Moellenberg, Charles H. Jr.

Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Chuck Moellenberg has extensive experience in the nationwide coordination of major product liability cases and in commercial and business litigation. Chuck's product liability experience encompasses products ranging from paints and chemicals, toys, trains, recreational vehicles, automobile air bags and restraint systems, and consumer electrical appliances. He appears in state and federal courts throughout the U.S. and coordinates the defense for clients with other co-defendants in joint defense groups.

From years of coordinating nationwide litigation, Chuck has considerable knowledge in complex, emerging legal issues. These include market share and other collective liability theories, concert of action and conspiracy laws, public and private nuisance, medical monitoring, continuing duty to warn, class actions, preemption, and liability for trade association activities. He works extensively with legal scholars and a wide range of experts such as pediatricians, child psychologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, toxicologists, industrial hygienists, warnings, historians, and economists. In highly visible product liability litigation, he works with crisis management firms to speak with the media and formulate media strategy.

Chuck is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council. He is coauthor of the "Multi-District Litigation" chapter of Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (West Pub., 1998). He has written and spoken on defending claims alleging failure to warn, public nuisance, obesity, and state attorney general litigation and has written on First Amendment protections for corporate speech and re-analyzing raw data to attack epidemiology studies. Chuck is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School teaching a course on advanced trial evidence.

Areas of Practice

• Product Liability & Tort Litigation
• Product Response Team
• Issues & Appeals
• Trial Practice
• Class Action and Multidistrict Product Liability Litigation
• Consumer Products & Retail
• Coordination of Product Liability Litigation
• Toxic Tort Exposure Litigation (Chemical, Environmental, and Occupational)

Representative Cases

• GE Capital obtains summary judgment in lawsuit for defamation and intentional and negligent interference with business relations
• GE obtains summary judgment in all personal injury claims arising from catastrophic train crash
• Koppers' claim of insurer's liability for environmental property damage coverage affirmed by Third Circuit
• Mattel settles voluntary toy recall litigation , (2009)
• Sherwin-Williams defends against Illinois statewide class action for medical monitoring costs for lead poisoning allegedly due to ingestion of lead paint
• Sherwin-Williams defends against Milwaukee public nuisance action , (2009)
• Sherwin-Williams defends lead paint litigation filed by Houston school district
• Sherwin-Williams obtains 5th Circuit decision upholding declaratory judgment complaint ending Mississippi school suits
• Sherwin-Williams prevails in landmark public nuisance suit over lead pigment before Rhode Island Supreme Court , (2009)
• Sherwin-Williams prevails in public nuisance claim by NJ cities and counties seeking lead paint abatement and health care costs
• Sherwin-Williams' summary judgment win dismissing complaint based on market share liability theory is affirmed by Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Sherwin-Williams summary judgment win in St. Louis lead paint case is affirmed by Missouri Supreme Court
• Sherwin-Williams wins dismissal of City of Chicago public nuisance complaint
• Sherwin-Williams wins preliminary injunction decision in first case invalidating contingency fee agreement on due process grounds , (2009)
• The Product Liability Advisory Council prepares amicus brief regarding scope of arranger liability under CERCLA
• Xcel and other energy utilities defend against claims by state Attorneys General and citizen groups that carbon dioxide emissions contributed to global warming , (2009)

West Practice Categories

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

Bar Admissions

• Ohio
• Pennsylvania

Education

• Columbia University - New York
• Denison University
• Princeton University

Published Works

• The First Amendment, A Corporation’s Most Fundamental Right, The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Volume 18, No. 3, 2010
• BPA, Phthalates, and the Law, 2010
• Second Class Speakers: A Proposal to Free Protected Corporate Speech from Tort Liability, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Iss. 4, Vol. 70, 2009
• A Practical Guide to Reduce Product Liability Risk for Nanotechnology, coauthor, BNA, INC. Toxics Law Reporter, Vol. 24, No. 10, 2009
• Let Data Speak Equally to All: The Production, Protection and Use of Raw Data in Litigation, American Bar Association Expert Alert, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2008
• Amicus Brief on Adoption of Section 2 of Restatment (Third) of Torts, Bugosh v. I.U. North America, Inc., Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, coauthor, 7 WAP 2008, 2008
• Let Data Speak Equally to All: The Increasing Importance of Raw Data in Litigation and a Proposal for Principles Governing the Production, Protection, and Use of Raw Data In the Litigation Context, Mass Torts, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2008
• No Gap Left: Getting Public Nuisance Out Of Environmental Regulation and Public Policy, BNA, Inc., 2007
• Public Nuisance: Opening a Pandora's Box of Product Liability Claims, Practice Perspectives: Product Liability & Tort Litigation, 2007
• Attacks on Food Industry Escalate: An Update, also published in The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, April 2006, 2006
• Heavyweight Litigation: Will Public Nuisance Theories Tackle the Food Industry?, 2004

Address

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

Phones

1.412.394.7917 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.412.394.7959 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com