Scaringi Law

What the firm handles

The Harrisburg office covers a long list of legal matters for both individuals and businesses across Pennsylvania. On the personal side, the practice runs to criminal defense, driving under the influence, family law, divorce, and adoption. On the commercial side, it handles business law, civil and commercial litigation, employment law, and trademark and service marks. Many of these areas touch everyday needs: a divorce, a will, a traffic charge, a small business dispute.

The menu continues past those headings. Scaringi Law also lists estate planning, elder law, immigration law, education law, appeals, firearms law, mental health law, pardons and expungements, professional and occupational licensing, personal injury, and campaign and election law. Professional and occupational licensing work, for instance, matters to nurses, contractors, and others whose careers depend on a state board. Firearms law and mental health law show up less often on a general practice menu, and the firm names both.

In my opinion, a list this broad is only as useful as the people behind each area. A firm that names this many areas usually splits the work across attorneys who each hold a few of them, and the attorney pages carry most of the specifics.

How the team is built

The site names six attorneys. Marc A. Scaringi is a founding attorney and shareholder. He earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Widener University School of Law, and he has worked as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. That mix gives him time on both sides of a criminal case. His practice covers family law, criminal defense, civil and commercial litigation, and business and corporate law, and he speaks on Pennsylvania and United States constitutional law.

Melanie Walz Scaringi handles elder law, estate planning, and probate. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, clerked in the Executive Office of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General in 1998, and served as a legal intern in that office's Criminal Appeals Division. One client account I read describes her as thorough with questions and clear about the options a person can weigh. Estate and probate work rewards that patience, since it often unfolds over months and touches family relationships as much as paperwork. As a reviewer, I read that account as a sign of an attorney who lays out the choices and lets the client decide.

Backgrounds behind the names

Robert M. Sakovich earned a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania State University in 2010 and a Juris Doctor from the Dickinson School of Law of Pennsylvania State University in 2013. He joined the firm, then called Scaringi & Scaringi, P.C., as an associate in October 2015. Before that he clerked for Judge Joseph C. Adams of the York County Court of Common Pleas.

Jeffrey R. Schott holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lebanon University in 1995 and a Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law in 1998. Since 2000 he has worked as an assistant attorney at the Law Offices of Ira H. Weinstock, P.C. His work centers on Social Security and disability, employment and labor law, discrimination, and wrongful termination. That focus on disability and employment claims adds a benefits and workplace angle to the firm's roster.

Jonathon Luff Jr. graduated from California University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in sport management in 2009 and earned his J.D. from Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law in 2013. He began his legal career with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where he worked from 2011 to 2017, and he later became a partner at Luff Strenfel LLP in Paoli, Pennsylvania. He handles criminal matters.

Stevan Kip Portman earned a B.B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Widener University. He handles Chapter 7 bankruptcy matters, the track most individual filers use to clear qualifying debts.

How matters in these areas usually move

Pennsylvania pardons run through the state Board of Pardons. The board reviews each application, and serious cases go to a public hearing before any recommendation reaches the Governor. Expungement is a separate route that runs through the county court where the case was filed, and it clears qualifying charges from a person's record.

Elder law tends to combine several tracks. It covers powers of attorney, guardianship, and the documents that support care decisions, and it often overlaps with estate planning and probate. That overlap explains why one attorney frequently holds all three.

Criminal defense and driving under the influence cases follow the county criminal process: a preliminary arraignment, a preliminary hearing, then pretrial and trial stages in the Court of Common Pleas. First-time DUI defendants in Pennsylvania often look at the ARD program, and a charge also carries a separate license question handled by PennDOT. Family law and divorce move through that same county system, where the court divides marital property and decides custody on a set of factors centered on the child's welfare. Immigration matters run through federal agencies and the immigration courts, a federal track handled apart from the county courts.

Consultations, locations, and public content

The firm points to more than one office location and invites people to ask about consultations. That setup fits a practice with this many areas, since a client with a family matter and a business question can reach different attorneys in the same office. A consultation is the usual first step for weighing whether a matter fits the firm.

Scaringi Law also publishes on its own site. It posts news items and videos, along with a Lunch Break series that works through legal topics in short form. Marc Scaringi also speaks on constitutional law, and those talks are part of the same public library. Video from a firm is a useful signal, since it shows tone and approach before a first call.

One thread runs through the attorney pages: several of the lawyers earned their law degrees at Widener University School of Law, and most built their early careers inside Pennsylvania courts and public offices before joining the firm. The office runs from Harrisburg and works across Pennsylvania.