Richard F. Lerach was born in 1940 and is associated with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His university education and subsequent legal career were centered in the city, where he developed a professional practice in corporate litigation and represented major industrial interests.
Lerach studied at the University of Pittsburgh, receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Laws. The university, founded in 1787, developed into a major urban research institution and its business and legal education programs served the professional needs of western Pennsylvania. His connection with the university also appears in records identifying him with the Delta Tau Delta community during his undergraduate years.
Lerach was admitted to the bar in 1966 and practiced as a lawyer in Pittsburgh. By 1973 he was serving in the law department of United States Steel Corporation, one of the largest American steel producers and a major industrial employer in the Pittsburgh region. His work for the corporation included representation in litigation involving labor, employment, workers' compensation, industrial operations, pensions, and commercial disputes.
His name appears as counsel for United States Steel in Pennsylvania appellate proceedings and in federal litigation during the 1970s and 1980s. He argued for the corporation before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Davis v. United States Steel Supply and represented the company in cases involving workplace injuries, employment claims, and industrial liability. He also served as counsel for USX Corporation in federal patent litigation in 1987.
Represented United States Steel Corporation in substantial state and federal litigation involving workers' compensation, employment discrimination, workplace injuries, industrial liability, pension benefits, and commercial disputes.
Argued for United States Steel Supply before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Davis v. United States Steel Supply, a federal employment-discrimination appeal decided in 1982.
Davis v. United States Steel Supply
(Federal appellate litigation in which Lerach argued for t...)
1982U.S. Steel and Carnegie Pension Fund v. Dickinson
(Second Circuit litigation in which Lerach served as couns...)
1985Mitchell v. McCorstin
(Federal appellate proceeding in which Lerach represented ...)
1984Lerach was married to Judith Ifft Lerach, who died on August 5, 2020. They had two children, Mollie L. Gannon and Richard I. Lerach, and five grandchildren.
