O'Grady, Brian J.

Sharon's litigation and trial practice focuses on the defense of private and public entities in a wide array of professional liability and employment law matters, education law matters, medical liability, complex general liability, and class action matters brought in federal and state courts, state agencies, labor boards, and educational agencies.

In addition to alleged wrongful termination actions that include 1983 and First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment claims in federal suits filed in the Middle and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, Sharon defends a wide variety of matters including those brought under the Pennsylvania Whistleblower law and related claims brought in state law actions filed in county courts. Sharon has also defended individual, collective, and class actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law, as well as the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law, and related claims.

Sharon's agency practice involves primarily actions brought to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, and special education matters brought in the Pennsylvania Special Education Office for Dispute Resolution.

The employment matters that Sharon handles, typically involve claims brought in the nature of alleged unlawful discrimination and retaliation matters involving Title VII actions, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and other similar federal statutes. Sharon also defends school districts in due process matters brought under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and related federal and state statutes where a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is typically disputed or related educational services are challenged relating to both gifted and disabled students.

Sharon's practice also involves the defense of matters brought to arbitration under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act and further provides defense litigation support to public entity solicitors as requested in matters ranging from education issues to employment matters.

Sharon's professional liability practice involves the defense of realtors, insurance agents and brokers, residential and commercial real estate appraisers, and other licensed professionals, including health care professionals, brought in negligence actions in federal and/or state court, and licensing matters brought before the Bureau of Occupational and Professional Affairs.  In addition, she has experience in handling construction litigation matters. 

Sharon is supported by two full-time associates in providing defense litigation services to all of her clients who range from self-insured corporations to private and public entities insured under errors & omissions, directors & officers, professional liability and employment liability practices insurance policies.

In 1990 Sharon graduated from Kings' College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and achieved a Juris Doctorate from Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in May 1996. Following graduation, Ms. O'Donnell joined Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin in August 1996 as an associate attorney. She was elected shareholder in 2004.

Sharon has published several articles, some of which have appeared in Pittsburgh Legal Journal and the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly. She also speaks to various organizations on employment, education, and professional liability litigation issues.

Significant Representative Matters

• Defense verdict in favor of public school, administrators and professional staff alleged to have violated civil rights of freedom of speech, written expression and religious expression of students by disciplining them, up to and including expulsion, for protesting a dress code policy.
  
  
• Directed verdict in favor of a public school board sued by a former member, represented by ACLU attorneys, on a theory of a First Amendment violation of free speech, among other claims, which were voluntarily abandoned prior to trial.
  
  
• Defense verdict by a federal jury in favor of a local college in an alleged unlawful retaliation claim where all alleged Title VII race discrimination claims were voluntarily abandoned on the eve of trial.
  
  
• Defense verdict by a county jury in favor of a credit collection agency alleged to have unlawfully withheld salary and commission to a former executive.
  
  
• Defense verdict on ten separate counts of alleged unlawful gender discrimination by a federal jury in a three-week trial.
  
  
• Defense verdict by county jury in favor of a medical professional by a former patient who alleged negligence in performing bilateral reduction mammoaplasties.
  
  
• Summary judgment in a professional negligence action brought against a psychologist alleged to have breached the standard of care when she dated and married the husband of a client within two years of providing the last client service.
  
  
• Summary judgment on various claims, including 42 U.S.C. 1983, brought in a complex federal court action under the Americans with Disabilities Act against a county District Attorney and his professional staff in which exemplary and significant compensatory damages were sought, resulting in an overall satisfactory outcome.
  
  
• Summary judgment for a defendant general practice physician who provided medical care to a prison inmate who alleged First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment violations against the facility and its medical staff.
  
  
• Summary judgment on behalf of a defendant breast surgeon alleged to have breached the standard of care in performing and following bilateral TRAM flap reconstruction procedures following bilateral mastectomies.
  
  
• Summary judgment for employer of supervisor-employee who sent text-message with racial epithets to subordinate of color in demonstrating that internal investigation and corrective measures were sufficient to eradicate perception of a racially hostile work environment.
  
  
• Mediation resulting in a $250,000 settlement in a professional liability action against an architect alleged to have breached the standard of care where over $1 million in damages were sought for the repair and reconstruction of a commercial property.
  
  
• Mediation resulting in a $50,000 settlement in an action against an acute care facility and anesthesiologist involving alleged wrongful termination of a nurse anesthetist whose wage loss claim alone was $250,000.
  
  
• Mediation resulting in a settlement under six figures in an alleged race discrimination and unlawful retaliation claim brought by a former assistant superintendent of a school district in which the claimed damages, including attorneys fees, exceeded $1 million.