Truckers portray themselves as the last American cowboys. Apparently, trucking companies also think of themselves as mavericks, at least when it comes to hiring lawyers.

A large majority of motor-carrier companies in the U.S. flock not to New York or Washington when they need legal advice on corporate, insurance, regulatory and litigation-defense matters. Instead, they seek out two firms – one located in the Crossroads of America, and another located in the Great Plains.

“We’re in Indiana, which is called the Crossroads of America, and that’s an appropriate location for our law firm,” said Gregory M. Feary, managing partner of Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary. “More than 90 percent of our revenue comes from trucking companies. We have 22 practice areas and all devoted to their areas of law as they are applied to the trucking industry.”

Scopelitis Garvin employs 56 lawyers, most located in Indianapolis, but the firm also has offices in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles and Washington. Its clients include Schneider National Inc. of Green Bay, Wisc., the largest privately owned truckload carrier; and YRC Worldwide Inc., the parent company of Yellow Transportation and Roadway Express.

The other firm—Scudder Law Firm PC of Lincoln, Nebraska—is much smaller than Scopelitis Garvin but it also derives the bulk of its revenue from trucking companies. Scudder’s attorneys focus on mergers-and-acquisitions and securities work.

It’s probably not an accident that two law firms have developed as specialists in this specific industry, Feary said. That’s because the motor carrier industry is infused with a thicket of state and federal laws, rules and regulations.

Trucking companies are required to deal with everything from drivers’ hours-of-service regulations promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, to defending personal-injury tort claims, to complying with the Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula and following U.S. Department of Transportation rules on the transport of hazardous materials across state lines.

“It’s an extremely complicated and regulated industry,” Feary said.

Scudder, which employs 11 attorneys, has been advising publicly traded and privately held trucking companies since the 1960s, said partner Mark A. Scudder. The law firm’s roots were planted by Mark Scudder’s father, Earl H. Scudder, who developed relationships with Heartland Express Inc. of North Liberty, Iowa, and Swift Transportation Co. of Phoenix. Both companies remain Scudder clients and the elder Scudder remains active in the firm.

The Nebraska law firm accelerated its work in transportation after the passage of the Motor Carrier Act in 1980, which enacted widespread de-regulation of the industry. Prior to that law, trucking companies wanting to haul freight on new routes first had to obtain government approval.

“If you had the legal authority to haul freight between Kansas City and Chicago, but your customer wanted you to start hauling freight to Memphis, you had to get approval from the government,” Mark Scudder said. “It was an inefficient way to move freight.”

The Motor Carrier Act resulted in a significant decrease, between 1980 and 2000, in the cost of moving freight, Scudder said. That led to rapid growth in the trucking industry.

The growth also meant heightened competition among trucking companies, Scudder said. That resulted in a steady stream of corporate legal work, including a wave of public offerings in the period between 2000 and 2004. Scudder was involved in many of those securities officers, including stock sales by Celadon Group Inc. of Indianapolis and Marten Transport Ltd. of Mondovi, Wisc.

Corporate work remains brisk for the law firm, Scudder said, for two reasons. One, the two primary segments of the trucking industry—truckload and less-than-truckload carriers—remain highly fragmented, with thousands of companies operating in each sector. Truckload carriers haul freight for only one customer per truck. Less-than-truckload carriers haul freight from multiple carriers on an individual truck.

There are as many 40,000 companies in the U.S. engaged in the truckload portion of the industry, Scudder said.

The other reason, of course, involves the current U.S. economic crisis. In recent weeks, during the market turmoil, Scudder said he’s been taking calls from his trucking-industry clients about their capitalization needs. Trucking companies rely heavily on short-term cash flow because they pay employees and fuel bills on a weekly basis, but are only paid monthly by customers.

“Trucking companies are doing everything they can to make certain that have liquidity, whether amending their current facilities or lengthen their terms or finding new sources of capital,” Scudder said.

Most recently, Scudder advised Covenant Transportation Group Inc. of Chattanooga, Tenn. on obtaining an $85 million revolving credit facility from Bank of America and other lenders. That transaction closed Sept. 29. Scudder also represented an unidentified trucking client on a $150 million credit facility that has not yet closed.

In addition to high fuel costs, trucking companies have also been hammered by decreased demand in two industries that rely heavily on motor carriers. Homebuilders are shipping far fewer appliances and construction materials, and auto makers are shipping fewer vehicles.

“If somebody isn’t building a house, we’re not shipping construction materials,” said Scopelitis Garvin partner Jay D. Robinson Jr.

The economic weakness has also presented opportunities for well-capitalized trucking companies to make investments in rivals. In early October, Scudder advised U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. on its acquisition of a 47 percent stake in Smith Transport Inc. of Roaring Spring, Penn. Like Covenant, U.S. Xpress is headquartered in Chattanooga.

“Those companies that have kept their debt low have a distinct advantage,” Feary said. “They’re actively looking for good companies to buy.”

Some of Scopelitis Garvin’s recent deals include: advising Watkins Associated Industries of Atlanta on regulatory matters on the sale of its Watkins Motor Lines business to FedEx Corp. in 2006; and representing RoadLink USA Inc. on the sale of the company to private equity fund Fenway Partners in the same year.

As has been the case across the transportation industry, the rise in fuel prices has hit truckers hard, squeezing sales and profits. This year, at least six trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy, including Jevic Holding Corp. and Jim Palmer Trucking, according to The Deal. Although Scopelitis Garvin does bankruptcy work, it’s not advising any of the six trucking companies that were named by The Deal as having filed for bankruptcy. Scudder does not handle bankruptcy work.

Even though Scudder and Scopelitis Garvin are concentrated in one industry, leaders of both firms say legal conflicts are rarely an issue.

“The trucking companies are usually not dealing directly with one another,” Scudder said. “We’re not involved in setting freight rates or deciding which customers to haul for.”

Scopelitis Garvin may review as many as three potential conflict issues per week and the law firm does sometimes turn work away, Feary said.

“At any given time, who we represent goes from 81 to as high 92 of the top 100 motor carriers,” Feary said. “The reason we don’t represent all 100 is because several of those companies just don’t want us representing their archenemies.”