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 to toys, trains, recreational vehicles, automobile air bags and restraint systems, consumer electrical appliances, and wine. He appears in state and federal courts throughout the United States 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.
Experience
Speaking Engagements
- December 19, 2017
Jones Day's 2017 Speaker Series: New Technology, Cutting-Edge Law and Policy - March 19, 2014
Products Liability, PBI 27th Annual Civil Litigation Update - March 13, 2013
Products Liability, PBI 26th Civil Litigation Update - March 2, 2013
Trends in Public Nuisance Litigation, Conference on Environmental Economics, Law & Litigation - July 25, 2012
PBI Pennsylvania Products Liability Update - December 15, 2011
2011 Speaker Series
Constitutional Limitations to Economic Regulation and Litigation - August 11, 2011
2011 Speaker Series
The WikiLeaks Phenomenon: Protecting the Confidential Information of Your Company and Its Clients - July 13-14, 2011
Managing Nanophobia, The 7th Annual Midwest Product Safety & Liability Conference - May 11, 2011
May 20, 2011
Pennsylvania Bar Institute presents: The Preparation and Trial of the Products Liability Case - May 5, 2011
Re: Profits, Politics & Preemption: The Williamson v. Mazda Motor Decision - March 1, 2011
Nanomaterials: Seizing Opportunities, Managing Risks - November 11, 2010
PBI Fundamentals of Products Liability Law - November 12, 2009
Litigation Potpourri - October 19, 2009
FMVSS 205 Preemption: PLAC Helps Ford Prevail, PLAC seminar - May 2009
Managing Nanophobia, presented as Webcast for American Conference Institute, - October 2008
This Dog Isn't Barking, PLAC seminar
- Columbia University (J.D. 1978; Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar; Law Review); Princeton University (M.P.A. 1977); Denison University (B.A. with highest honors 1974; Phi Beta Kappa)
- Ohio; Pennsylvania; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits; and U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, Western District of Pennsylvania, and Eastern District of Wisconsin
The American Law Institute (elected member)
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America for product liability litigation — defendants (2013-2018) and mass tort litigation/class actions — defendants (2014-2018)
The Legal 500 United States — recommended in litigation for product liability, mass tort, and class action — consumer products (including tobacco) (2014 and 2016) and toxic tort (2014 and 2015)
- Law Clerk to: Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit (1979 term) and Chief Judge Frank J. Battisti, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (1978 term)