Aaron E. Moore, Business Attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Aaron provides legal counsel to attorneys, accountants, real estate agents, home inspectors, home appraisers, insurance brokers, and other professionals. Aaron has strong experience representing insurance brokers throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware, including complex claims involving issues concerning duty of care, policy interpretation, whether alternative policies were available, and claims with nuanced statute of limitations issues. He handles a variety of claims including, but not limited to, legal and accounting malpractice, wrongful use of civil process, commercial litigation, negligence, breach of contract, municipal liability, and civil rights matters. Aaron is also experienced in consumer financial services litigation and compliance, particularly representing attorneys and agencies in debt collection practices.

Outside of his professional liability practice, Aaron is also an experienced litigator, defending clients in matters involving premises liability, land use, automobile liability, intellectual property and employment law.

Aaron is a 1987 graduate of Millersville University. Following graduation, he taught grades six through eight in the School District of Philadelphia for 12 years. During that time, he earned a Master's Degree in Education from Temple University. While teaching, Aaron attended evening classes at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University where he made the Dean's List and earned honors in Trial Advocacy and Research and Writing. Aaron began his legal career as an associate with a Blue Bell, Pennsylvania law firm, where he primarily focused on defending Pennsylvania municipalities in areas of civil rights law, premises liability, land use and automobile liability.

Aaron has received an AV Preeminent rating by the Martindale Hubbell.

Honors & Awards

•Top Lawyer, Legal Malpractice, Delaware Today (November 2024)
•AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell

Classes / Seminars Taught

•Proving a Case Within a Case in Legal Malpractice Actions, PLDF Annual Meeting, September 2018
•Developments in Lawyer Liability in Pennsylvania & New Jersey, client seminar, March 2017
•Professional Liability - Issues for Attorneys, client seminar, June 2016
•Virtual Law Office and Interstate Practice of Law, National Business Institute, April 2015
•Aaron has been invited to speak to the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as the Pennsylvania Home Inspector Association. Aaron has also given presentations to insurance companies concerning developments in legal malpractice law.

Published Works

•'LPL Claims Without Privity: Support for a Bright Line Rule', Professional Liability Defense Quarterly, Fall 2018
•'Proving The 'Case-Within-A-Case' Standard,' For The Defense, April 2018
•'Demonstrative Evidence at Trial', Pennsylvania Civil Trial Practice, 2017, 2018, Reviewing Author
•'Common Evidentiary Issues at Trial', Pennsylvania Civil Trial Practice, 2017, 2018
•'Responsive Pleadings', Pennsylvania Civil Pre-Trial Practice, 2017, 2018, Reviewing Author
•Pennsylvania Legal Malpractice Handbook, 2017 Edition, 2019 Edition, Published by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, Co-author
•'Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to the Dragonetti Act,' Defense Digest, Vol. 23, No. 2, June 2017
•'An Argument Against Imposing Liability Against Attorneys for Aiding and Abetting Their Client's Breach of Fiduciary Duty Under Pennsylvania Law,' Defense Digest, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2011
•'Former Phillies Tyler Green Thrown a Curve on Appeal for Legal Fees,' Defense Digest, September 2007
•'Medical Malpractice Plaintiff's Motion for Relief from Judgment of Non Pros Lacks Merit,' Defense Digest, March 2007
•Regular contributor to MDWC&G Case Law Alerts.

Results

One Month - 4 Outstanding Results! Aaron Moore Obtained Four Successful Results on Behalf of Clients in the Span of One Month

Defense verdict on behalf of a real estate broker and agent. The plaintiffs, homebuyers, claimed that the sellers’ broker and agent were liable to them for the value of fixtures that were taken by the sellers when they vacated the property, which were alleged to have been included in the sale. At a bench trial, the judge determined that neither the broker nor the agent could be held liable to the plaintiffs because the representations regarding what was included in the sale were made by the sellers.Supreme Court affirmance of dismissal of a complex legal malpractice lawsuit. Aaron and Carol Vanderwoude obtained a Delaware Supreme Court affirmance of the trial court’s dismissal of a complex legal malpractice claim. The plaintiffs, seven affiliated companies and their owners in the business of developing property, had been sued by their bank for defaulting on multiple lines of credit. The bank filed multiple lawsuits against the property developers, claiming approximately $7 million in damages, plus attorneys’ fees, which were recoverable pursuant to the terms of the promissory notes. The property developers retained our client to defend the lawsuits, asserting that the amounts claimed to be owed to the bank were significantly overstated. Our client vigorously defended the bank’s underlying lawsuits. Ultimately, the property developers settled the bank’s lawsuits for the entire amount owed, plus interest and the bank’s legal fees. The developers argued that its attorneys should have advised them to settle the bank’s claims after the lawsuits were commenced and that, if they had done so, they would not have had to pay the bank’s legal fees, our client’s legal fees, or expert witness fees, or the additional interest on the loan. The property developers also claimed that not settling with the bank earlier caused them lost business opportunities valued at nearly $1 million. The plaintiffs’ legal malpractice claims were dismissed because their expert witness, a Maryland attorney with no business litigation experience, was not qualified to serve as an expert and because their damages claims were speculative.Motion to dismiss in complex matter involving claims of fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference with contractual relations, and piercing the corporate veil. The plaintiff, an investment fund, had purchased a business that was controlled and primarily owned by our client. The business ultimately went bankrupt, and the plaintiff claimed that the purchase was premised upon misrepresentation by our client. The plaintiff maintained that jurisdiction in Delaware was proper pursuant to the Asset Purchase Agreement. The District Court was persuaded by arguments reflecting that it lacked personal jurisdiction over our client, a citizen of Canada, even though he signed the Asset Purchase Agreement which included language conferring jurisdiction over claims arising from the sale in Delaware. The court agreed that our client did not sign the agreement in his individual capacity, and the plaintiff’s piercing the corporate veil allegations were insufficient to confer personal jurisdiction.Dismissal of an unjust enrichment claim. Obtained dismissal of an unjust enrichment claim brought by a condominium unit owner against the attorneys who represented her condominium association. The unit owner claimed that the law firm was liable to her for unjust enrichment in connection with legal fees it received from the association for legal services provided in efforts to collect on past due assessments owed by the unit owner. Pursuant to the association’s governing documents, the charges were passed on to the unit owner. The court agreed that the fees that were paid to our client by the condominium association were properly earned.

Unanimous Appellate Decision Preserves Defense Win in Legal Malpractice Suit

We successfully defended an appeal from a jury verdict previously secured by members of our Lawyers’ Professional Liability Department in favor of the firm’s client in a legal malpractice case. The plaintiffs initially asserted multiple tort claims and a claim under the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, which were dismissed by the trial court upon partial grant of the defense’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. The case proceeded to trial on a remaining breach of contract claim, resulting in a defense verdict. On appeal, the plaintiffs challenged the trial court’s rulings on both the motion for judgment on the pleadings and a motion in limine related to evidentiary exclusions. The Pennsylvania Superior Court unanimously affirmed the trial court’s rulings, holding that the tort claims were time-barred and that the plaintiffs had waived their evidentiary argument by failing to properly develop it in their appellate brief.

Thought Leadership

Case Law Alerts

Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Dismissal of Legal Malpractice Claims Based on Collateral Estoppel

October 1, 2025

The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ legal malpractice claims under the collateral estoppel doctrine. The plaintiffs, previously claimants in an underlying class action case as parents of an injured minor child, brought the legal malpractice claim against class counsel, claiming that counsel was negligent by failing to advise them to affirmatively opt out of the class in order to pursue an individual claim, given the nature and extent of the child’s injuries. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s determination that the claims administrator’s decision in the underlying class action was a final adjudication on the merits by a court of competent jurisdiction as the claim process was an approved process set up by the court in the underlying action. The collateral estoppel doctrine, often called “issue preclusion,” is a doctrine that prevents a party from re-litigating an issue of fact or law that has already been resolved in a prior proceeding. It is intended to promote finality, conserve judicial resources, and protect parties from the burden of duplicative litigation. Case Law Alerts, 4th Quarter, October 2025 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright 2025 Marshall Dennehey, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.

Case Law Alerts

Insurance Policies, Including Exclusions, Need to Be Clear and Unambiguous, According to Delaware Court

January 1, 2025

A Delaware gun dealer, which also operates a shooting range for which it rents firearms, sued its insurer and its insurance broker in a matter arising from the insurer’s refusal to provide defense or indemnification in an underlying lawsuit brought by the estate of man who rented a firearm in order to terminate his own life. The insurer declined coverage because the policy excluded coverage for injuries caused by the rental of “sporting equipment.” Noble Eagle argued the exclusion did not clearly define “sporting equipment,” rendering the exclusion ambiguous and that, under Delaware law, ambiguities in an insurance policy are to be interpreted against the insurer that drafted the language. Noble Eagle further argued, if the policy does not provide for defense and indemnification for the estate’s lawsuit, its insurance broker should be held liable for negligently procuring a policy that did not satisfy Noble Eagle’s insurance needs. The Delaware Superior Court held that Noble Eagle’s insurance policy was ambiguous as to whether a firearm falls under “sporting equipment.” The court stated, it “cannot conclude all firearms are unequivocally and definitionally ‘sporting equipment.’ Nor can the Court conclude all activities that occur at a shooting range are sports.” Accordingly, the court granted Noble Eagle’s motion for summary judgment, holding Noble Eagle is entitled to coverage, defense and indemnity in the underlying lawsuit. As a result, Noble Eagle agreed to dismiss the negligent procurement claim it asserted against its insurance broker. Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2025 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright 2024 Marshall Dennehey, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.

News

Six Marshall Dennehey Attorneys Selected 2024 “Top Lawyers” By Delaware Today Magazine

November 1, 2024