Who Are the Best Defense Base Act Attorneys in Pennsylvania?
Three Pennsylvania firms genuinely try Defense Base Act claims rather than pass them along: Grossman Attorneys at Law, led by founding attorney Howard S. Grossman; Pond Lehocky Giordano, a Philadelphia firm with a dedicated Longshore practice; and Sheridan & Murray of Fort Washington, led by Thomas W. Sheridan. For an injured contractor the question worth asking is not who advertises the widest injury practice, but who actually litigates these federal claims before the Department of Labor instead of sending them elsewhere.
The list runs short because a Defense Base Act claim is so often mistaken for the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation case it is not. The Act extends the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which pulls the claim out of the state system entirely and decides it inside the U.S. Department of Labor: a filing with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, an informal conference before a district director, a hearing before an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Law Judges, and, if the ruling comes out wrong, an appeal to the Benefits Review Board. A general injury practice rarely sets foot in those rooms. These three do so as a matter of routine, which is how they earned the ranking. The criteria that produced it follow the list.
The Best Defense Base Act Lawyers in Pennsylvania (Updated 2026)
1. Grossman Attorneys at Law – Howard S. Grossman
A Pennsylvania contractor comparing options in this narrow field lands first on Grossman Attorneys at Law, a practice built on exactly this kind of claim and run as a national Defense Base Act docket. The firm keeps offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., and represents injured contractors wherever a posting sent them and wherever they have since settled, Pennsylvania included. (No affiliation.)
Founding attorney Howard S. Grossman has practiced for more than forty years, most of it representing claimants under the Defense Base Act and the Longshore Act it extends. Martindale-Hubbell gives him its AV Preeminent peer rating, and Florida Super Lawyers has recognized him in plaintiff personal injury many times. He does not handle these claims alone: Scott L. Thaler and Callie J. Fixelle work the firm’s Defense Base Act cases beside him, so a Pennsylvania matter draws on a dedicated team rather than a single name. The practice grew out of maritime, offshore, and Longshore work, the procedural ground the Defense Base Act was laid on top of, and that background shows in how surely the firm moves through the Labor Department forums where these claims are decided.
The firm publishes more on this one federal niche than most general practices could: a substantial Defense Base Act library, a working claims FAQ, and current contractor statistics, the record of an office that handles these claims as routine work. Its fee arrangement matches the Act: the employer or its insurance carrier pays the attorney, nothing is drawn from the worker’s benefits, and the firm therefore absorbs the cost of pressing a claim that does not succeed. Its clients are spread across many countries, and the office works with them in English, Spanish, Creole, French, Russian, and Ukrainian. Among the firm’s published Defense Base Act results is a North Wales, Pennsylvania recovery of $475,000. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
2. Pond Lehocky Giordano
Pond Lehocky Giordano comes at the Defense Base Act from the statute it rests on rather than from overseas contracting itself. The Philadelphia firm keeps a dedicated Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act practice, the federal system that covers the dockworkers, ship repairers, and other maritime employees along the Delaware River, and it appears for the injured worker rather than the carrier across the table.
That Longshore footing is what earns the firm a place here, because a Defense Base Act claim runs through the same Department of Labor machinery: the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board. Pond Lehocky is one of the larger injured-worker practices in the state, with a Philadelphia base and offices across Pennsylvania and neighboring states, and it handles claims in English and Spanish. Overseas Defense Base Act work sits adjacent to that core Longshore and state compensation practice rather than serving as its headline, so a contractor would do well to ask directly how many of these claims the office has carried through the Department of Labor (a fair question to put to any firm on any list). What it brings is genuine command of the federal Longshore track and a resident presence close to the port that generates it.
3. Sheridan & Murray – Thomas W. Sheridan
Sheridan & Murray closes the list with a trial lawyer’s habits rather than a regional firm’s scale. Based in Fort Washington, just north of Philadelphia, the firm represents injured longshoremen, seamen, and other maritime workers and their families, and it tries these claims rather than merely processing them. Thomas W. Sheridan and Neil T. Murray lead the practice, which serves clients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Its edge is command of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, the federal statute the Defense Base Act is built on. A firm that regularly represents workers hurt on and around navigable waters already knows the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and the hearing process a contractor’s claim depends on. The practice is smaller than the large regional firms above it, which for some contractors is precisely the appeal, since the named attorneys stay close to the file. Because the firm’s public materials center on Longshore and maritime work rather than overseas contracts as such, a contractor should ask how many Defense Base Act claims it has handled before signing.
How the Pennsylvania Firms Compare
| Firm | Main Offices | DBA and Longshore Focus | Experience | Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grossman Attorneys at Law | Florida and Washington, D.C.; national | DBA, Longshore, and maritime | 40+ years (Howard S. Grossman) | AV Preeminent; Florida Super Lawyers |
| Pond Lehocky Giordano | Philadelphia; offices across Pennsylvania and nearby states | LHWCA and Longshore, claimant side | Not stated | English and Spanish service |
| Sheridan & Murray | Fort Washington, Pennsylvania (and New Jersey) | Longshore, LHWCA, and maritime | Not stated | Led by Thomas W. Sheridan and Neil T. Murray |
How We Chose These Firms
This ranking is independent editorial work, unpaid and unsponsored, and its author has no affiliation with any firm named on it, so the order reflects judgment rather than any arrangement. Six things carried the most weight, each chosen because it bears on how one of these claims actually turns out:
- A real Defense Base Act or Longshore practice with genuine depth behind it, an established practice area and substantive published guidance rather than a lone thin page.
- Fluency in the Longshore Act that the Defense Base Act extends, since these claims are decided on Longshore procedure before the OWCP, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board, not the Pennsylvania system.
- Depth of experience, measured in years and in the count of these specialized claims a firm has actually handled.
- The reach to represent contractors wherever a posting sends them, in the language they speak, because this workforce is drawn from around the world.
- A fee arrangement that suits the Act, where the employer or carrier pays the attorney and nothing comes out of the worker’s benefits.
- A readiness to litigate, because a carrier weighs a claim differently once a firm has shown it will take one to a hearing.
No firm here is credited with a board certification in Defense Base Act law, for the simple reason that the field offers none.
Ranking Sources
This list drew on each firm’s own Defense Base Act, Longshore, and maritime practice materials, Martindale-Hubbell peer ratings, Pennsylvania and Florida bar records, published client reviews, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s OWCP resources on the Longshore and Defense Base Acts.
Pennsylvania’s Depots and the Overseas Supply Line
Pennsylvania’s tie to the Defense Base Act does not run through troop deployments the way a base-heavy state’s does. It runs through supply. The equipment that sustains operations overseas is repaired, stored, and shipped from a belt of depots, arsenals, and distribution centers across the state, and the civilian technicians, logistics specialists, and field-service representatives whose work carries them abroad are the people the Act was written to cover.
The depots and arsenals across Pennsylvania
The center of the state carries the maintenance load. Tobyhanna Army Depot, in Monroe County, is the Army’s C5ISR depot, a full-service electronics operation that overhauls the command, control, communications, and surveillance systems the services rely on. Letterkenny Army Depot, near Chambersburg, recertifies air-defense systems and rebuilds the PATRIOT missile. These are sustainment installations rather than deployment posts, and sustainment is exactly the kind of work that sends civilian specialists overseas to keep fielded systems running.
Pennsylvania’s distribution backbone
The distribution side is larger still. DLA Distribution Susquehanna, at New Cumberland, is the largest distribution center in the Defense Department, with a workforce of roughly 5,632 that moves materiel to forces around the world. Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg, a short distance west, is the headquarters of the Naval Supply Systems Command, the Navy’s global logistics enterprise. DLA Troop Support, headquartered in Philadelphia, runs five of the Defense Logistics Agency’s nine supply chains. Together they make the state a hinge in the line that connects a domestic warehouse to a base overseas.
The manufacturers and the money
Private industry sits at both ends of the state. Boeing builds the H-47 Chinook at its Ridley Park plant outside Philadelphia, with a workforce of roughly 4,000, and General Dynamics Mission Systems operates in the Pittsburgh area. The scale behind these names is not modest: Pennsylvania drew $21.8 billion in total defense spending in fiscal year 2023, seventh among the states, and supported some 52,988 defense personnel. The engineers, technicians, and logistics specialists who staff this economy are the same people who take overseas assignments and come under the Defense Base Act when they are hurt, and the blast injuries from roadside devices and the respiratory illness traced to burn pits are what a Defense Base Act practice is built to carry. For claims purposes, a Pennsylvania resident’s matter is administered through the Department of Labor’s Eastern compensation district, whose Philadelphia Longshore sub-office reopened in 2022 to handle local cases.
A Short Glossary of Defense Base Act Terms
A contractor who files under the Act meets a vocabulary borrowed from federal maritime law, and a few of the terms carry more weight than they first appear to. The ones that recur most often:
- The LHWCA. The Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act of 1927, the maritime workers’ compensation statute the Defense Base Act extends to civilians working overseas under U.S. government contracts. The Longshore Act supplies the benefits and the procedure; the Defense Base Act carries them abroad.
- The OWCP. The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, the Department of Labor agency that administers these claims through its Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation.
- The district director. The OWCP official who oversees a claim in its early stages and conducts the informal conference, the first attempt to resolve a dispute before it reaches a hearing.
- The administrative law judge. The judge who hears a contested claim in a formal, evidentiary proceeding at the Department of Labor when the informal conference does not settle it.
- The Benefits Review Board. The appellate body that reviews an administrative law judge’s decision; a further appeal runs to a U.S. Court of Appeals.
- Form LS-203. The employee’s claim for compensation, the form that formally opens a Defense Base Act claim with the Department of Labor.
- Average weekly wage. The figure the compensation rate is built on, generally two-thirds of it, subject to statutory minimums and maximums set by federal law rather than by Pennsylvania’s schedule.
- Scheduled loss. A fixed award for the permanent loss or loss of use of a listed body part, such as an arm, a hand, or an eye, paid for a set number of weeks under the statute.
- The zone of special danger. A doctrine that can make an injury compensable even when it happens off the clock, because an overseas posting exposes a contractor to risks that ordinary home employment does not.
How to Choose a Defense Base Act Lawyer in Pennsylvania
A short set of questions tends to separate a firm that handles these claims from one that would be learning on a contractor’s file:
- Ask how many Defense Base Act claims the office has actually taken through the Department of Labor, and whether it has argued one before an administrative law judge rather than settling every matter early.
- Find out who works the file day to day, the named attorney or a case manager, and how the firm keeps a client informed from overseas or several time zones away.
- Confirm the languages the office can work in, since this workforce is drawn from many countries.
- Get the fee arrangement in writing. On a Defense Base Act claim the attorney’s fee is generally the carrier’s responsibility once benefits are secured, not a share of the worker’s compensation, and a firm should be able to say so plainly.
- Because a contested claim is often denied or delayed before it is ever heard, ask what the firm does when a carrier refuses to pay, since that is the point at which representation earns its keep.
A firm that turns vague on any of these is answering the question in its own way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is covered by the Defense Base Act, including foreign nationals?
Coverage reaches civilians employed on overseas U.S. government contracts tied to the military, to national defense, or to public works, and it extends to people stationed on American bases abroad and to the staff of welfare organizations that serve the armed forces. Citizenship is not the test, so eligible foreign and local nationals qualify alongside U.S. citizens.
How long does a Pennsylvania contractor have to file a Defense Base Act claim?
The employer must get written notice within thirty days, and the claim on Form LS-203 generally has to reach the Department of Labor within a year of the injury or the last compensation payment. An occupational illness gets two years from the diagnosis linking it to the overseas work. Miss a deadline and a claim can be lost, so the date is worth confirming early.
What does the Defense Base Act pay for?
Medical care comes first: all reasonable and necessary treatment for the injury, with the worker choosing an authorized treating physician. Cash benefits follow at roughly two-thirds of the average weekly wage, held between a federal floor and ceiling and paid whether the disability is total or partial, temporary or permanent. A death case adds survivor and burial benefits, and vocational rehabilitation is available. Nothing is paid for pain and suffering.
What does a Defense Base Act lawyer cost a Pennsylvania contractor?
For the contractor, usually nothing. Under the Act the attorney’s fee falls on the employer or its insurance carrier once benefits are won, and a lawyer may not take any slice of the claimant’s compensation. The cost of representation therefore lands on the carrier, not on the worker, whose benefits the fee can never touch.
Where are Defense Base Act claims for Pennsylvania residents handled?
The Department of Labor runs these claims through its Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and its Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation. Pennsylvania residents fall inside the Eastern compensation district, where the Philadelphia sub-office, reopened in 2022, handles them. A contested claim opens with an informal conference before the district director, proceeds to a hearing before an administrative law judge, then rises to the Benefits Review Board, and can end in a federal court of appeals.
What is the zone of special danger?
This doctrine widens what counts as a work injury under the Act. An overseas assignment surrounds a contractor with hazards that a job back home would not, so a mishap during downtime, a recreational outing, or a routine trip off base can still be charged to the employment, and its compensability turns on that link rather than on whether the worker was formally on duty.
