650,000. The debtor’s property was sold at sheriff’s sale in an attempt by Citadel to collect the judgment. Citadel subsequently filed a petition to fix the fair market value of the property, and that petition was approved by the trial court, where the debtor represented himself pro se. The court confirmed that the defendant/debtor waived his arguments concerning the application under Pennsylvania’s Deficiency Judgment Act by failing to raise them before the trial court.  Read more about the case here.

Watson was chosen for her professional accomplishments, community impact and business/lifetime advocacy. She will be profiled in an upcoming special edition of the paper and honored during an Aug. 7 awards ceremony.  Former co-chair of the Diversity Committee at Fox, Watson assisted in spearheading initiatives that promote firm-wide diversity and inclusiveness and played a pivotal role in advancing the firm’s diversity mission.

She also pioneered a “Day in Court” program at the Montgomery County Courthouse, which received a 2013 award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association for its impact on the future of the legal profession. The program provides high school students the opportunity to observe a live court proceeding and meet with county judges, the public defender, district attorney, county detectives and county commissioners.

A leader at Fox, Watson serves as co-chair of the firm’s Tech and Venture Finance Practice and focuses on  intellectual property law, including foreign and domestic patent prosecution, client counseling, infringement analysis, patent invalidity, freedom to operate studies and Hatch-Waxman issues related to ANDA filings, licensing, due diligence and divestiture matters in the chemical and pharmaceutical arts.

Lerch represents clients in commercial disputes and creditor’s rights issues. She handles mortgage foreclosures and assists creditors in collecting amounts owed in consumer and commercial matters. Lerch has successfully obtained and collected judgments in numerous common pleas arbitration matters.