LIEBER HAMMER HUBER & PAUL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Member of the LHHP TEAM
• Member of the American

Jacob M. Simon graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in Political Science. He received his Juris Doctor degree and a Certificate of Advanced Study in International and Comparative Law from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2005. He also received a Master of Public and International Affairs degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. While at Pitt, Mr. Simon was a member of the team that represented the Law School at the 2005 Niagara International Moot Court Competition held at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Windsor, Ontario. He also had the opportunity to assist Prof. Jules Lobel in his preparations for oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209 (2005), a case dealing with the due process rights of prisoners incarcerated in "supermax" prisons. Mr. Simon has been an associate at Lieber Hammer Huber & Paul, P.C. since 2006. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and he has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. His practice focuses on representing plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases. Mr. Simon is a member of the American, Federal, Pennsylvania, and Allegheny County Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Bar Association for the Third Federal Circuit, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Society of International Law. A life-long resident of Pittsburgh, Mr. Simon lives with his family in the Point Breeze neighborhood of the City.

Job Titles:

• Member of the LHHP TEAM
• Honorary Chair of the Caplan - Lieber Human Relations Scholarship

Jim Lieber and his wife, Margie Hammer, founded this firm then known as Lieber & Hammer in 1981. Since that time, he has represented over a thousand individual and business clients in a practice focused on employment discrimination, commercial litigation, civil rights, and constitutional law. Mr. Lieber is a 1971 graduate of Princeton University, where he headed the Student Volunteer Tutoring Program at Trenton State Prison, received prizes for writing and research, was named a Woodrow Wilson Scholar, and was a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist. At Princeton, his principal influences were the historians Martin Duberman and Arno Mayer and the writer Anthony Burgess. In 1972-1973, he served as an organizer with the United Farmworkers Union (UFW AFL-CIO) in California. Mr. Lieber graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1975. At Penn, his legal and writing careers were impacted by studying under pioneering Professors David Rudovsky and Martha Field in civil rights and discrimination law, and Professor Marvin Wolfgang, then the nation's leading criminologist. Mr. Lieber also had the rare opportunity of giving a course for credit (on pesticide law) and received the Law Students Civil Rights and Research Council award. Following law school, Mr. Lieber served as a Staff Attorney at Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia and a Trial Attorney at the Bucks County (PA) Public Defender's Office. While at Lieber & Hammer, Mr. Lieber also served as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Pittsburgh and as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, where he taught constitutional subjects. Mr. Lieber's main mentors were Byrd R. Brown, Esq. and Roslyn M. Litman, Esq., both major civil rights litigators. Mr. Lieber's clients have prevailed at every level of the state and federal court systems, from magistrate and trial courts, to courts of appeal, and supreme courts. He has represented individuals and businesses in a host of complex claims, including anti-trust, fraud, construction defects, discrimination, retaliation, False Claims Act/Qui Tam, bid-rigging, false advertising, racketeering, scientific misconduct, academic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, due process, bad faith, professional negligence, habeas corpus, corporate whistle-blowing (Sabanes-Oxley), and homicide. Mr. Lieber twice has appeared before the United States Supreme Court, successfully arguing Fiore v. White in 1999. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg utilized this case as a basis for her dissent in Bush v. Gore. Mr. Lieber also has conducted class action litigation on age, race, due process, sexual orientation, and securities issues. In 2003, Mr. Lieber was elected to the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, the region's pre-eminent organization of civil litigation attorneys. Mr. Lieber's service to the profession has included membership on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Criminal Procedural Rules Committee, the Allegheny County Bar Association Judicial Nominating Committee, and the Special Panel of the Bench and Bar of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on the allocation of statutory attorney's fees. A frequent lecturer on legal topics and legal educator to attorneys, his subjects have included employment law, civil rights, environmental law, motions practice, evidence, and cross-examination. Mr. Lieber has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in the area of employment law and a Legal Network Top Lawyer in Pennsylvania. In 2022 and 2023 Mr. Lieber was selected as a Silver Distinction Client Champion under the auspices of Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Lieber is the honorary chair of the Caplan-Lieber Human Relations Scholarship for high school students in Western Pennsylvania. Since law school, Mr. Lieber also has pursued an active writing career, contributing articles on an array of topics on law and society, including crime, prisons, street gangs, trials, drug trafficking, sentencing, financial fraud, industry, labor, and bioethics to a host of publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Village Voice, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Magazine, and Social Policy. His books include Friendly Takeover: How an Employee Buyout Saved a Steel Town (Viking Penguin), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the General Nonfiction category; and Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland (Basic Books), which was serialized in Regardies Magazine and became the basis for the documentary film, The Rats Below. Mr. Lieber's recent writing projects include covering the financial crisis for The Village Voice and the Kids for Cash judicial scandal in Pennsylvania for Social Policy. In 2015, he published Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (OR Books). Podcasts of radio interviews with Mr. Lieber on this important topic can be found at http://www.kabf.org/ and http://www.wnyc.org/story/how-medical-error-became-leading-cause-death/; also see Mr. Lieber's speech at The Real Truth About Health Conference in Orlando, Florida in September 2016 on YouTube (link is below). In 2018 Mr. Lieber authored Victory, How Pennsylvania Beat Gerrymandering and How Other States Can Do The Same (OR Books). For accomplishments in law and writing, Mr. Lieber received the Albert P. Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Job Titles:

• Member of the LHHP TEAM

In 1981, Margie Hammer and her husband, Jim Lieber, founded Lieber & Hammer, P.C. (now Lieber Hammer Huber and Paul, P.C.). Since that time, Ms. Hammer has capably represented over a thousand clients and been recognized as one of Pittsburgh's leaders in all areas of family law. Ms. Hammer is a 1972 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where she majored in Mathematics and Psychology. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1975 and received the American Jurisprudence Prize. Subsequently she worked as a staff attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS) in Pittsburgh and Delaware County (PA) Legal Services, where she performed the legal work to implement a bilingual education program in the Chester, PA Public Schools. At Lieber Hammer Huber and Paul, Ms. Hammer has developed widely-recognized expertise in the complex financial aspects of divorce, support, alimony, and equitable distribution. An exceptionally experienced trial attorney, she is able to locate and value assets, analyze tax and pension issues, and probe all issues of marital estates. She has represented clients in a vast array of serious and difficult cases, including protection from abuse, relocation, multi-state and international matters, complex support, relocation of parents, educational support and maintenance of children, and Qualified Domestic Relation Orders (QDROs). Her clients have prevailed at all levels of Pennsylvania courts, from masters hearings, to trials, and through appeals, including to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Throughout Western Pennsylvania, she is recognized by her peers, clients, and courts for her dedication, experience, financial acumen, and superior work ethic. After more than three decades of practice at the highest levels, she is among the most formidable advocates and knowledgeable counselors in her field.

Pernille Frankmar obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Comparative Religion from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and thereafter obtained her Master's Degree in Sociology of Religion. Ms. Frankmar attended and obtained her Juris Doctorate Degree from Duquesne University School of Law and is admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar.

Job Titles:

• Member of the LHHP TEAM
• Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers

Sophia P. Paul is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. From 1991-1996, Ms. Paul clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Kaplan, former Family Division judge in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. In 1996, she was appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as counsel for its Domestic Relations Rules Committee. During her tenure there, Ms. Paul was actively involved in the re-organization and drafting of the extensive revisions that were made to the Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines in 1999. Since 1999, she has been in private practice and has focused exclusively on family and matrimonial law. Ms. Paul is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She is currently the President of the Academy's Pennsylvania Chapter. Since 2010, she has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and recognized as a Top Attorney in the area of family law. An experienced trial lawyer, Ms. Paul is also trained and certified in Mediation and Collaborative Law as alternatives to dispute resolution. Ms. Paul has written and lectured extensively across the state for the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania. She has published in the Pennsylvania Family Lawyer and served as a Council Member for the Family Law Sections of the PBA and the ACBA. She currently serves as Co-Chair for the Support Guidelines Committee of the Family Law Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. In 2018, Ms. Paul was admitted to the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 2019, she was appointed to the Pennsylvania state legislature's Joint State Government Commission Advisory Committee on the Pennsylvania Divorce Code. Since 2019, Ms. Paul has been named to the Top 50 Super Lawyers in Pittsburgh and the Top 100 Female Lawyers in Pennsylvania.

Job Titles:

• Member of the LHHP TEAM
• Partner

Mr. Huber graduated with honors from the Duquesne University School of Law in 1998. He served as a Research Editor for the Duquesne Law Review. Mr. Huber is a partner in the Pittsburgh law firm of Lieber Hammer Huber and Paul, P.C., handling civil litigation matters, focusing on employment discrimination (Title VII, ADEA, ADA) and other employment areas (FLSA, ERISA, employment agreements, covenants not to compete). Mr. Huber primarily represents individual plaintiffs and small companies. He also provides counseling to corporations in employment law compliance. Mr. Huber conducts all aspects of litigation including drafting pleadings, all discovery matters, motions practice, settlement negotiations, and trial representation.