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Areas of Practice
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Representative Experience
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Professional Background
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Professional/Civic Activities
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Court Admissions
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Bar Admissions
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Education
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Achievements
Areas of Practice
Mr. Stockman has a broad-based complex trial and appellate litigation practice, with substantial focus on the litigation, trial and appeal of insurance coverage, environmental and tort disputes in a variety of fora. He has represented a variety of clients in proceedings in federal and state courts in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation and before administrative tribunals and commercial arbitration panels.
Mr. Stockman has substantial experience representing industrial clients in a variety of environmental disputes, including actions under CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act, and analogous state environmental laws. Mr. Stockman has particular expertise in prosecuting and defending damage and contribution claims arising out of allegedly-contaminated sites, including CERCLA claims against the United States government.
In the insurance coverage area, Mr. Stockman has litigated disputes involving a wide variety of insurance products and factual contexts including environmental insurance coverage, residual value insurance and boiler and machinery insurance matters, among others, and has counseled corporate policyholders on ways of maximizing the value of historic insurance assets. Mr. Stockman has also counseled corporate policyholders.
In addition to his environmental and insurance litigation practice, Mr. Stockman has an extensive appellate litigation practice, counseling clients with respect to appellate issues and representing clients in a variety of appellate matters, including a significant number of interlocutory appeals taken prior to entry of final judgment.
Mr. Stockman also has a wide-ranging commercial and constitutional litigation practice.
Representative Experience
Insurance Coverage Litigation
- Represented one of the nation’s largest diversified financial institutions in what is believed to be the first major lawsuit to address coverage under a vehicle residual value insurance policy; the case settled on the eve of trial for a mid-nine figure recovery.
- Represented a public utility in obtaining insurance coverage for former manufactured gas plant-related environmental liabilities; was able to facilitate cost-effective early settlements through innovative front-loaded voluntary disclosure and mediation process.
- Represented an injured individual, as assignee, in asserting claims against product liability defendant’s excess insurer and insurance broker; matter settled before trial for $9 million
Environmental Litigation
- Representation of a major metal manufacturer in what is believed to be the first comprehensive, multi-site CERCLA cost recovery action, seeking response costs from the United States government based on World War II-era production controls; the cases, built through archival research and de bene esse depositions of octogenarian former employees, were settled favorably through mediation for an aggregate recovery exceeding $23 million.
- Representation of a former manufacturer of pyrotechnic components for missile systems and nuclear weapons in asserting CERCLA claims against the United States arising out of the government’s Cold War-era ownership of plant equipment and control over facility operations; the case settled favorably after limited document and deposition discovery, including a commitment for reimbursement of a substantial proportion of future response costs.
- Defense of an electrical component manufacturer against claims alleging contamination of a municipal drinking water supply; obtained a “nuisance value” settlement by mounting aggressive Daubert challenge of plaintiff’s groundwater fate-and-transport model.
- Defense through trial and appeals of a series of nuisance claims against a public warehouse, arising out of alleged fugitive dust emissions, limiting the ultimate judgment to a sub-“nuisance value” total.
Appellate Litigation
- Hammersmith v. TIG Insurance Co., 480 F.3d 220 (3d Cir. 2007) – obtained reversal of summary judgment in insurer’s favor (on late notice grounds), and clarified previously-murky Pennsylvania choice-of-law rules as applied to contract disputes.
- Brader v. Allegheny General Hospital, 167 F.3d 832 (3d Cir. 1999) – obtained dismissal, affirmed on appeal, of physician’s claims arising out of denial of staff privileges, on the basis that defendants were immune from liability under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act.
- In re Madden, 151 F.3d 125 (3d Cir. 1998) – obtained a ruling that a witness employed to produce commentaries for a wrestling promoter’s “900-number” hotline was not a “journalist” entitled to the protection of the qualified federal journalist-source privilege.
- Don’s Building Supply v. OneBeacon Insurance Co., 267 S.W.3d 20 (Tex. 2008) – represented amici curiae in successfully arguing that Texas should adopt an “injury in fact” trigger for coverage of progressive, latent property damage claims under general liability insurance policies.
- Clendenin Brothers, Inc. v. U.S. Fire Insurance Co., 390 Md. 449, 889 A.2d 387 (2006) – successfully represented amicus curiae in establishing that the so-called “absolute pollution exclusion” does not apply to claims alleging injury from exposure to welding rod fumes.
- Braaten v. Saberhagen Holdings, 165 Wash. 2d 373, 198 P.3d 493 (2008) – wrote winning brief in case establishing, in a matter of first impression in any state’s high court, that a defendant is not liable for failing to warn of the risk allegedly posed by asbestos-containing replacement parts or insulation that it did not supply.
- Taylor v. Elliott Turbomachinery Co., 171 Cal. App. 4th 564, – Cal. Rptr. 3d – (2009) – wrote winning brief in case holding that a defendant is not liable for failing to warn of the risk allegedly posed by asbestos-containing replacement parts or insulation that it did not supply.
Commercial Litigation
- Obtained a precedent-setting summary judgment for one of the nation’s largest consulting firms, on a matter of first impression in Pennsylvania, establishing that computer consultants cannot be liable in tort for alleged malpractice, and that disgruntled customers are limited to contract remedies.
- Obtained a “100-cents-on-the-dollar” jury verdict in favor of a supplier of mining equipment, on its counterclaim, defeating a tunneling contractor’s claim that the machine performed improperly.
Professional Background
Prior to joining K&L Gates, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Ellsworth A. Van Graafeiland at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Professional/Civic Activities
- Chatham Baroque, Inc. (former President, Board of Directors)
- Pennsylvania Bar Association
- Allegheny County Bar Association
Court Admissions
- All Commonwealth of Pennsylvania courts
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Second Circuit
- U.S. District Courts for the Western District of Pennsylvania and Southern District of Illinois
- Pro Hac Vice admission to state and/or federal courts in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington and West Virginia
Bar Admissions
Education
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J.D.,
University of Virginia School of Law
(1992)
(Articles Review Editor, Virginia Law Review)
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A.B.,
Harvard University
(1988)
(magna cum laude, with highest honors)
Achievements
- Temple Bar Foundation Scholarship, London, England, 1993
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