On the Pulse…A Profile of Our Scranton, Pennsylvania Office
Defense Digest, Vol. 24, No. 3, September 2018
By John T. McGrath, Jr., Esq.*
The Scranton office of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin has been open for over 25 years. Presently, there are 21 attorneys who call this office home. Of those, Jennifer Callahan, Ross Carrozza, Maureen Kelly, Benjamin Nicolosi, Jim Pocius and Joseph Vender have been in the Scranton office at least 20 years and some the entire 25 years the office has been open. Earlier this year, Robin Snyder, who has been with the firm since 1994, was promoted to Assistant Director of our Health Care Department and has relocated to the King of Prussia office. Jim Wilson, who spent 22 years in the Scranton office, retired on January 1, 2018. Although we are sad to see Robin and Jim move on, the experience and depth of the office still goes unmatched in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
In this regard, our Workers’ Compensation Department is supervised by Joseph Vender. Joe, Jennifer Callahan and Ross Carrozza have been shareholders at Marshall Dennehey for over 15 years. Ross recently added to his practice the handling of Medicare Set-asides along with Jim Pocius, a nationally recognized authority in Medicare/Medicaid circles who speaks frequently on the subject throughout the country. Jim was instrumental in helping draft some of the legislation that is in place today. Joe Vender and Jennifer Callahan work exclusively on workers’ compensation matters and have done so since they joined Marshall Dennehey 24 years ago. Between them, they have handled thousands of cases, and there truly is nothing they have not seen.
The Casualty Department continues to be the largest department in the Scranton office. Presently, there are nine attorneys, including six shareholders—Benjamin Nicolosi, John Nealon, Leo Bohanski, Maureen Kelly, Robert Smith and myself. We have tried well over 150 cases to verdict in the last 20 years. In addition, the uniquely talented Rob Smith, whose practice focuses on underinsured and uninsured motorist claims, has handled hundreds of UM/UIM cases to successful conclusion and is considered to be one of the leading UM/UIM attorneys in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There are also three associates, Michael Connolly, Sarah Argo and Matt Burns, whose skills and willingness to work hard, round out the casualty group. The Casualty Department handles a wide variety of cases, from auto accidents, dram shop, product liability, construction cases and everything in between. Our Casualty Department can do it all.
The Professional Liability Department in Scranton has grown over time from two lawyers to five full-time attorneys at present. Eric Fitzgerald, who is Assistant Director of the Professional Liability Department, also chairs the firm’s Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Practice Group and sits on the firm’s Board of Directors. Eric splits time between the Scranton and Philadelphia offices. William McPartland, a shareholder, and Meghan Carey, our newest attorney in the Scranton office, focus their practices on education law. Will represents a large portion of the school districts in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, among others. Patrick Boland, a shareholder, and Mark Kozlowski, an associate, handle a wide variety of professional liability matters, including civil rights cases and cases involving the defense of business professionals.
Scranton’s Health Care Department is headed up by Victoria Scanlon. Vicky took over the reins of the office’s health care group when Robin Snyder accepted her position as Assistant Director of the Health Care Department and transferred out of the Scranton office. Vicky is a shareholder and has been with Marshall Dennehey for over 10 years. Also in the department is Matthew Keris, another long-time employee who has been a shareholder for many years. Robert Aldrich is an excellent associate who works with both Vicky and Matt. The Health Care Department represents hospitals, doctors and their groups, and nursing homes. The practice also represents dentists, nurses and a wide variety of health care providers throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Finally, Tom Specht works in the firm’s award-winning appellate practice group. He ably handles all appellate matters from our Health Care, Casualty and Professional Liability Departments. He also works on major pre-trial motions, as well as post-trial motions, and he monitors trials to assist with the issue of preservation for appeal.
In addition to its attorneys, Scranton is also very fortunate to have a support staff that has plenty of experience and can be counted on to go well above and beyond their stated job classifications. We have five paralegals and 20 support staff. When visiting the Scranton office, you will always be treated in a very friendly and professional way. With the hundreds of years of experience combined—between the support staff, paralegals and the attorneys—the office has a very family-like atmosphere that makes coming to work each day a pleasure.
Our team of lawyers, paralegals and support staff provides exceptional legal services for the United States Middle District Court, which is located in Scranton but also has offices in Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport. The Scranton office handles cases in our home county of Lackawanna as well as Luzerne, Pike, Wayne, Monroe, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Columbia, Montour, Sullivan, Bradford, Tioga and Lycoming Counties. The Scranton office sees a wide variety of venues. Some of the venues covered by this office are very conservative, and others are considered some of the most liberal jury pools in the state. All of the attorneys in the this office are from Northeastern Pennsylvania, and, for most, Northeastern Pennsylvania has been their home for the entirety of their lives. The familiarity and knowledge this imparts is of great benefit to our clients in that we can advise them of not only the venue in which their case is going to be heard, but also the experience and abilities of the plaintiffs’ bar throughout the region we service. The knowledge, professionalism, trial, arbitration and mediation skills within the Scranton office will make you very happy to have us on your side.
*Jack is a shareholder and the managing attorney of our Scranton, Pennsylvania office. He can be reached at 570.496.4603 or jtmcgrath@mdwcg.com.
Defense Digest, Vol. 24, No. 3, September 2018. Defense Digest is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING pursuant to New York RPC 7.1. © 2018 Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm. For reprints, contact tamontemuro@mdwcg.com.