Bruce E. Stanley is the founding partner of Stanley & Schmitt, a personal injury, construction law, and commercial litigation firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Before opening his own practice in 2014, Mr. Stanley was a longtime partner at the Pittsburgh office of international law firm Reed Smith. There, the West Virginia native litigated several cases involving Massey Energy, formerly the largest coal company in Appalachia.
In Caperton v. Massey, Mr. Stanley represented Hugh Caperton in a 14-year-long litigation involving Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy. That case resulted in a landmark opinion by the Supreme Court of Appeals of the United States addressing campaign contributions and judicial recusal. Mr. Stanley’s efforts were chronicled in The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption by best-selling author Laurence Leamer.
Mr. Stanley also represented the widows and estates of Massey coal miners killed in an underground fire in Logan County, West Virginia, and won significant settlements against both the mine operator and the United States government.
Mr. Stanley’s work has been recognized by the Public Justice Foundation, who named him a 2012 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award Finalist. He has also been listed among the Best Lawyers in America in the area of Commercial Litigation.
Mr. Stanley has served as a lecturer at the West Virginia University College of Law, teaching a course on Construction Law, and as a member of the College’s Development Council. He is active in the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, the Allegheny County Bar Association, and the West Virginia State Bar.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1981 and his JD in 1989 from West Virginia University. At the College of Law, Mr. Stanley served as Editor-in-Chief of Volume 91 of the West Virginia Law Review.
