Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

John Iole concentrates his practice in the complex litigation area and has extensive experience in commercial, insurance coverage, and environmental litigation. He has been involved in a broad range of liability and property insurance matters, including claims of insurer refusal to pay insurance proceeds or to settle underlying claims. The amount in controversy in such matters, and the amounts recovered on behalf of clients involved, has exceeded $100 million.

John has been the lead attorney in cases involving unfair competition, commercial restrictive covenants, trade secrets, breach of contract, and other business disputes. John has appeared on behalf of clients at numerous hearings, such as preliminary injunction hearings and related hearings associated with requests for expedited discovery or injunctive relief. In addition, John has experience in the pharmaceutical, data processing, paint and pigment, chemicals, coke processing, and steel industries and industry segments, among others.

John also has a strong background in product liability litigation, including more than a decade of experience in the coordination and defense of nationwide toxic injury claims alleging market share and other collective liability theories. John also has represented manufacturers of consumer, industrial, and commercial products against individual or class action claims by users.

In the environmental litigation context, John was lead trial counsel for two companies that were parties to a multiparty Superfund cost recovery trial that lasted for more than 50 trial days. As part of the successful prosecution of that trial, he established the petroleum exclusion to Superfund liability on behalf of an asphalt manufacturer.

John is an elected member of The American Law Institute. He was a member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for six years (the maximum allowed tenure) from 1997 to 2003, serving as vice chair and then chair of the board in his final two years. The board had responsibility for administering the attorney registration and disciplinary process for approximately 55,000 active Pennsylvania attorneys and more than 100 employees of the disciplinary system. During this time, the board adjudicated hundreds of cases of attorney discipline, resulting in a wide range of disciplinary outcomes (ranging from dismissals and private reprimands to suspensions and disbarments) and more than 100 reported decisions. While on the board he presided over attorney emergency suspensions and competency proceedings, issued orders to protect client funds, and appointed trustees to oversee client affairs for incapacitated attorneys.

John presently is vice chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee and is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association Professional Ethics Committee. He has written, spoken, and been quoted on attorney ethics issues for national, state, and local forums.

John was a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Ad Hoc Committee on Evidence, which drafted Pennsylvania's first codified rules of evidence, during the years 1994 through 1998. The rules drafted by the Ad Hoc Committee were adopted by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and are the basis for the Rules of Evidence in use in Pennsylvania courts today. John has written and spoken statewide on evidence issues that arise in commercial and product liability litigation. He also has written and spoken nationally on issues involving discovery from current and former employees of corporate clients and adversaries.

John has a wide range of experience in United States litigation proceedings conducted overseas and has been involved in obtaining documentary or testimonial evidence from sources or witnesses based in England, Ireland, Germany, France, and Japan.

In addition to the courts in which he is admitted for general purposes, John has appeared in cases in the following courts, among others: the United States District Courts for the Southern District of Mississippi, Eastern District of Texas, Northern District of West Virginia, Middle District of Pennsylvania, and District of Massachusetts; Genessee County, New York; Fairfax County, Virginia; New York County, New York; Genessee County, Michigan; New London County, Connecticut; and Worcester County, Massachusetts.

Areas of Practice

• Insurance Liability & Recovery
• Trial Practice
• Product Liability & Tort Litigation

Representative Cases

• Diamond Triumph Auto Glass, Inc. vs. Safelite Group, Inc., et al.

West Practice Categories

Alcoholic Beverages, Apparel, Asbestos, Bankruptcy Litigation, Chemicals & Cosmetics, Class Actions, Complex Litigation, Federal Appellate Practice, Federal Claims Court, Federal Trial Practice, Firearms, Food & Agricultural Products, International Trade Litigation, Litigation & Appeals, Machinery & Tools, Medical Products & Devices, Military & Veterans Appeals, Motor Vehicle Defects, Multidistrict Litigation, Patent Litigation, Pharmaceutical Products, Products Liability Law, Recreational Products, State Appellate Practice, State Trial Practice, Tax Litigation, Tobacco, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, US Supreme Court

Bar Admissions

• Pennsylvania

Education

• U of Pittsburgh- Pitt (Main)

Published Works

• Licensing of In-House Counsel, Reject Attacks on Privilege, coauthor, The National Law Journal, 2006
• Bar License Requirements for In-House Counsel, coauthor, In-House Counselor, 2006
• Bar License Requirements for In-House Counsel, 2006

Address

500 Grant Street, Suite 4500
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-2514

Phones

1.412.394.7914 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.412.394.7959 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com