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Judge Timothy K. Lewis (Former)
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Arbitrator, Mediator, Mock Trials, Corporate Investigations
Before entering private practice, Judge Lewis served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania when President George H. W. Bush elevated him to the Court of Appeals in 1992. At the time of both appointments he was the youngest federal judge in the United States. Before being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Lewis served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and as an Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
As a federal judge, Judge Lewis tried, decided and authored opinions in all matters that came before the federal courts, particularly in the areas of employment disputes, class actions, intellectual property, and commercial and corporate disputes. Judge Lewis has developed a national and international ADR practice involving many of the world’s leading corporations. Judge Lewis also provides strategic counseling and conducts moot courts in various federal appellate matters in circuit courts throughout the country. Judge Lewis also handles federal and state criminal cases and corporate investigations.
Judge Timothy K. Lewis Experience:
As a former Federal Judge, I have presided over and authored opinions in too many complex contractual disputes to list. As an Arbitrator, I have likewise presided over many complex commercial contract disputes. A sampling includes:
- A Wellington Agreement dispute between the Owens Corning Trust and a major insurance provider concerning whether the Trust claims fell within “product/complete operations” coverage (exhausted), or “non-products” coverage (not yet exhausted), and involving fact-based defenses as well as prior settlement, laches, accord and satisfaction, etc.
- A Wellington Agreement dispute concerning whether Schedule D required excess insurance to pay defense costs; whether the costs fell within aggregate policy limits; whether lower-layers were exhausted, etc.
- Breach of contract claim between a major U.S. defense contractor and a German manufacturer of surface-to-air missiles concerning a Workshare Agreement for the development of short range air-to-air missiles.
- Commercial contract dispute concerning the supply and manufacture of FDU and ECU systems for aircraft engines.
- Contract dispute between an international helicopter engine sales and leasing company and a French manufacturer of low-end medium-power gas turbine turboshaft engines for helicopters.
- Contract dispute over liability for defense costs associated with third-party litigation arising from a lawsuit between the world’s largest telecommunications company and the third largest wireless carrier in the United States.
- Contract dispute between a private investment and venture capital firm and its former CEO.
Insurance coverage and contract dispute between the American subsidiary of a foreign software company and a reinsurance company based in Europe. - Breach of contract and co-development agreements between a private real estate development company and a majority corporate partner in the development of a high-tech international business district in Incheon, South Korea, concerning the development of a golf club and resort.
- Breach of contract, price-fixing and anti-trust dispute between an American multi-national corporation that operates a chain of membership-only warehouse clubs and a South Korean multinational conglomerate that manufactures electronics concerning LCD flat-screen panels.
- Breach of contract dispute between an American automotive company and a residual value insurance company concerning the denial of claims covered under a residual value policy.
- Breach of contract dispute between an orthopedic technology company that developed and commercialized surgical solutions in joint replacement and its parent company concerning an alleged failure to make certain post-M&A milestone payments to shareholders.
- Breach of contract dispute between major providers of medical instruments, laboratory diagnostic solutions, imaging products and technology products and a hospital system concerning provision of technological and IT support services.
- Appeal of an arbitration decision between a major manufacturer of healthcare and medical products and a foreign multi-national healthcare company concerning patent infringement of glucose monitoring devices.
- Breach of contract dispute between two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the United States concerning an over-the-counter joint venture.
- Contract dispute over royalties owed for a company’s contribution to the “ThinPrep” system pursuant to a licensing agreement.
- Breach of contract dispute between an international organization that refers individuals to healthcare providers for state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment procedures and a company that had developed a diagnostic contrasting agent concerning the licensing for use of the agent in clinical trials.
Pro Bono:
- Judge Lewis was one of four former federal appeals judges who took the unprecedented step of
filing an amicus brief on behalf of Delma Banks in the United States Supreme Court in 2003, in a case in which the court overturned the death penalty. - During the fall of 2003, Judge Lewis chaired and moderated a series of national town meetings and
congressional-style hearings called by Amnesty International on the subject of “Racial Profiling, Pre- and Post-9/11.” - In December 2002, Judge Lewis served as the U.S. representative on an international faculty of judges and mediators during a U.S. AID-sponsored Mediation Roundtable in the Republic of Croatia.
- In February 2008, Judge Lewis served as a Delegate to the U.S.- Russian Roundtable Conference on
International Peace in Moscow, which was an outgrowth of the G-8 Summit, and delivered the opening statement on behalf of the U.S. Delegation. - Judge Lewis is a co-chair of the National Committee on the Right to Counsel (with former Vice President Walter Mondale as honorary co-chair), a bipartisan committee established by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Constitution Project to review the indigent
defense system throughout the nation and create consensus recommendations for necessary reforms. - Judge Lewis has filed many amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in cases ranging from the death penalty to bankruptcy matters to judicial ethics.
- In 2014, Judge Lewis advised Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on the constitutionality of imposing
a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania, which was adopted and implemented by the Governor. - In 2016, Judge Lewis testified before Senate Democrats on the pending nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the United States Supreme Court.
Community and Pro Bono:
- The Kiski School, Board of Trustees; The Kiski School Board of Visitors; Alumni Council, former member
- Boule (national post-baccalaureate fraternity of black professional men), member
- Boy Scouts of America, Southwestern Pennsylvania Region, Board of Directors, former member
- Pittsburgh Children’s Museum Board of Directors, former member
- Imani Christian Academy, Governing Board of Directors, member
Teaching:
- Judge Lewis taught “Advocacy and Adjudication” as an adjunct professor at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Law and is a former member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago School of Law. - Judge Lewis has served as a guest lecturer, moot court judge, and commencement speaker at various law schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, the Georgetown Law Center, Duquesne, Temple and Harvard.
- Judge Lewis has trained Department of Justice attorneys in mediation at the National Advocacy
Center in Columbia, South Carolina, and served as an instructor in trial advocacy at the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute. - Judge Lewis has served on the faculty of many continuing legal education programs, focusing upon appellate practice and procedure, mediation, arbitration, and employment discrimination.
Bar Admissions:
- Pennsylvania, 1980
Court Admissions:
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Professional Affiliations:
- American Law Institute, member
- American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Honorary Fellow
- College of Commercial Arbitrators, fellow
- American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), member of national board of directors
- The Constitution Project, Washington, D.C., board member; Co-chair of the National Right to Counsel Committee
- Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, Member
- Georgetown University Law Center Supreme Court Institute, Board of Advisors
- Duquesne University School of Law, Dean’s Advisory Committee, member; Advisory Committee on the Appellate Advocacy Curriculum, member
- The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Advisory Board, former member
- The Peter Jennings Project for Journalism and the Constitution, former board member
- House of Delegates, Pennsylvania Bar Association, former member
- Edward Coke Inn of Court, former member
- Allegheny County Bar Association (various committees)
Other Distinctions:
Judge Lewis has received many awards and honors, both as a judge and as an attorney, including:
- Selected as Best Lawyers “2015 Lawyer of the Year” in arbitration for Washington, D.C.;
- Recognition in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Administrative/Regulatory Law, Appellate Law, Arbitration, Commercial Litigation, and Mediation (2010-2020);
- Noted as a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” for Appellate Law 2012-2013, 2019-2020;
- Recognition as a 2013 “Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer” for alternative dispute resolution;
- Recognition by the editors of The National Law Journal and the Legal Times as one of publication’s
2010 “Champions and Visionaries,” honoring attorneys who have gone the extra mile to enhance the business of law and ensure justice is done; - Recognition as one of the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Judges in America,” by Lawdragon magazine;
- Outstanding Director Award, given by the American Arbitration Association to a member of the organization’s Board of Directors who has distinguished themselves through their singular and
outstanding efforts in furthering the Association’s mission of service and education in the field of conflict management; - Outstanding Achievement Award from Duquesne University School of Law;
- Distinguished Alumni Award from The Kiski School;
- Athletic Hall of Fame, The Kiski School;
- Selected as one of The Legal Intelligencer’s “Diverse Attorneys of the Year” for 2015;
- Pennsylvania Bar Association Minority Bar Committee Award of Achievement.