Henry M. Sneath

As a Shareholder and Director, Mr. Sneath is Co-Chair of Houston Harbaugh’s Litigation Practice and Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice, With over 95 trials to verdict, Mr. Sneath is an experienced trial attorney, mediator, arbitrator and Federal Court Special Master focusing on complex business litigation, intellectual property, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, DTSA, Cybersecurity, Data Breach and Artificial Intelligence (AI) matters, Covid-19 and Coronavirus legal matters, products liability, pharmaceutical liability, probate, trusts and estates litigation, toxic torts, insurance coverage and bad faith, energy, catastrophic injury and tort litigation matters. He received his J.D. degree in 1983 from Duquesne University School of Law. During his last two years of law school, he served as a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He has been designated by his peers as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in the fields of Business and Intellectual Property Litigation and was a member of the prestigious Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County. Mr. Sneath has helped clients resolve disputes through a variety of Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures (ADR) He is serving now as a Federal Court Special Master and mediator in large patent infringement litigation and has received certification in complex case and public policy mediation and facilitation from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation (PON) taught by some of the country’s leading academicians on ADR at Harvard, MIT and Tufts University. He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Duquesne University School of Law teaching two courses: Trade Secret Law and the Law of Trademarks and Unfair Competition. 

Mr. Sneath is listed in Best Lawyers in America® in five categories: commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation, patent litigation, legal malpractice law, and personal injury defense litigation. He is Peer Review Rated AV by Martindale Hubbell, which is that organization’s highest rating. Mr. Sneath is a Past President and Member of the Board of Directors of the 22,000 member international lawyer organization DRI (formerly Defense Research Institute) and is the former Chair of its Commercial Litigation Committee and Intellectual Property Subcommittee. He was Regional Editor of the DRI national publication “The Business Suit” and is a frequent lecturer and course planner for national and regional seminars on a wide range of business litigation, intellectual property, personal injury, law firm management and marketing topics. He served as Editor of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s (PBA) Civil Litigation Section quarterly magazine and is a Past Chair of the PBA Intellectual Property Law Section. He is an active member of the national lawyer organizations IADC and ADTA. He authors and edits an IP, Technology, Cybersecurity, Data Breach, Covid -19, Trade Secrets/DTSALaw® blog and podcasts at www.pitiptechblog.com.

Mr. Sneath has extensive federal and state court trial experience in cases involving commercial disputes, intellectual property matters, trade secrets, DTSA, construction claims, employment, non-competes, and restrictive covenants, professional negligence lawsuits, products liability and pharmaceutical litigation, insurance coverage and insurance bad faith claims. He and his litigation team are fully prepared to handle Covid-19 and Coronavirus related legal matters in employment, business litigation, trusts and estates litigation and more. He is currently representing clients in trademark and copyright matters and in patent infringement litigation matters pursuant to the Local Patent Rules promulgated by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. These rules are designed to make the Pennsylvania Western District a forum of choice for patent infringement and invalidation actions. He is also prepared to assist out-of-state law firms and their clients with the intricacies of these Local Patent Rules which provide a procedural mechanism for accelerated case disposition, and numerous changes to the processes of Federal Rule 26 disclosure, claim construction, use of experts and infringement and invalidation contention disclosure. He has tried over 95 cases to jury and non-jury verdict in Federal and State Court jurisdictions and has helped clients resolve disputes through a variety of Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures. He has served as a Special Master in Federal Court upon appointment by the Chief Judge of the Court. Mr. Sneath has also devoted Pro Bono time to the representation of battered women in Protection from Abuse hearings and trials and is active in his Church and community.

Business Litigation. Pittsburgh Strong.® DTSALaw® PSMNLaw® PSMN®

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.  Building Client Confidence®