James M. Poerio

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 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 allegedly hazardous or carcinogenic workplace exposures.

Jim was defense counsel in the landmark cases of Republic Steel Corporation v. WCAB (Petrisek) and Vitelli v WCAB (St. Johnsbury Trucking Co.), which established the principal that in Pennsylvania a voluntarily retired claimant is not entitled to wage loss benefits for a subsequent work-related disability. These appellate decisions eliminated an entire class of claims by retired workers and saved Pennsylvania employers and insurance carriers literally millions of dollars.

He is an active member of the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance, where he has served first as the initial Chair then as a Board member of the Workers' Compensation Committee since it was formed more than ten years ago.  Jim is one of the principal organizers of the annual CLM Workers' Compensation Conference, and a frequent speaker at CLM workers' compensation events.  In that capacity, he is an instructor and an Executive Board member for the School of Workers' Compensation in the CLM Claims College.  He has long been a member of the National Council of Self Insurers.

Jim 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 United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Circuits.

Jim earned his undergraduate degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1981. He is rated AV Preeminent by the Bench and Bar in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the "Workers' Compensation Law - Employers", category for fifteen years, as well as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, an honor accorded only the top five percent of attorneys in Pennsylvania.