Stephen J. Nolan
Steve Nolan is an accomplished trial lawyer, who concentrates his practice primarily in the areas of business litigation, catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death actions, and trusts and estates litigation in State and Federal Courts. In November 2018, he became Of counsel to SGS. For over 30 years, he has been recognized by The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers with its highest peer review AV® Preeminent™ rating.
Throughout his career, Steve has represented clients in a wide variety of complex litigation, class actions, and other cases. He served as Maryland counsel for the NFL Players Association, special counsel for CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield in a pharmaceutical class action, and lead counsel for Anne Arundel and Baltimore County Public Schools and Governments in the asbestos property damage litigation. Following a trial in Montgomery County and the defendant’s appeal, he collected over $9.8 million from one asbestos manufacturer for the family of a young wife and mother who died from mesothelioma.
Steve has also been designated as an expert witness relating to the standard of care applicable to attorneys and testified concerning the reasonableness of attorney’s fees.
Villanova University, B.A. cum laude(1973)
University of Maryland School of Law, J.D. (1976)
Court of Appeals of Maryland (1977)
District of Columbia Court of Appeals (1979)
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (1977)
U.S. Supreme Court (1981)
In addition to his current membership in the American Bar Association and the Maryland Association for Justice, Steve is a past president of the Baltimore County Bar Association and served three terms on the Maryland State Bar Association’s Board of Governors. He chaired the Association’s Litigation Section and the Section on Delivery of Legal Services. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Association’s Audit Committee.
Steve also was appointed as a member of the Court of Appeals of Maryland’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Service and Trustee of the Bar Associations’ Insurance Trust. He is a Fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation and was the first elected President of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, Inc.
Steve has received numerous awards for his legal and pro bono work, including the Maryland Bar Foundation’s Award for Legal Excellence for the Advancement of Public Service Responsibility; its Award for Legal Excellence for the Advancement of Rights of the Disadvantaged; the Leadership in Law Award from The Daily Record; and the Benjamin L. Cardin Pro Bono Service Award from the University of Maryland School of Law. In February 2022, Steve was awarded the Baltimore County Bar Association’s J. Earle Plumhoff Professionalism Award, presented annually to an Association member in recognition of the member’s integrity, civility and contributions to the legal profession.
Steve has served as a Faculty member for Trial Advocacy training programs for the ABA/National Institute of Trial Advocacy, the Maryland Institute for the Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers (MICPEL), and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. For 11 years, Steve was a Faculty member for the Maryland Court of Appeals-approved Professional Course for new admittees. He has presented seminars for the National Association of Attorneys General and the National Business Institute.
His publications include Referred Pain: Is the Tort System To Blame For Medical Malpractice Claims?, The Maryland Bar Journal, XXXVII, Number 4 (2004); Pro Bono Service: Opportunity For Personal And Professional Growth, The Maryland Bar Journal, XXXIV, Number 4 (2001).
After serving as a Board member at the state and national levels, Steve was elected National Board Chair of the American Lung Association, Inc., the oldest voluntary health agency in the United States. He later chaired the ALA’s Audit Committee.
At its annual meeting in Chicago in 2019, the American Lung Association awarded Steve its Will Ross Medal – the highest award given each year by the ALA to a volunteer who has made a significant contribution to the prevention and control of lung disease.
Steve was appointed by two Maryland Governors to serve as a Trustee of the Community College of Baltimore County and chaired the Board of Trustees between 2016 and 2019.
Steve has also served as a member of the Baltimore County Government’s Ethics Commission and was President of the Greater Towson Committee.
Pineau, et al. v. Geppi, Four day Jury trial before the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Souder, J.) Case No.: 03-C-16-002086, held August 22-25, 2017. Steve was counsel for Plaintiff Richard Pineau in a breach of contract case, arising from a $13 million plus business venture with Stephen Geppi, who was represented by DLA Piper LLP. Mr. Geppi filed a counterclaim against Mr. Pineau. After a 4 day jury trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Steve’s client for damages in excess of $1.3 million. Mr. Geppi appealed the judgment and the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, remanded the case for further proceedings. A second trial was conducted in December 2020 and judgment was entered for Steve’s client for over $1.5 million. Mr. Geppi appealed the judgment a second time and the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment on July 20, 2021.
Nardone, et al. v. DeAngelis, et al. Steve represented Plaintiff-Caveators/Family members in Will contest transmitted to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Hanley, J.) Case No.: C-03-CV-19-002295, upon issues from the Orphans’ Court for Baltimore County. Family members of reclusive uncle, with a history of hallucinations and paranoid thinking, sought to set aside a Will procured by Defendant accountant so as to benefit himself and his sister with $1 million bequest to the detriment of uncle’s intended legatee, namely, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After a four day trial in September 2020, the Court’s Certified Findings of Fact held that the Will favoring accountant was the product of undue influence and uncle’s late-onset schizophrenia. The successful outcome resulted in the probate of uncle’s prior Will that left nearly the entire $1.7 million estate to St. Jude’s.
Balsamo v. Zorzit, et al. judgment entered on May 19, 2017, by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County (Finifter, J.), Case no. 03-C-12-007741. Steve was lead counsel for Plaintiff in dispute between members of LLC, involving Plaintiff’s direct and derivative claims. The Honorable Michael J. Finifter presided over a 15-day bench trial and issued his decision, finding in part for the Plaintiff and in part for Defendants. On April 1, 2016, after adopting the testimony of Plaintiff’s expert, Benjamin Rosenberg, that Plaintiff’s derivative action resulted in the recovery or preservation of company assets in excess of $14 million, the Court awarded the Plaintiff a total of over $816,000 as an attorneys’ fees and litigation expense award.
Pransky v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., Case No. 188363, Circuit Court for Montgomery County (Beard, J.) Steve was lead counsel in a two week jury trial of malignant asbestos disease claim for a 34 year-old mother and wife. Following Mr. Nolan’s closing argument, jury deliberated and returned a verdict totaling $9,188,000.00, finding the Plaintiff’s exposure to a product manufactured and distributed by Georgia-Pacific caused her cancer. Georgia-Pacific appealed the judgment to the Court of Special Appeals challenging the trial court’s refusal to apply Maryland’s statutory cap on Mrs. Pransky’s non-economic damages and attacking the sufficiency of Plaintiff’s causation evidence. The Court of Special Appeals held that the loss of consortium claim was capped, but affirmed $7,438,000 of the judgment. Pransky v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., No. 2352, September Term, 1999. Unreported opinion filed July 11, 2001. Georgia-Pacific petitioned the Court of Appeals for a writ of certiorari, which was granted. In its Opinion filed on June 11, 2002, in Georgia-Pacific Corporation v. Lisa J. Pransky, et al., No. 107, September Term, 2001, the Court of Appeals held that the Plaintiffs successfully passed the evidentiary test for bystander asbestos exposure, that the evidence was sufficient to establish the exposure as a substantial factor in the Plaintiff’s contracting asbestos-related cancer, and that the cap did not apply. With interest, the judgment affirmed by the Court resulted in Georgia-Pacific’s payment of $9,838,000. The case is significant not only because Plaintiffs prevailed in establishing that Mrs. Pransky’s mesothelioma originated prior to the effective date of Maryland’s 1986 cap statute, but also because it is the first plaintiff’s verdict to be upheld against Georgia-Pacific arising from its manufacture and sale of asbestos-containing joint compound.