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John J. Snyder focuses his trial practice in the area of the defense of catastrophic injury, with particular emphasis on construction, industrial, pharmaceutical and medical malpractice matters. He is a very experienced litigator having tried an extremely large number of trials to verdict in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. He and his practice group specialize in receiving high exposure cases (demands commonly in $30M-$80M range) weeks to several months before trial, and trying the case to verdict. He is an active member of the bar in the states of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. He is also admitted to practice in the federal courts of Pennsylvania, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Jack is a native of Philadelphia and was a Scholar-Athlete at St. Joseph’s University and the captain of the basketball team in 1971. He graduated from Temple University Law School in 1975. His experience includes service as a Deputy City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia. While retaining his own case load and trying a significant number of cases to verdict, he also supervised 27 other trial attorneys, managing an active case load of over 3000 files. He soon succeeded to the position of special Deputy to the Solicitor where he was responsible for defending high exposure cases on behalf of the City. Those cases involved general liability, premises liability, auto accidents and the defense of the Police Department in Civil Rights cases. Since 1984, he had been in private practice primarily defending medical malpractice, construction and other catastrophic injury claims. Jack is a past president of the St. Joseph’s University Law Alumni Association and a member of the Defense Research Institute. He is also a member of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates, American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. Jack spent six years as a Hearing Committee member of the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and has lectured extensively on the rules of evidence. At the request of insurance carriers, he has conducted mock trials/cross-examination training sessions in areas of litigation such as the defense of brain-damaged babies, breast cancer and orthopedic injury claims. He has also been a special presenter on civil procedure at the National Judicial College of the American Bar Association in Reno, Nevada. Jack was Liaison Counsel to the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (M-Care) Fund (f/k/a CAT Fund) on behalf of individual healthcare providers in the Philadelphia Phen-Fen litigation. He has been rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell and has been chosen as a "Super Lawyer" in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Some of his trials include: Metzner v. Pharmacy Infant suffered brain damage and birth malformations allegedly due to his mother’s ingestion of heart medication which was contraindicated during her pregnancy and pharmacist’s alleged failure to counsel and identify the contraindicated drug. After a 2 ½ week trial wherein the plaintiff boarded $92M in past, present and future damages, a Philadelphia jury returned a defense verdict. Case was received six weeks before trial. Barnes-Green v. Jefferson Smurfit 32 year old plaintiff fell into a paper mill pulper and died from second and third degree burns allegedly due to inadequate safeguards around the pulper. Plaintiff demanded $70M and the court allowed a jury charge for punitive damages. After a 2 ½ week trial and while a Philadelphia jury deliberated, plaintiff accepted a $6M settlement.DeSouza v. Ryan Homes 37 year old plaintiff fell from a residential construction site and was rendered a paraplegic with chronic, unremitting pain. Plaintiff demanded $37.5M but, during the defendant’s case-in-chief, the case settled before a Philadelphia jury in the amount of $8M. Forrest v. Beloit Corporation A 46 year old man lost his left arm and right leg when his arm was crushed between two industrial rollers in a paper mill. The plaintiff’s demand was $15M and after a 3 week trial a District Court jury, in Philadelphia, returned a defense verdict. | 