Attorney Profiles

J. Jeffrey Watson currently represents employers and carriers through the firm's Workers' Compensation Practice Group in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, office.

The Harrisburg Workers' Compensation Practice Group recently received distinguished honors in being named among the "Best Law Firms" by U.S. News & World Report. Jeff takes pride in the results of this survey in that the results were based upon questionnaires to thousands of law firm clients, including employers and carriers alike. This national recognition reflects the efforts that Jeff and his colleagues in the Harrisburg Workers' Compensation Practice Group direct toward great results and client satisfaction.

Throughout his legal career, Jeff has handled hundreds of workers' compensation cases from inception to completion. He has had the unique perspective of representing claimants in the early stages of his practice and he has utilized that insight in successfully defending claims for employers. All of his cases are aggressively game-planned with the risk management and claims personnel, and his focus is always on winning in litigation and limiting exposure.

Prior to joining Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin in 2008, Jeffrey worked as an associate attorney with the Law Offices of Wm. E. Hager, III, in New Bethlehem, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. In January 2005, Jeffrey became a founding partner of the firm Hager & Watson, LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a general practitioner and he also practiced in workers' compensation litigation.

Jeffrey is a 1998 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and a Certificate in Film Studies, which remains a hobby along with rooting on Pittsburgh's Panthers, Penguins and Steelers.

Jeff achieved his Juris Doctorate from Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2003. While attending law school, Jeffrey was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, Sports & Entertainment Law Society, and a member of the Civil Law Clinic.

Jeffrey is currently a member of the American, Pennsylvania and Dauphin County Bar Associations.

He presently lives in Harrisburg with his wife and two young children. As a volunteer for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, he participated in the MDA Lock-up Fundraiser 2007 and presently volunteers in his children's many sports activities.