Basil A. DiSipio (Bill) is a shareholder in the Litigation Practice Group in the Philadelphia office of Lavin, Cedrone, Graver, Boyd & DiSipio. For more than 30 years, he has been a litigator and trial lawyer representing corporations, insurers, and non profit and religious organizations in tort and commercial litigation. Mr. DiSipio also serves as the firm’s managing shareholder.

Mr. DiSipio is national product liability liaison counsel for an aerial lift and a wood chipper manufacturer respectively and served as national litigation liaison counsel for an underground locating company servicing the utility industry. His major client representations also include manufacturers of industrial products and respiratory protection devices. He serves as a member of the national settlement negotiation team for a manufacturer involved in national mass tort litigation.

Mr. DiSipio has experience representing manufacturers in instances of catastrophic injuries. Examples include:

Obtained order of summary judgment on behalf of an aerial lift manufacturer in the Southern District of New York on Daubert grounds. Plaintiff was brain-injured when he fell out of an aerial lift due to the failure of a piston-driven cable system.

Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a vegetation management company servicing the utility industry involving a loss of limb. Plaintiff alleged that the vegetation management company failed to identify a dangerous condition in the area of a utility pole.

Obtaining a defense verdict in State Court in New Jersey in favor of a vegetation management company involving the death of a plaintiff after contact with a wood chipper.

Other representations include:

Defending a product manufacturer in the multi-party “Meridian Litigation” involving a fire that destroyed a high-rise office tower in Philadelphia.

Successfully representing a product manufacturer in breast implant litigation in which allegations were dismissed on lack of scientific basis.

Achieving dismissal of a claim of electrocution causing cardiomyeopathy on behalf of a consumer product manufacturer wherein it was decided that that there was no scientific basis to the expert’s conclusions on Frye/Topa grounds.

Mr. DiSipio is an active member of the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia bar associations; Trial Attorneys of America; Defense Research Institute; Pennsylvania Defense Institute; and the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) where in 2005 he served on the faculty of its Trial Academy. In 2018, Mr. DiSipio was the recipient of the Yancey Memorial Award of the IADC in recognition of excellence in academic writing for the IADC Defense Counsel Journal. From 2011 through 2017 Mr. DiSipio served as a Board Member and one term as President of the Foundation of the IADC.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. DiSipio has held leadership roles in many educational institutions:

Trustee of Merion Mercy Academy, Merion Station, PA; Co-chairperson, first capital campaign in school history; member, Institutional Advancement Committee; co-chairperson, Building Committee and the co-chairperson of the primary fundraiser (Sip ‘n Bid Auction)

Former President and member, School Advisory Council (two terms); board member, Youth Athletic Association of St. Denis School , Havertown, PA

Trustee of Malvern Preparatory School, Malvern, PA

Former officer and board member, Villanova Educational Foundation and Villanova University Varsity Athletic Club; former chairperson, Athletic Advisory Committee, Villanova University Senate; former board member, Villanova Alumni Lending Undergraduates Experience of Villanova University.

Former officer of the Millay Club; member, Alumni Association of Southeast Catholic – Bishop Neumann/St. John Neumann High School , Philadelphia, PA

Former Member and Chairperson, Development Council, of The Province of St. Thomas of Villanova – The Augustinians

Former Member, Sponsor Council of Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Mid-Atlantic Community.

Mr. DiSipio is the recipient of the Alumni Medal for Outstanding Service to Villanova University, 1990; Recipient of the Villanova Varsity Athletic Club Hall of Fame Jake Nevin Award, 2015; the Achievement and Alumni Awards respectively from St. John Neumann High School where he was also inducted into the Varsity Athletic Hall of Fame; and co-recipient of the Work of Mercy Award from Mercy Career and Technical High School, 2017.

Mr. DiSipio graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in economics from Villanova University. He earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. Upon graduation, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Michael J. Eagen, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is admitted to the United States District Courts for the Middle, Western and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.