JOEL R. HURT
jhurt@stsemberfeinstein.com

Joel R. Hurt has spent the majority of his professional time engaged in class action litigation in the areas of employee benefits and insurance.   He has been actively involved in pursuing ERISA claims related to the imprudent investment of 401(k) plan and ESOP assets in employer securities, as well as claims involving the interpretation of group medical benefits plans.  See, e.g., Kling v. Fidelity Management Trust Co., Case No. 01-11939 (D.Mass.)  (appointed class counsel in case for breach of fiduciary duty related to continued investment in employer stock in 401(k) plan, recovering $10.85 million); In re: CMS ERISA Litigation, Master File No. 02-72834 (E.D.Mich) ($28 million settlement of fiduciary breach case involving employer stock in 401(k) plan/ESOP); In re McKesson HBOC, Inc. ERISA Litigation, Master File No. C00-20030 RMW (N.D.Cal.) ($18.2 million settlement of fiduciary breach case involving employer stock in 401(k) plan); Kennedy, et al. v. United Healthcare of Ohio, Inc., Case No. C2-98-128 (S.D.Ohio) ($1.95 million recovery in case challenging allocation of co-payments by medical benefits administrator/insurer).  He has also actively participated in the prosecution of state-court class actions involving replacement cost homeowners insurance.  See Pogel v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 74 Pa.D.&C. 4th 1, 2005 WL 3675376 (C.P., Allegheny, September 1, 2005) (granting summary judgment in favor of class of State Farm insureds). 

Mr. Hurt was selected as a 2006 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star by the publishers of Law & Politics magazine.  Rising Stars are chosen by their peers as being among the top up-and-coming lawyers (40 years old or younger, or in practice 10 years or less) in the state, with 2.5 percent of attorneys practicing in the state being chosen for the honor.  He is also the author of "Winning With Grammar," published in the ATLA Insurance Law Section Newsletter, Winter 2006, addressing the use of expert testimony to demonstrate that an insurer's policy interpretation is unreasonable because it violates the rules of grammar. 

Mr. Hurt graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2000 and joined Stember Feinstein Doyle & Payne, LLC in 2007.  Prior to that, Mr. Hurt practiced with Malakoff Doyle & Finberg, P.C. from 2000 to 2007.  He is admitted to practice before the courts of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  His professional memberships include the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Inns of Court, the American Association for Justice and the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association.