Stephanie K. Benecchi is senior counsel with Berger Montague's intellectual property department in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Berger Montague, she was a partner at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads in their Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, NJ offices, where she focused her practice on commercial litigation, including class action defense, as well as white-collar defense and government investigations. Before her time at MMWR, Ms. Benecchi was an associate at Kasowitz Benson Torres in New York.
Ms. Benecchi manages an interdisciplinary litigation team representing medical device manufacturers in multiple patent infringement suits. Her practice focuses on the healthcare sector, where she represents both entities and individuals from health systems, medical practices, and medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, in commercial litigation as well as in conjunction with government investigations, including billing, labeling, and monitoring of medical devices, and pharmaceutical sales practices.
Ms. Benecchi is a member of the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility committee for the Pennsylvania Bar Association and has devoted time to speaking and writing on legal ethics issues. Her presentations have yielded “wow” reviews from attendees impressed with her ability to gracefully tackle difficult issues like mental health services on campus.
Her publications regarding the ethics of representing clients at risk of suicide have provided valuable guidance to the bar. Ms. Benecchi has co-written articles on the merits of removing “zeal” from the ABA model rules of professional conduct, published by the ABA Section of Litigation Ethics and Professionalism (“Exploring the Bounds of Professionalism: Is it Time to Remove ‘Zeal’ from the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct?”) and the Pennsylvania Lawyer (“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Should Remove the ‘Z’ Words from the Rules of Professional Conduct”).
Ms. Benecchi is a graduate of Fordham Law School, where she served as a staff member on the Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law and received the Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award for completing a clinical externship in prosecution at the New York Stock Exchange. She graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Psychology, where she was a member of the Varsity Women’s Swim Team.
Ms. Benecchi lives in Haddonfield, NJ, and is currently serving in her first three-year term as a member of the Haddonfield School District Board of Education, where she serves on the Finance and Curriculum subcommittees. A former competitive swimmer, she remains an active volunteer in USA Swimming, where she currently serves as a stroke and turn official for Middle Atlantic Swimming.