David Fusco is a litigation partner and a Practice Group Coordinator for our Mass Tort and Product Liability practice group. David maintains an active trial practice concentrating in the areas of class actions, complex commercial litigation, mass tort, and product liability, with an emphasis on defending manufacturers in claims related to alleged toxic substances. He serves as lead counsel in jurisdictions across the country and has experience defending claims involving asbestos, benzene, coal dust, dioxins and furans, ethylene oxide, PFAS, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), silica, and talc, among other substances.
David is an experienced litigator and focuses on developing innovative defense strategies in cases involving complex issues of liability and causation. His experience allows him to persuasively present sophisticated legal arguments and scientific issues in an intelligible manner, both when litigating a case to verdict and when leveraging defenses to obtain a favorable result prior to trial. David also has significant experience managing the defense of large dockets of repetitive tort claims filed across the country, with a focus on minimizing exposure, controlling costs, and maintaining predictability.
David has tried cases to verdict in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina and has served as trial counsel for cases in Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, and West Virginia. In developing and advancing his clients' defenses, David has conducted hundreds of expert depositions across various scientific disciplines, including disease causation, epidemiology, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, pathological diagnosis, pulmonary function, and toxicology. He has also argued numerous Daubert and Frye motions regarding the admissibility of expert testimony in federal and state courts throughout the United States.
David served as Senior Assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Governor for the State of West Virginia from 2002 until 2004 where he worked with administration officials to develop various policy initiatives.
David spent his final semester of law school working as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Robert B. King, Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He also worked as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Irene M. Keeley, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, during the summer of 2005.
- Listed by The Best Lawyers in America® for Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants in Pittsburgh, 2025
- Speaker, 2024 DRI Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Seminar (Ethylene Oxide Panel), Hosted by Defense Research Institute, 22 March 2024
- Speaker, Ethyelne Oxide In-House CE Program, Perrin, 7 March 2024
- Speaker, Ethylene Oxide: Examining the Science & Regulations Driving EtO Litigation, Hosted by National Forum for Environmental & Toxic Tort Issues (FETTI), 28 September 2023
- Speaker, Ethylene Oxide: Litigation and Regulations Ahead, Hosted by Perrin Conferences, 18 January 2023
- “Litigation and Compliance Impacts of Proposed Ethylene Oxide Regulations Based on Flawed Science,” DRI's For The Defense, 10 June 2024
- “Chemical Considerations," The Litigation Issue 2023, Best Lawyers, 1 September 2023
- “ALI's Medical-Monitoring Proposal May Encourage Claims,” Law360, 28 June 2023
- EPA Accepting Public Comments on Amended Ethylene Oxide Regulations, Washington Legal Foundation, 9 June 2023
- “Scapa Dryer Fabrics, Inc. v. Knight: Addressing the Elephant in the Room,” Westlaw Journal Asbestos, Vol. 38, Issue 23, 2 September 2016
- The Constitutional Issue Hidden Within a Circuit Split: Double Jeopardy in the Context of Proving Predicate Offenses, 4 Seton Hall Cir. Rev. 265 (2008).
- Quoted, "Plant Gas Emissions Suit Tossed For Lack Of Injury Standing," Law360, 14 May 2024
- Quoted, "'Forever chemicals' were everywhere in 2023. Expect more litigation in 2024," Reuters, 28 December 2023
- Quoted, "Why Medical Device Companies are Worried About the EPA’s Planned Sterilization Regs," MedTech Dive, 27 November 2023
- Quoted, "More Suits, EPA Scrutiny Seen After Chemical Emissions Case (1)," Bloomberg Law, 5 October 2022
- Quoted, “Superior Court Sets En Banc Reargument on Pa.’s Corporate Registration Law,” The Legal Intelligencer, 12 December 2018
- Quoted, “It Just Got a Lot Easier to Sue Out-of-State Companies in Pa.,” The Legal Intelligencer, 4 October 2018
