Michael Trimmer
Attorney
Primary Practice areas:
- Commercial and Business Litigation
- Appellate Litigation
- State and Federal Administrative Law
- Government Relations
- Election Law
- Creditor's Rights
- Lender Liability
- Education Law
- Consumer Protection
- Debt Settlement Litigation
- Bankruptcy
Additional practice areas:
- State and Federal Criminal Law
- Public Utility and Energy Law
- Oil and Gas Law
- Real Estate
- Gaming Law
- International Law
- Entertainment Law
- Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation
Bar Admissions:
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, November 1999
- United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, March 2007
- United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, June 2007
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, June 2009
Mr. Trimmer received his degree in Government from Franklin and Marshall College and his Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law where he attended at no cost as a Widener Scholar. At Widener, Mr. Trimmer served as a managing editor on the administrative board of the law review and published two law review articles in the area of administrative law, and co-chaired a symposium on reforming Pennsylvania's administrative law statutes. He was also privileged to serve as a research assistant to John Gedid, former Dean and distinguished Director of Widener's Law and Government Institute, to provide research support for his duties as ABA Chair of its project: Jurisdiction in Cyberspace. While in law school, Mr. Trimmer obtained large law firm experience as a mid-term clerk at the Harrisburg, PA office of Wolf, Block, Schorr, & Solis-Cohen.
After law school, Mr. Trimmer was appointed by Chief Justice John P. Flaherty to serve the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at the State Capitol Building as staff counsel in the Office of the Prothonotary and later, in the Chambers of Chief Justice Cappy as a judicial law clerk. There, his responsibilities included making recommendations on cases comprised predominantly of actions by and against Pennsylvania state agencies, but ranged from procurement matters, complex insurance litigation, and multi-million dollar legislative initiatives to capital murder cases. He was also privileged to work on election law cases that targeted reforms which shaped the current political scheme of both our state and federal government. During his tenure with the Court, he was asked to publish Brief Writing Guidelines for Practitioners on the Court's web site, assisted in drafting amendments to the Pennsylvania Rules of Court, and he collaborated in the authoring of the Court's pro se litigation manual.
Thereafter, Mr. Trimmer served as in-house counsel and manager of civil and appellate litigation for American Education Services and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a quasi-governmental financial services agency. At AES/PHEAA, Mr. Trimmer focused his practice on creditor's rights, commercial, business, and appellate litigation as lead counsel, federal and state banking law and compliance, and the hiring, management, and supervision of the work product of more than 100 local counsel and administrative staff to prosecute and defend civil claims by and against the agency throughout the country; state and federal procurement, contract drafting and review and advising executive management on matters of administrative policy. Mr. Trimmer has handled many complex creditor litigation cases. More recently, Mr. Trimmer assisted in drafting student loan servicing contracts with large commercial banks, colleges and universities, and multiple federal agencies and assisted in developing and implementing policy to institute and support a national servicing contract for the FedDirect student loan program.
Stone, Duncan is pleased to have Mr. Trimmer join the firm as Counsel and looks forward to having him manage the firm's Harrisburg operations.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:
- James S. Bowman American Inn of Court, Harrisburg, PA (Associate 2000-2002; Barrister 2007-present; Pupillage group Barrister leader 2008-9; Program Committee 2008-9)
- Dauphin County Bar Association (1999-2001, 2009-present)
- Pennsylvania Bar Association (1999-2000, 2009-present)
- American Bar Association (1999-2000)
- Mr. Trimmer has also served a homeowners association as its President for the past ten consecutive years.
PUBLICATIONS:
In addition to being a frequent collaborator and presenter of Continuing Legal Education courses in the area of Administrative Law, Mr. Trimmer has published the following works:
- Huhta v. State Board of Medicine: The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Holds that Judicial Immunity Is Not Applicable in Administrative Disciplinary Proceedings Before the State Board of Medicine 8 Widener J. Pub. L. 843 (1999)
- Bible v. Department Of Labor And Industry: The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania Upholds Retroactive Provision In Workers' Compensation Act Allowing For Hearing Loss Claims 7 Widener J. Pub. L. 825 (1998)
- Checklist of Rule Requirements for Filing an Appellate Brief currently available at: http://www.aopc.org/NR/rdonlyres/9EA937F4-3B4E-4FBE-8603-15BB0CF5BD69/0/062309_BriefGuide.pdf