Strokoff & Cowden, P.C.

Focus and practice areas

Strokoff & Cowden, P.C. opened in Harrisburg in 1987. Its office sits one block from the Capitol Complex, close to the state agencies, boards and courts where much of its work happens. The founders set out to run a small firm that could still serve clients across Pennsylvania. That aim has held, and the site describes a compact roster with a statewide reach.

The firm names six practice areas. These are administrative law, civil litigation, employment law, labor law, pension claims and ERISA, and professional licensure. The mix leans toward the regulatory and public side of the law. Several of the areas connect in practice, since a licensing question or a pension dispute often lands before an administrative body.

Civil litigation gives the firm a courtroom footing. The attorneys handle hearings at trial, appellate and administrative levels, and the site says they resolve some matters outside court when that route is open. In my opinion the spread of hearing levels is worth noting, because it suggests the firm follows a case through its later stages, including appeal.

Administrative law and the Harrisburg setting

Administrative law covers the rules and decisions of government agencies. In Pennsylvania that work often runs through state boards and hearing officers, with appeals that can reach the Commonwealth Court. A Harrisburg office one block from the Capitol Complex works with this system daily. The location gives a plain, practical reason for the firm's regulatory focus.

Who the firm represents

Employment law at the firm runs in both directions. Strokoff & Cowden represents employers, and it represents employees, including CEOs, executives and laborers. That dual role means the attorneys see a workplace dispute from each side across different cases. Employment matters take many shapes, among them contract terms, discipline, separation and claims under state and federal statutes.

Labor law is a separate strand of the work. The firm negotiates collective bargaining agreements for labor unions, which is detailed and continuing work tied to Pennsylvania employers. This is the machinery behind wages, hours and working conditions for organized workforces.

Pension claims sit alongside the labor work. The firm handles private pension questions and matters that fall under ERISA, the federal law that governs many employee benefit plans. Benefit disputes often hinge on plan language and timing, so the detail matters.

Professional licensure

Professional licensure is the other main pillar. The firm advises attorneys, doctors, nurses, psychologists and accountants on matters that touch their licenses. These cases carry real stakes for a client, since the ability to keep practicing a profession can rest on the outcome. Licensing bodies set their own procedures, and a matter can begin with an investigation and move to a formal hearing.

The stakes explain why licensed professionals seek counsel early. A board's finding can limit or suspend the right to work, and the professional usually carries the burden of responding within set deadlines. Having a lawyer who knows the board's procedures can shape how the lawyer presents the matter. The firm names this work across several fields, among them medicine, nursing, psychology and accounting.

How the team is built

Five attorneys appear on the firm's site. Elliot A. Strokoff (1947 to 2023) and James L. Cowden gave the firm its name, and the two practiced law together for decades. Cowden is now listed as retired.

The founders and the current attorneys

Strokoff practiced law from 1973 and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1972. He earned his law degree at the Dickinson School of Law and a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Dickinson College. Before private practice he worked with the U.S. Small Business Administration on its Flood Disaster Relief Program and served as counsel to the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee.

Strokoff's own matters covered estate fiduciary administration, public employee retirement, labor relations, and federal and state taxation. That range reads as a career spent close to government and to the rules that shape employment and benefits. It also lines up with the practice areas the firm still lists today.

Cowden practiced law from 1974. Jennifer Anne Nachamkin has practiced in Pennsylvania since 2005, and Catherine Elizabeth Rowe since 2013. Both joined Strokoff and Cowden at the firm. Jake Toth also appears on the attorney roster.

How these matters tend to proceed

Much of what the firm does plays out in front of administrative bodies and hearing officers. A professional licensure case, for example, usually goes before a state board, with documents, testimony and a written decision that a party can then appeal. As a reviewer, I read the firm's stated range of hearing levels as a fit for that kind of layered process.

Pension and ERISA claims follow their own route. Many begin with a plan administrator's decision, move through an internal appeal, and can reach federal court if the dispute continues. The firm's listing of private pension and ERISA work matches that sequence of review. Cases like these turn on plan documents and deadlines, so early advice tends to matter.

Collective bargaining works on a different rhythm. It runs on negotiation cycles, contract terms and grievance procedures, and it unfolds over the life of a contract. Work of this kind rewards long familiarity with the parties and the agreements. The firm's decades of labor practice give it that footing.

Appeals and the courts involved

Pennsylvania routes many agency appeals through the Commonwealth Court, a court built for disputes with the government. A firm that lists appellate hearings among its work would file and argue at that level when a client's case calls for it. Appeals of this kind turn on the record made below and on questions of law, so the groundwork at the hearing stage shapes what follows. The firm's stated reach across trial, appellate and administrative levels fits that structure.

What the referral base suggests

The firm says a large share of its clients arrive through referrals, either from other attorneys or from former clients, and that some of those referrals come from outside Pennsylvania. A referral-driven client base is a useful signal. Lawyers tend to send a matter to a firm they trust with someone else's problem, and clients tend to return when the first experience went well.

A statewide reach from a single Harrisburg office is workable in this kind of practice. Administrative and appellate matters concentrate in the capital, where the agencies and the Commonwealth Court sit. The firm can serve clients across Pennsylvania from that single location. That structure fits a small firm that has chosen a focused set of areas.

Read as a whole, the site points to a small Harrisburg firm with a settled focus and long individual careers behind it. The practice areas hold together around administrative, employment and benefits questions. For a prospective client, that gives a clear picture of what the attorneys handle and where they do it. The firm has kept the same name and the same core focus since 1987.