James M. Poerio, Attorney

James M. Poerio is a Shareholder in the firm. His practice is concentrated in the areas of Workers' Compensation and federal black lung defense litigation. His clients include a variety of major industrial employers in the transportation, communications, trucking and coal industries. He has extensive experience defending hearing loss claims as well as a wide variety of occupational disease claims, and traditional traumatic injury claims. He has also defended a wide range of cutting edge claims involving alleged hazardous or carcinogenic workplace exposures.

Mr. Poerio was defense counsel in the landmark case of Republic Steel Corporation v. WCAB (Petrisek), which established the principal that in Pennsylvania a voluntarily retired claimant is not entitled to wage loss benefits for a subsequent work related disability, a decision which eliminated an entire class of claims by retired workers, saving Pennsylvania employers and their insurance carriers literally millions of dollars.

He is an active member of the Self-Insurance Institute of America, The National Counsel of Self-Insurers, and the Pennsylvania Self-Insurers Association.
He is a member of the bar in all Pennsylvania state courts, as well as the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Third and Fourth Circuits Courts of Appeals.

Mr. Poerio earned his undergraduate degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, and his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1981. He has been repeatedly selected by his peers for recognition by Best Lawyers in America in the workers' compensation law category, an honor limited to the top 2% of attorneys in the country, and as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in workers' compensation law, recognition limited to the top 5% of lawyers in the state. Most recently, Mr. Poerio has been nominated for membership in the Council on Litigation Management, a nonpartisan alliance of insurance companies, corporations, general counsel and risk managers which promotes the highest standards of litigation management in pursuit of client defense, in which membership is by invitation only.