Bernard D. Marcus

Bernie Marcus, a co-founder of the firm, is one of the most respected litigators in Pittsburgh. For many companies and individuals facing a business dispute, he is their first phone call. Bernie brings to bear a combination of experience, good judgment, strategic thinking, and longstanding relationships that has served his clients well for nearly five decades.

Bernie concentrates his practice on complex commercial litigation and disputes, antitrust litigation and family business disputes.

Bernie has tried numerous multi-million dollar commercial litigation cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. In Salvatore v. Mobile Diagnostech, Inc., et al., he won a $59 million civil RICO verdict and judgment following a two-week jury trial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The verdict and resulting judgment is one of the very few successfully prosecuted civil RICO verdicts in the region.

In the massive Phar-Mor Securities Litigation, Bernie served as lead counsel for a large group of corporate and individual defendants in 40 consolidated lawsuits. At the time, the billion-dollar fraud case was one of the biggest in U.S. history.

Bernie has personally negotiated numerous multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of antitrust plaintiffs, and he is actively involved in numerous pending antitrust lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers.

Other notable representations include:

• Successfully defended major shareholder in a high tech start-up against breach of fiduciary duty and equitable claims while successfully advocating for confirmation of the start-up company’s plan of reorganization in Delaware bankruptcy court.
• Successfully represented a client in a shareholder squeeze-out case involving two equal owners of a closely held corporation.
• Obtained a jury defense verdict on behalf of a public company and its directors and officers in a RICO/securities fraud class action in the Eastern District of Virginia.
• Served as defense liaison counsel on behalf of 71 defendants in connection with the State of West Virginia’s action against asbestos manufacturers for damages and removal of asbestos from all state-owned buildings.

In Salkovick v. Giant Eagle, Inc., after a two-week jury trial in 2010, obtained a defense verdict for a corporate chain stemming from allegations of sexual harassment brought by employees of an independently owned/licensed chain store in a state court action in Marshall County, West Virginia, where defense verdicts are rare.