About the Firm

The Dale Woodard Gent McFate Law Firm is located in Franklin, Pennsylvania – a Victorian and historic city founded at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. Created from the mergers of Dale Woodard Law Firm with Gent, Gent, & Snyder in 2011 and with McFate & Merkel in 2018, we have been serving the people of Northwestern Pennsylvania since 1930 and are Venango County’s largest law firm with six full-time attorneys and a support staff of nine. The firm maintains a comprehensive practice and is capable of handling our clients’ needs whether they be personal or business related. The firm’s attorneys were all selected from the outstanding graduates of law schools in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and North Carolina and have extensive experience in their respective areas of concentrated practice. Each attorney brought academic and professional distinction to the firm, each has earned a reputation for personal and professional excellence, and each is committed to providing high quality legal service in an efficient and client friendly manner.

 

How We Serve Our Clients

Although the firm maintains a general practice, within the firm the attorneys concentrate their practices in specific areas such as: civil litigation, estate and elder law planning and probate matters, family law, municipal law, real estate, business, and commercial bankruptcy matters and creditors’ rights. Each member of the firm devotes many hours toward maintaining a high standard of ethics, a tradition of service to the community, and extensive knowledge of the law. We monitor the work of the firm and constantly update our procedures and office technology to ensure that our clients receive the best legal service possible. Clients who come to the firm for assistance can be assured that their cases will be handled by an attorney with extensive experience in the area of law which applies to the client’s matter, and that a creative, cost-effective solution will be found for their legal problem. Each client, whether large or small, receives the benefit of the resources of each department of the firm.

Dependability

When you engage the service of any one of us you receive the services of our whole team. This includes not only our attorneys, but also our highly trained and experienced staff of legal assistants. We back this up with four generations of service to our clients and the community which we serve as well as the commitment of our firm to see to it that the legal needs of all of our clients are serviced in a timely, professional, and affordable manner.

Technology

Firm clients enjoy 24-hour contact with the firm and all of its attorneys via fax, email, and voice mail, from which the attorneys can retrieve even lengthy messages daily. State of the art computers and software ensure our ability to provide our clients with the latest legal precedents and information as well as the highest level of professional service which can be achieved through extensive networks of other professionals nationally. And we take electronic information security seriously by utilizing secure email, PCI compliance credit card processing, firewalls and network security software. All this and more delivered in a timely and professional manner at an affordable price.