Sean Wajert is a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation & Corporate Services Division, focusing primarily on complex commercial and products liability litigation. An experienced trial attorney, he has represented clients in the chemical, consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical device, food and fragrance, and industrial products sectors when they face significant product liability and mass tort claims. He has litigated cases in federal and state courts in dozens of jurisdictions.

Sean joined SHB after practicing as a partner with Dechert LLP, where he chaired the product liability and mass torts group for more than 10 years. In this capacity, he served as lead counsel in national diacetyl litigation, as trial counsel in numerous diet drug trials and on the litigation team that secured a defense verdict in the first tobacco medical monitoring trial, a class action involving 250,000 plaintiffs in West Virginia. He also acted as lead counsel in complex commercial litigation arising from a textile mill fire and in a class action alleging the release of chemicals at a North Carolina pharmaceutical facility. In addition to his product liability work, which has included asbestos, forklifts, isocyanates, PCBs, and other manufacturing and consumer goods, Sean has represented multiple clients in putative class actions raising state consumer fraud, unfair or deceptive trade act claims, and has assisted clients with significant commercial disputes.

A trusted advisor on complex commercial issues, Sean has counseled clients on ways to assess and mitigate potential litigation risks in the mergers and acquisition context as well as those arising from client entry into new geographic or product markets. Frequently asked by clients to monitor ongoing litigation as plaintiffs add new classes of defendants, Sean has advised corporations on U.S. labeling regulations and emerging tort issues, such as those involving the chemical BPA in food containers or the potential product liability issues related to a new technology for cord blood storage. He has also advised clients in the adhesives industry on formaldehyde exposure issues.

Since 2003, Sean has been ranked annually among the top product liability lawyers by Chambers USA, a referral guide to leading lawyers in the United States based on the opinions of their peers and clients. Chambers has praised Sean as a “calm and organized” lawyer who “continues to deliver high quality work in the pharmaceutical area.” The Best Lawyers in America has also recognized Sean for product liability and mass tort litigation, and The Legal 500 (U.S.) in 2011 recommended his work in product liability and mass tort defense in the areas of toxic tort and consumer products (including tobacco). His class action and business litigation experience has also been featured in several editions of Super Lawyers (2006 - 2010, 2012 - 2013).

Sean is an American Bar Foundation fellow and an elected member of the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. He currently serves on Law360's Product Liability Editorial Advisory Board and previously chaired the Mass Torts and Class Actions Subcommittee of the Defense Research Institute, a national organization of more than 22,000 defense trial lawyers and corporate counsel.

Elected Member, American Law Institute

Fellow, American Bar Foundation

Invited Attendee, Working Group on Mass Torts of the Federal Rules Civil Advisory Committee (listed in Final Report, Spring 1999)

Member, Defense Research Institute

Member, International Association of Defense Counsel

Member, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations

Member, Law360's Product Liability Editorial Advisory Board

Publications and Lectures

Sean is the author of the widely read blog Mass Tort Defense, which focuses on the defense of complex commercial litigation and significant products liability matters.

For a decade starting in 1990, Sean lectured at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on toxic torts and product liability, and served in 1999-2000 as the Thomas O'Boyle Honorary Lecturer-in-Law. He also frequently serves as an instructor at continuing legal education courses on toxic torts and product liability.

Sean Wajert, Noteworthy Product Liability Decisions Of 2012: Part 1, Law360, Jan. 9, 2013 View

Sean Wajert, A Criminal Act Severs The Chain Of Causation, Law 360, Aug. 21, 2012 View

Clerkships

Honorable Arlin M. Adams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Sean is admitted to practice before the state courts of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

1984     J.D., cum laude, University of Pennsylvania Law School

• Editor-in-Chief, University of Pennsylvania Law Review
• Order of the Coif
• Fellow, Salzburg Global Seminar, “Translational Legal Institutions” (1994)
• Original Barrister, University of Pennsylvania Law School National Inn of Court (1995-97)

1981     A.B., magna cum laude, Harvard University