James W. Gicking
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Jim Gicking joined the firm in 2001. He devotes his practice to the Appellate Advocacy and Post-Trial Practice Group, building upon 15 years of varied litigation experience with two prominent Philadelphia firms. Over the past eleven years, Jim has handled over 100 appeals in the state and federal courts, most involving full briefing and argument. The appeals have covered the broad range of matters handled by the firm's trial lawyers, including medical, legal and accounting malpractice, civil rights, police and municipal liability, defamation, federal and state wiretap claims, tort, contracts, insurance coverage as well as toxic torts and consumer fraud class actions.
After a clerkship with Federal Eastern District Court Judge Edmund Ludwig, Jim began his career with Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis in general litigation and as a member of the Environmental Practice Group. While at Schnader Harrison, Jim served on a PRP steering committee for a New Jersey Superfund site and represented clients before state environmental agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. His practice at Schnader included defense of pharmaceutical products liability claims, cases involving groundwater contamination, RCRA closure of a hazardous waste site and enforcement of employee non-compete agreements.
Before joining Marshall Dennehey, Jim worked up complex tort cases for nine years at Litvin, Blumberg, Matusow & Young. His practice at Litvin covered the full range of plaintiffs' personal injury cases, including vehicle crashworthiness and other product defects, industrial accidents, medical malpractice, defamation, as well as insurance and bad faith.
Jim's pro bono work has included serving on the Federal Employment Discrimination Panel, Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program and Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. For a period of years, Jim was also an on-air reader for Philadelphia's Radio Information Services for the Blind, an area broadcast news service.
In 1973, Jim graduated from West Chester University and received his juris doctor in 1986 from City University of New York, Law School at Queens College. During the years between college and law school, Jim worked in the production and artist relations departments of A&M, Artists' House and CTI Records.
Significant Representative Matters
Obtained Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversal of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in a high-profile defamation case in which plaintiff, a former government official and community leader, claimed that she and her husband were defamed by newspaper story that characterized their multi-count complaints suit against a rap artist and record companies as a suit for "harm to sex life" based on a cursory loss of consortium claim included in the complaint.
Persuaded the Third Circuit to reverse the federal district court's ruling in a subsequent civil rights case that our attorney client, who brought an ex parte motion to a different federal judge under an international child abduction act treaty that resulted in the seizure of a child from his natural father, could not be liable on ground that he negligently misled the district court to order the seizure without the need of a pre-deprivation hearing.
Persuaded the Pennsylvania Superior court to affirm a defense verdict in a liquor liability case where the trial court had allowed the admission of records involving juvenile offenses and evidence of other incidents of illegal drug use.
Areas of Practice
Representative Cases
Huertas v. Galaxy Asset Mgmt., __ F.3d ___, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 7397 (3d Cir. Apr. 11, 2011)
Walsh v. Krantz, 386 Fed. Appx. 334 (3d Cir. Pa. 2010) cert. denied 131 S. Ct. 801 (U.S. 2010)
Moecker v. Greenspoon, Marder, et al, 346 Fed. Appx. 430 (11th Cir. 2009)
Brandow Chrysler Jeep Co. v. DataScan Techs., 2009 U.S.App. LEXIS 22680 (3d Cir. Sept. 25, 2009)
Benkoski v. Wasilewski, 584 F.3d 1102 (3d Cir. 2009)
Campuzano-Burgos v. Midland Credit Management, Inc., 550 F.3d 294 (3d Cir. Dec. 16, 2008)
Wise v. Am. Gen. Life Ins. Co., 459 F.2d 443 (3d Cir. 2006)
Vitalo v. Cabot Corp., 399 F.3d 536 (3d Cir. 2005)
Ruiz v. New Garden Twp., 376 F.3d 203 (3d Cir. 2004)
Egervary v. Young, 366 F.3d 238 (3d Cir. 2004) cert. den. 125 S.Ct. 868, (2005)
DeBiec v. Cabot Corp., 352 F.3d 117 (3d Cir. 2003)
Tucker v. Phila. Daily News (cert. den. 127 S.Ct. 154, 2006), 848 A.2d 113 (Pa. 2004)
Tuscarora Wayne Mut. Ins. Co. v. Kadlubosky, 889 A.2d 557 (Pa. Super. 2005)
Schweikert v. St. Luke's Hosp. of Bethlehem, 886 A.2d 265 (Pa. Super. 2005)
Pulliam v. Fannie (app. den. 879 A.2d 783, Pa. 2005), 850 A.2d 636 (Pa. Super. 2004)
Past Employment Positions
Law Clerk to Honorable Edmund V. Ludwig, U.S.Dist.Ct. - 1986-87
Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis - 1987-92
Litvin, Blumberg, Matusow & Young - 1992-2001
Education
City University of New York School of Law at Queens College, Flushing, New York, 1986 J.D.
West Chester University, 1973 B.A.
Areas of Practice
Education
- West Chester University (B.A., 1973)
- C.U.N.Y. Law School at Queens College (J.D., 1986)
Bar Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit, 2008
- U.S. Supreme Court, 2004
- U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 1987
- U.S District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1986
- Pennsylvania, 1986
Associations & Memberships
- American Bar Association
- Pennsylvania Bar Association
- Philadelphia Bar Association
Honors & Awards
- City of New York Urban Fellow, for work in Intergovernmental Relations Department of NYC's CEP, 1985
- AV® Preeminent™ by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell