About
About The Skeen Firm
Everyday Legal Advice®. Practical Solutions. No B.S.
At The Skeen Firm, we believe legal advice should be understandable, practical, and focused on helping people make confident decisions—not creating more confusion. The law touches some of life's most important moments, from protecting your family and building a business to planning your estate or resolving a difficult dispute. During those moments, you deserve more than legal jargon or generic advice. You deserve clear answers, thoughtful strategy, and a legal team committed to helping you move forward.
That belief is the foundation of Everyday Legal Advice®.
Everyday Legal Advice® is more than a tagline. It reflects the way we practice law. We believe legal counsel should be straightforward, useful, and tailored to each client's goals. Our role is not simply to explain what the law says. We help clients understand their options, evaluate risk, make informed decisions, and develop a strategy for what comes next.
The Skeen Firm serves individuals, families, entrepreneurs, and businesses throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Our attorneys provide legal services involving family law, business litigation, business law, estate planning, probate and estate administration, civil litigation, select personal injury and wrongful death matters, bankruptcy, criminal defense, and oil and gas law.
No two legal matters are exactly alike. Some clients want to avoid litigation whenever possible. Others need decisive courtroom advocacy. Business owners often need counsel who understands that legal decisions have operational and financial consequences. Families want guidance that considers not only today's problem but also tomorrow's reality.
Our responsibility is to listen first, understand the bigger picture, and develop a legal strategy aligned with the client's goals.
Today's clients also expect more from their attorneys than technical legal knowledge alone. They expect responsiveness, transparency, efficiency, and honest guidance. We believe those expectations should be the standard.
That is why we have intentionally built a modern law firm combining experienced legal counsel with practical problem-solving, thoughtful use of technology, and a commitment to client service.
Whether you are planning for the future, navigating an unexpected challenge, protecting a business, or advocating for your family, our mission remains simple: provide Everyday Legal Advice® that helps you make better decisions today while preparing for what comes next.
A Different Kind of Law Firm
The legal profession has changed dramatically. Clients have access to more information than ever before, businesses move quickly, and families face increasingly complex legal and financial decisions. Yet the experience of hiring an attorney can still feel unnecessarily complicated.
We believe there is a better way.
The Skeen Firm was built around the idea that effective legal representation should combine legal knowledge with practical problem-solving, responsive communication, and a genuine commitment to helping clients understand their options.
Legal counsel should reduce uncertainty, not create more of it.
From the first interaction with our office through the conclusion of a matter, we strive to make the legal process more transparent, efficient, and understandable. We explain legal concepts in plain English, establish realistic expectations, and develop strategies around the client's objectives rather than simply focusing on the next procedural step.
We have also intentionally invested in systems and technology that improve the client experience. Secure digital intake, electronic document management, online scheduling, electronic signatures, and streamlined workflows allow our team to spend less time on unnecessary administration and more time addressing our clients' legal needs.
Technology, however, should support the attorney-client relationship—not replace it. Judgment, strategy, communication, and trust remain at the center of effective representation.
Just as importantly, we recognize that success looks different for every client.
For one client, success may mean resolving a dispute quickly and avoiding litigation. For another, it may require taking a case to court. A business owner may prioritize protecting cash flow or preserving an important commercial relationship. A parent may care most about stability for a child.
There is no universal definition of a successful legal outcome.
Our job is to understand yours.
Who We Serve
Our clients come from different backgrounds, industries, and stages of life, but they often share something important: they are facing a decision that matters.
Some are preparing for the future. Others are responding to an unexpected challenge. Many are protecting the people, property, or businesses they have spent years building.
Effective representation begins with understanding the person behind the legal issue.
Families
Families often seek legal counsel during some of life's most significant transitions.
We help clients navigate divorce, child custody, support, adoption, guardianship, protection orders, estate planning, and other matters affecting their families and futures.
Family legal issues frequently involve much more than the law. They affect relationships, finances, children, homes, and long-term stability. While litigation is sometimes necessary, conflict for its own sake rarely serves a family well.
Our objective is to help clients understand their rights, evaluate their options, and pursue solutions that protect what matters most.
Our relationship with families often extends beyond a single matter. A client navigating divorce may later need to revise an estate plan. New parents may need wills and guardianship planning. Families administering an estate may decide to improve their own planning after experiencing probate firsthand.
Life changes. Good legal counsel should be able to change with it.
Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
Business owners make decisions every day that carry legal consequences.
The Skeen Firm works with entrepreneurs, closely held businesses, family-owned companies, and established organizations on matters involving contracts, business formation, governance, acquisitions, employment issues, ownership disputes, commercial litigation, collections, risk management, and succession planning.
Our business clients often need more than an attorney who reviews documents after decisions have already been made. They need a legal advisor who understands that every recommendation also has financial, operational, and strategic implications.
We strive to provide advice that makes sense both legally and commercially.
Individuals Facing Legal Challenges
Legal problems rarely arrive at a convenient time.
A lawsuit, criminal charge, financial crisis, injury, property dispute, or other unexpected conflict can quickly create uncertainty about what happens next.
Our role is to replace as much of that uncertainty as possible with information and strategy.
We help clients understand the legal process, establish realistic expectations, identify available options, and develop a path forward. Regardless of the type of matter, every client deserves honesty, preparation, responsiveness, and an advocate committed to protecting their interests.
Executors, Trustees, Fiduciaries & Decision Makers
Some clients come to us because they have been entrusted with responsibility for someone else's affairs.
Executors administering estates, trustees managing trusts, agents acting under powers of attorney, guardians caring for loved ones, and business leaders making decisions on behalf of organizations may face significant legal duties.
We help fiduciaries understand those obligations and make informed decisions while navigating probate, estate and trust administration, beneficiary concerns, business responsibilities, and related disputes.
Serving in a position of trust is an important responsibility. Thoughtful legal guidance can make that responsibility considerably easier to manage.
What Makes The Skeen Firm Different
Every law firm can promise experience and service. We believe clients deserve to understand something more important: how their attorneys think.
Our practice is built around clarity, preparation, accountability, and practical solutions.
Everyday Legal Advice® Is More Than a Tagline
Our trademark Everyday Legal Advice® reflects our belief that valuable legal counsel should not be reserved for emergencies and lawsuits.
Some of the most valuable legal advice prevents disputes before they happen.
It may mean helping a business owner identify a problem in a contract before signing it. It may mean understanding the long-term consequences of a divorce settlement. It may mean creating an estate plan that prevents uncertainty for the next generation.
The common thread is straightforward: better information leads to better decisions.
We strive to serve as trusted advisors rather than professionals clients contact only after something has gone wrong.
Practical Solutions Over Unnecessary Conflict
Litigation is an important tool. It is not an objective.
Sometimes protecting a client's rights requires aggressive litigation. When that happens, careful preparation and effective courtroom advocacy matter.
Other times, a negotiated agreement or proactive legal solution creates a better result with less expense, disruption, and uncertainty.
Our recommendations are driven by outcomes rather than process. We pursue practical resolutions when they protect the client's interests and decisive litigation when the circumstances require it.
Clear Communication Creates Better Decisions
Clients should understand what is happening in their legal matter and why it matters.
We explain legal concepts in understandable language, discuss realistic expectations, identify risks, and provide the information clients need to participate meaningfully in important decisions.
Transparency also requires acknowledging uncertainty. No attorney can guarantee a particular result. Clients deserve candid assessments rather than unrealistic promises.
Our responsibility is to provide the judgment, preparation, and information necessary to make the best decisions available under the circumstances.
Technology With Purpose
We embrace technology when it improves representation.
Secure digital systems, electronic documents, online scheduling, and streamlined workflows can make legal services more accessible and efficient.
But innovation should always have a purpose.
Technology cannot replace judgment, advocacy, or the trust between attorney and client. We use it to support those things—not substitute for them.
Education Is Part of Representation
We believe informed clients make stronger decisions.
That is why we invest in articles, legal guides, calculators, checklists, FAQs, and other educational resources designed to help people better understand the legal issues affecting their families, businesses, and futures.
General information can never replace advice tailored to an individual's circumstances. But good legal education helps people recognize problems earlier, ask better questions, and approach important decisions with greater confidence.
Whether someone ultimately hires our firm or simply leaves our website understanding the law a little better, we consider that worthwhile.
Relationships Built on Trust
Legal representation does not necessarily end when a case closes.
Many clients return to The Skeen Firm as their lives and businesses evolve. Those continuing relationships allow us to provide more useful advice because we understand not only the immediate legal issue but also the client's history, objectives, and priorities.
We view every representation as an opportunity to earn that long-term trust.
Our Core Values
Values mean very little unless they influence decisions. At The Skeen Firm, our core values provide a framework for how we communicate, develop legal strategy, serve clients, and measure our own performance.
Authentic
Authenticity begins with honesty.
Clients deserve straightforward answers and realistic expectations, including when the answer may not be what they hoped to hear.
We believe in discussing both strengths and weaknesses, acknowledging uncertainty when it exists, and recommending the course of action we genuinely believe serves the client's interests.
We also communicate like real people. The law is complicated enough without unnecessary legal jargon.
Trust is earned through consistency, preparation, professionalism, and honesty—one interaction at a time.
Innovative
The legal profession continues to evolve, and we believe legal services should evolve with it.
Innovation does not mean adopting every new trend. It means continually asking whether there is a better way to communicate, manage information, resolve disputes, educate clients, and deliver legal services.
Sometimes the improvement comes from technology. Sometimes it comes from approaching an old problem differently.
Our goal is continuous improvement without sacrificing the judgment and personal relationships at the heart of effective representation.
Solutions Driven
Legal problems rarely exist in isolation.
A lawsuit may actually be a business problem. A custody dispute can have financial and practical consequences extending far beyond the courtroom. Estate planning is ultimately about people and preparation, not documents.
That is why we focus on solutions rather than legal tasks.
Before recommending a course of action, we ask what the client is actually trying to accomplish and how today's decision may affect tomorrow.
Success should be measured by the quality of the solution—not the amount of legal activity required to reach it.
Transparent
Trust requires transparency.
Clients deserve to understand the process, available options, potential risks, and realistic possibilities.
Transparency means communicating developments, discussing fees and expectations, explaining why strategies change, and addressing difficult issues directly rather than avoiding them.
An informed client is better positioned to make a sound decision.
Accountable
Accountability means ownership.
We take responsibility for our preparation, communication, recommendations, and representation. It also means continually improving our knowledge, systems, and approach.
We are accountable to our clients, to the courts, to the communities we serve, and to the reputation we earn through our work.
Our standard is simple: do what we say we will do, stand behind our work, learn from experience, and strive to provide better representation tomorrow than we did yesterday.
Helping Families, Individuals & Businesses Move Forward
Every legal matter tells a story.
Sometimes it begins with an opportunity—a new business, a growing family, or plans for the future. Other times it begins with uncertainty, conflict, financial hardship, injury, or an unexpected legal challenge.
Wherever that story begins, our role remains the same: understand the problem, explain the options, develop a strategy, and help the client move forward.
Family Law
Family law is about more than documents and court hearings. It is about people, children, finances, relationships, and major life transitions.
The Skeen Firm represents clients in divorce, child custody, support, adoption, guardianship, protection orders, modifications, contempt proceedings, and other family law matters.
We begin by understanding what success means for the individual client. Some matters can be resolved through productive negotiation. Others require strong courtroom advocacy to protect parental rights, financial interests, or personal safety.
Whenever possible, we seek solutions that reduce unnecessary conflict without compromising what matters most. When litigation becomes necessary, we are prepared to advocate decisively.
Our objective is not merely to get clients through a family law case. It is to help them make decisions that provide a stronger foundation for whatever comes next.
Business Litigation
Successful businesses are built through years of work, calculated risk, and important decisions. A serious dispute can threaten everything an owner has worked to create.
At The Skeen Firm, we believe business litigation is fundamentally about protecting businesses—not simply prosecuting lawsuits.
Every commercial dispute carries legal consequences, but it can also affect finances, operations, reputation, ownership, and future opportunities.
We represent entrepreneurs, closely held companies, family-owned businesses, shareholders, members, partners, and other business stakeholders in matters involving breach of contract, partnership and shareholder disputes, business divorces, fiduciary duty claims, commercial collections, fraud, unfair competition, trade secrets, restrictive covenants, emergency injunctive relief, and other commercial conflicts.
Before recommending a strategy, we seek to understand the business objective behind the lawsuit. Is the priority protecting cash flow? Preserving a customer relationship? Enforcing ownership rights? Preventing immediate harm? Recovering a loss? Protecting the future of the company?
Those answers matter.
Preparation is the foundation of effective litigation. We investigate the facts, analyze the law, develop strategic litigation plans, and prepare matters with the understanding that they may ultimately be decided in court.
But litigation should never become the objective itself. When a practical resolution protects the client's interests, we pursue it. When decisive courtroom advocacy is required, we are prepared to provide it.
The best business litigation strategy does more than resolve today's dispute. Whenever possible, it should leave the business stronger for tomorrow.
Business Law & Outside General Counsel
Many serious business disputes begin long before anyone files a lawsuit.
Poorly drafted contracts, unclear ownership arrangements, governance problems, or overlooked risks can remain hidden until they become expensive conflicts.
Our business law practice is therefore focused on helping companies become proactive rather than reactive.
The Skeen Firm advises entrepreneurs, startups, family-owned companies, established businesses, investors, and professionals throughout the business lifecycle.
Our work includes business formation, operating and shareholder agreements, contracts, employment matters, mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, governance, succession planning, risk management, and ongoing strategic counsel.
Some clients rely on us as outside general counsel, giving their leadership access to legal guidance without maintaining an internal legal department.
Business owners generally do not need abstract legal theory. They need advice that accounts for revenue, employees, customers, growth, opportunity, and risk.
We strive to provide exactly that.
Estate Planning
The most important estate plans are rarely about money alone.
They are about people.
Estate planning provides an opportunity to protect loved ones, prepare for incapacity, preserve assets, reduce future conflict, and ensure that important decisions reflect your wishes.
Every family is different, so we begin with a conversation rather than a stack of forms.
We help clients develop wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, guardianship plans for minor children, business succession strategies, and other planning solutions tailored to their circumstances.
Estate plans should also evolve. Families grow, businesses change, children become adults, assets are acquired or sold, and priorities shift.
Thoughtful planning today can spare loved ones considerable uncertainty tomorrow.
That is Everyday Legal Advice® at its most preventative: solving problems before they ever become problems.
Probate & Estate Administration
The legal responsibilities following a death often arrive during one of the most difficult periods a family will experience.
Executors, administrators, trustees, and beneficiaries may suddenly find themselves navigating unfamiliar legal procedures while dealing with grief, family dynamics, financial issues, and deadlines.
Our job is to bring clarity to that process.
The Skeen Firm assists with probate proceedings, estate and trust administration, fiduciary guidance, beneficiary matters, creditor issues, and related disputes.
We help fiduciaries understand not just what needs to happen but why it matters.
Probate is ultimately about people, not paperwork. Our objective is to help families fulfill legal responsibilities properly while reducing unnecessary confusion and conflict.
Civil Litigation
Not every legal dispute fits neatly within a single category.
Some conflicts involve contracts. Others concern property rights, fiduciary obligations, consumer protection, construction, insurance, personal injuries, or other claims requiring experienced advocacy.
At The Skeen Firm, we approach civil litigation with a simple principle: litigation should serve the client's objectives—not become the objective itself.
Before recommending a lawsuit or developing a defense, we seek to understand the broader dispute. What result is the client actually seeking? Can negotiation or mediation achieve it? Is immediate court intervention necessary? Can expense or disruption be reduced without compromising important rights?
Our attorneys represent individuals, families, businesses, fiduciaries, and property owners in civil matters involving contracts, real estate and property disputes, fiduciary and trust litigation, injunctions, declaratory judgment actions, consumer protection, construction matters, insurance disputes, and other complex claims.
We also represent clients in select personal injury and wrongful death matters where experienced advocacy can make a meaningful difference. Rather than operating as a high-volume personal injury practice, we intentionally accept matters where we can provide the individualized attention, preparation, and advocacy the case deserves.
Preparation remains the foundation of effective litigation. We investigate facts, analyze governing law, develop strategy, and prepare cases with the expectation that they could ultimately be decided by a judge or jury.
Whenever practical solutions can resolve a dispute while protecting our client's rights, we pursue them. When litigation becomes necessary, we advocate confidently and without hesitation.
Bankruptcy
Financial hardship can happen to anyone.
Job loss, illness, divorce, business problems, or circumstances outside someone's control can create financial challenges that feel impossible to overcome.
Bankruptcy exists because the law recognizes that people sometimes need an opportunity for a fresh start.
We help clients evaluate available options and understand whether bankruptcy makes sense for their circumstances. When it does, our focus is not simply on addressing debt but helping the client begin rebuilding financial stability.
Financial setbacks do not have to define someone's future.
Criminal Defense
A criminal accusation can affect a person's freedom, career, reputation, family, and future.
We believe every individual deserves to have their constitutional rights protected, their case carefully prepared, and their circumstances treated with dignity.
Our criminal defense work combines factual investigation, legal analysis, preparation, and candid communication. Whether negotiating with prosecutors, challenging evidence, preparing for trial, or advising clients about potential consequences, our objective is to protect both their legal rights and their future opportunities.
Oil & Gas Law
Natural resources can represent some of the most valuable assets a family or business owns.
Oil and gas matters may involve mineral ownership, leases, royalties, surface use, title questions, easements, and complex contractual relationships with consequences extending for decades.
The Skeen Firm assists landowners, mineral owners, businesses, and other stakeholders with oil and gas matters throughout our service region.
Whether reviewing agreements, negotiating terms, resolving disputes, or providing strategic advice, we focus on helping clients understand the rights they own and the long-term consequences of the decisions they make.
Why Clients Continue Working With The Skeen Firm
Most people first contact an attorney because of a specific problem.
A business dispute. A divorce. An estate plan. A criminal charge. The death of a loved one.
But legal issues rarely exist in isolation.
A business owner who first hires us for litigation may later need contracts reviewed, another company acquired, or a succession plan developed. Parents navigating family law matters may need new estate plans. Executors administering a parent's estate may decide to improve their own planning after seeing the process firsthand.
Life changes. Businesses grow. Families evolve.
We intentionally built The Skeen Firm to serve clients through those transitions rather than treating every matter as an isolated transaction.
That perspective changes the questions we ask.
We do not only ask, "How do we solve today's problem?"
We also ask, "What can we do today to reduce tomorrow's problems?"
Sometimes the answer is a stronger contract. Sometimes it is updating an estate plan. Sometimes it is restructuring a business or resolving a dispute before litigation becomes unavoidable.
And sometimes it simply means knowing whom to call when the next important decision arrives.
The best attorney-client relationships can last years rather than cases.
Whether someone works with us once or relies on our counsel throughout different stages of life and business, our commitment remains the same: practical advice, responsive communication, thoughtful strategy, and solutions focused on what comes next.
Serving Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Ohio
The Skeen Firm serves individuals, families, and businesses across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.
Our regional practice gives us the opportunity to represent clients throughout communities with close personal, economic, and business connections that frequently cross state lines.
In Pennsylvania, our work includes clients throughout Western Pennsylvania and surrounding communities. In West Virginia, we serve clients across the Northern Panhandle and other parts of the state where our attorneys are licensed to practice. Our Ohio practice allows us to assist qualifying clients and matters across the state as well.
Multi-state capability can be particularly valuable for families and businesses whose legal needs do not stop at a state border. Businesses may operate in multiple jurisdictions. Families may own property in more than one state. Estates may include assets located across state lines. Commercial disputes may involve parties or agreements spanning multiple jurisdictions.
Whatever the location, our philosophy remains consistent: understand the client's goals, explain the law clearly, and develop a practical strategy designed around the circumstances.
Ready to Move Forward?
You do not need to have every answer before speaking with an attorney.
You just need a place to start.
Whether you are protecting your family, resolving a dispute, growing a business, planning your estate, or facing an unexpected legal challenge, The Skeen Firm is here to help you understand your options and determine what comes next.
Everyday Legal Advice®. Clear answers. Practical solutions.
Schedule a Discovery Call or contact The Skeen Firm at 724-250-8841 to get started.