U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

John C. McMeekin II is a partner of Rawle & Henderson LLP and a member of the firm’s executive committee, residing in the Philadelphia office. He is an experienced and skilled trial lawyer and counselor, concentrating his practice in litigating complex and mass tort events.  He has substantial experience in the areas of environmental, toxic and mass torts, class actions, products and professional liability, insurance coverage litigation and aviation related claims.

Mr. McMeekin represents clients in the United States and abroad as national coordinating counsel and trial counsel in the defense of long-term latent injury and defect, chemical exposure and product liability cases. He is liaison counsel to the Court in the Philadelphia County silica litigation. He represents the Pennsylvania Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund and its eligible owners and operators in groundwater, property damages and monitoring claims, as well as determinations of eligibility. He has represented clients in state and federal class actions, multi-plaintiff consolidated mass torts and multi-district proceedings for drug & medical device litigation, MTBE, asbestos, silica, latex gloves, orthopedic bone screws and FRTP. Mr. McMeekin currently serves as a liaison counselor on behalf of generic pharmaceutical defendants in the Philadelphia County Ranitidine litigation. He has served as a national trial counsel for several talc mining and product manufacturers and distributors.

Mr. McMeekin is a graduate of Bucknell University and a magna cum laude graduate of the University Of Baltimore School Of Law. He practices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, as well as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has practiced pro hac vice before the state and federal courts in Montana, West Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Delaware, Ohio and Hawaii.

Mr. McMeekin is a former firefighter and emergency medical technician, and has served on the board of directors of the Radnor Fire Company. In 2001 he was elected to the Radnor Township School Board of Directors, serving as a board member and the board president until 2009. He served as a board member and president of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit and Delaware County Vocational Technical Institute, which serve the educational needs of children with special needs and in career and vocational technical education until 2009. Mr. McMeekin is also a member of the board of the Delaware County Community Foundation, which facilitates donor directed charitable giving.

Mr. McMeekin is active in the American Bar Association (ABA) and its leadership in areas of practice, governance and public service. He was elected in February of 2023 to a three-year term on the ABA’s House of Delegates. He serves in the ABA Section Officer Committee and has been appointed to the American Bar Association Annual Meeting Task Force. He also serves as a delegate to the American Board of Trial Advocates Round Table.

Mr. McMeekin is Chair Emeritus of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section.  He has also served the ABA as a council member, section secretary, revenue officer, chair of the Toxic Tort & Environmental Law committee, chair of the International Law committee, and chair of the CLE Board. He co-chaired the Corporate Counsel Initiative Task Force and is an active member of the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. John chaired the Philadelphia Bar Association Environmental and Toxic Tort Law committee and has been a member of the Delaware Valley Environmental Inn of Court. He serves as a counselor (board member) for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Mr. McMeekin’s community leadership includes serving as an elected member of the board of directors of Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation. It is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, businesses and community-based organizations. It fulfills its mission to improve the health of the community by providing outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance, and direct services. PHMC has served the Greater Philadelphia region since 1972 as a facilitator, developer, intermediary, manager, advocate and innovator in the field of public health. PHMC has more than 2,500 employees, 350 programs, a network of subsidiary organizations, 70 locations and sites, and close to 350,000 clients served annually. For more information visit www.phmc.org.

Mr. McMeekin has spoken and presented numerous times nationally and internationally on drug & medical devices, toxic tort and environmental issues, including on the topics of expert testimony and admissibility, diesel emissions, MTBE litigation, electronic discovery, class action litigation and bio-terrorism. He is also a frequent newspaper and television commentator concerning issues related to public education and governance. He has published numerous papers and articles on practice areas of interest.

AWARDS:

Named Top 40 Under 40 Lawyers in Pennsylvania (2002)
ABA/TIPS Award for Innovative Excellence (2003, 2004)
American Bar Association Recognition Award (2004, 2006)
Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer” (2005-2011, 2014-2015, 2017-2019)
AV Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

PUBLIC & BOARD SERVICE:

Public Health Management Corporation, Board of Directors, (2023-Present)

American Bar Association, House of Delegates (2023-Present)

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Board of Counselors, (2021-Present)

American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, Chair (2020-Present)

Radnor Township, PA, School Director, (2001-2009) President (2004-2006; 2007-2008)

Radnor Township Parks and Recreation board (2001-2004)

Delaware County Community College, Liaison to Board of Trustees (2001 – 2003)

Delaware County Intermediate Unit (2003-Present) (President 2006-2009)

Delaware County Area Vocational – Technical School Board (President 2006-2009)

Delaware County Intermediate Unit Education Foundation (2003-2009)

Delaware County Community Foundation, Board of Directors (2007-Present)

Radnor Volunteer Fire Company, Board Member (2015-2018)

PRESENTATIONS and PUBLICATIONS:

Speaker: Going Off the Rails – a look at the litigation implications of rail transportation of hazardous materials, FETTI Annual Conference, September 2023, Chicago, IL.

Presenter: Trial Masters, Spring 2023 American Bar Association Section Conference, New York, NY, May 2023

Speaker: Risk Transfer & the defense of excess exposure cases, Claims and Litigation Management Alliance 2023 annual meeting, Tampa, FL

Presenter: A Primer on Per & Polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS), American Bar Association Toxic Tort & Environmental Law Spring meeting, Scottsdale, AZ April 2023

Presenter: Nuisance Claims: Shield for neighbors or sword for social justice.  American Bar Association, Toxic Tort & Environmental Law Spring meeting, Scottsdale, AZ, April 9, 2022

Speaker: Defending Nuisance claims, 27^th Annual National Forum for Environmental Toxic Tort Issues, Chicago, IL Oct. 1, 2021

Speaker: Yours, Mine, & Auers: Agency Deference in 2020, Environmental & Energy, Mass Torts, and Products Liability Litigation Committees’ Joint Regional CLE Program, Snowmass Village, Colorado, January 2020

Speaker: American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section Cannabis Conference, Chicago, Illinois, September 2019

Speaker: Talc Litigation: Defending an Emerging Mass Tort from Mine to Consumer, Annual National Forum for Environmental & Toxic Tort Issues (FETTI) Conference, Chicago, Illinois, September 2019

Speaker: Trial Masters—Knowledge We Wish We Had Years Ago, American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Conference, May 2019

Speaker: Is There Jurisdiction? The Evolution of Personal Jurisdiction under Daimler and Its Progeny, 2019 Claims & Litigation Management Annual Conference, March 2019

Speaker: Aftermath of BMS: Successor Jurisdiction with a Look at Cases That Can Be Filed and Cases That Cannot, New Jersey Asbestos Litigation Conference, September 2018

Co-Presenter: Personal Jurisdiction: A New Look at Mass Tort Litigation – Where Do We Go from Here? 24th Annual National Forum for Environmental & Toxic Tort Issues (FETTI) Conference, October 2017

Speaker: “Let’s Get Personal: The Renewed Resurgence in Personal Jurisdiction Decisions,” 26th Annual Spring ABA Toxic Torts & Environmental Law Conference, April 2017

Co-Speaker: “Challenging the Exercise of Personal Jurisdiction and the Rise of Specific Jurisdiction Post-Daimler,” National Forum for Environmental & Toxic Tort Issues (FETTI) Conference, Chicago, Illinois, September 2016

Co-Author: Recent Developments in International Law, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal, winter 2015 (50:2)

Co-Author: Pennsylvania: Appellate—First Amendment Decision, Rawle’s Reports, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2015

Co-Author: Pennsylvania: Trademark Infringement, Rawle’s Reports, Vol. 16, No. 11, November 2012

Co-Author: Stigma Damages and Diminution of Property Claims in Environmental Class Actions, Environmental Claims Journal, Volume 24, Issue 3, 2012

Co-Author: The Impact of MDL 875 on Asbestos Litigation, Litigation Management, spring 2012

Speaker: Class Actions and Multi District Litigation in the United States, ABA TIPS International Law Committee and the American Board of Trial Advocates, Nihon University College of Law, Tokyo, Japan, November 2010

Speaker: The Litigation Risks of the US and EU Markets, Insuring Market Access to the US and EU: Meeting Safety Standards and Managing Risks China Association for the Medical Devices Industry (CAMDI), Shenzhen, China April 2010

Speaker: Name Brand & Generic Pharmaceuticals – Preparing for the Risks of Litigation in the United States Marketplace, Seoul, Korea April 2010

Author: Not In My Backyard – Litigating Stigma Damages and Diminution of Property Claims in Environmental Class Actions, DRI Toxic Tort & Environmental Law Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 4

Speaker: Introduction of General and Specific Causation Evidence in Toxic Tort Cases: Lead, Benzene and Asbestos, HB Litigation Conference February 2009

Author: The Age of E-Discovery: Practice Pointers for Preserving and Producing Electronic Documents, The Brief Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section summer 2008 Vol. 37.

Author: Change in the Aftermath: Will Louisiana Courts Expand the Interpretation of the Pollution Exclusion to Address Hurricane Katrina-Related Claims? ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal, spring 2006

Author: A Cause of Cancer? Exposure to Diesel Fume Emissions, November 2003, For the Defense

Author: Frye: The Admissibility of Expert Testimony in Pennsylvania, fall 2003, ABA-TIPS

Author: Defending Underground Storage Tank Litigation, August 2002, For the Defense