Profile

Roger L. Wise, Esquire

Email: rlwise@rogerwise.com
Telephone: 724-934-4610

Litigation Experience Summary

With more than three decades of civil litigation experience, Roger L. Wise has been a law firm founder, longtime president of a Pittsburgh law firm, a candidate for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, an in-house lawyer for a Fortune 500 corporation, and is a United States Air Force Veteran.

In 2005, Mr. Wise ran for election as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County and won in the primary election. In the process, he received the highest rating given by the 24-member Judiciary Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association, which rates all judicial candidates for their qualifications, experience and integrity. This rating means that he exhibits outstanding legal ability and a wide range of experience; possesses the highest reputation for integrity and temperament; exhibits outstanding citizenship by way of community and professional contributions; and is an exceptional individual who would enhance the competence and dignity of the bench.

Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Construction, Commercial and Financial Injury Litigation – During his career Mr. Wise has represented plaintiffs in serious vehicular accident cases and construction deaths. He represented three plaintiffs in a motor vehicle accident where a company truck crossed over the centerline, smashing into his client’s automobile, seriously injuring her and killing her only brother and sister. He represented the parents of an only child, killed when a garbage truck went out of control, demolishing the vehicle in which she was riding. He represented the wife of a minister when a man driving against medical advice struck her vehicle head-on with her children as passengers. Mr. Wise represented the wife of a union worker who was killed on the job when he fell 40 feet to his death from a lift truck when a wheel fell into an open trench.

Mr. Wise also has represented plaintiffs against stock brokers and brokerage firms when their accounts have been churned, when unsuitable securities have been bought, and when stocks have been bought and sold without the knowledge or consent of the account owner.

Mr. Wise represented a plaintiff against a nursing home where her elderly husband, who was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s, navigated his wheelchair past a nurses' station and through a gate that should have been securely locked. Tragically, he fell down a flight of steps to his death.

As well, Mr. Wise has defended individuals and companies that have been sued in vehicular accidents. He represented an individual and his company when they were sued in a head-on car crash. The lawsuit was dropped after Mr. Wise investigated the matter and discovered that the other driver who stuck his client’s vehicle was “high” on drugs.

Mr. Wise also has defended companies in construction matters. While with U.S. Steel’s Law Department, he litigated a number of construction claims asserting defects in steel products manufactured and sold by the company. These involved bridges, office buildings, grain silos, sporting arenas and convention centers, among others. He also represented construction companies, as part of his ongoing private practice of law, in connection with serious accidents and deaths.

Product Liability Litigation – Mr. Wise has over 30 years of experience defending companies in product liability litigation. His approach to the defense of product liability claims was quoted in an interview by Rubber & Plastic News, “You always, as a defense lawyer, will not only want to be able to say ‘[My client] didn’t do this,”... “[Y]ou have to be able to say ‘This is what did it.’”

Mr. Wise was the lead trial lawyer for U.S. Steel in a multi-million dollar case brought by a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company as a result of an elevated temperature environmental duct failure. This case took over 60 days to try to verdict. Models were used extensively to demonstrate key points of U.S. Steel’s defense, as were hundreds of exhibits in this complex technical case. Mr. Wise’s defense strategy was to show that the design of the ductwork, and not any defect in the steel, caused the failure. A $5 million verdict was rendered against the company that designed the ductwork. A verdict was entered in favor of U.S. Steel.

Some of the other product liability cases Mr. Wise has defended include:

• The defense of the manufacturer of a 40 year old coke oven exhauster that exploded in a Pittsburgh steel mill, injuring eleven employees.
• Representation of the manufacturer of an industrial furnace where an employee was burned.
• Defending a bicycle manufacturer when a plaintiff riding a mountain bike claimed that he was injured by a defective quick release mechanism.
• Representing the manufacturer of an industrial cutting torch when the steel a worker was cutting fell and severed part of his foot.
• Representing the manufacturer of a hydraulic press and strapping machine when a worker triggered a foot switch, resulting in his death.
• Defending a manufacturer of a table-top air cleaner, claimed as the cause of a fire that destroyed a dentist’s office.

Environmental/Toxic Tort Litigation – Mr. Wise has represented manufacturers and sellers of products that were claimed to cause lung disease, cancer, mesothelioma and neurological disorders since 1985. He has:

• Represented welding rod manufacturers in the defense of numerous asbestos, manganese poisoning and welding fume cases.
• Acted as coordinating counsel for a company in the defense of asbestos cases filed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
• Represented a distributor of industrial solvents in the defense of a claim that these products caused a worker to develop Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
• Represented companies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that manufactured, supplied and/or distributed various asbestos products to steel mills in the defense of lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis claims.