Melvin R. Shuster

Mel Shuster is an exceptionally experienced attorney in diverse aspects of civil litigation, legal staff supervision and litigation management. During his career, he has engaged in complex litigation in state and federal courts involving civil and appellate matters across a wide range of legal disciplines.

Mel’s experience representing surety clients brought him in direct contact with the construction industry, litigating a variety of challenging and often complicated surety issues involving performance bond actions under the Pennsylvania Public Works Contractor’s Bond Law and the Commonwealth Procurement Code as well as adherence to the strict conditions precedent necessary for developers and construction managers to secure recovery under the standard A312 bond form. In these and other matters, Mel was deeply involved in pleadings, discovery, motion practice, trial and mediation efforts.

Mel has also served as a trial attorney for a major American insurer, handling sophisticated insurance coverage issues and cases involving environmental, toxic tort and long-term exposure claims. He has also handled a variety of other insurance coverage issues, particularly in the professional liability, property and casualty, surety and fidelity bond contexts, as well as alleged insurer bad faith claims.
Mel’s litigation experience goes well beyond the surety and insurance coverage fields. His commercial litigation experience also includes actions in non-insurance contexts, including intellectual property cases and various contract matters.

Mel has tried numerous cases to verdict, including both jury and bench trials. Throughout his career, he has also taken pride in his ability to prepare cogent appellate briefs and present persuasive appellate arguments. He has participated in leading Pennsylvania appellate cases involving prejudicial late notice to insurers, the insurability of punitive damages and the degree of intent required for coverage under banker’s blanket bonds.

Mel devoted his first ten years of practice to public service. As a Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General, he represented the governor and other senior officials in major cases which often involved significant questions of constitutional law, statutory interpretation and public policy. Thereafter, as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, he directed grand jury investigations into business opportunity schemes and frauds, investigated commercial theft and personally handled all aspects of prosecution, from preparation of presentments and preliminary hearings through trial and appeal.

Mel’s professional and community involvement has been extensive and varied. For twenty years, Mel was an adjunct professor at the Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, NJ teaching a course in pretrial advocacy. He has served as both a mediator and an arbitrator for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, as well as a judge pro tem conducting settlement conferences for the Philadelphia trial court.

Mel has been an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, chaired several of its committees and participated in a number of bar-sponsored panels on legal ethics. Over the years, he has served as a board member and officer of two condominium associations, experiences which will serve him well as a member of the Firm’s Community Association Practice Group.

Mel is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and The Johns Hopkins University. He is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Third and Federal Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court.

Mel and his wife Susanne, a certified public accountant, reside in Center City Philadelphia.