Sharon's litigation and trial practice focuses on the defense of private and public entities in a wide array of professional liability and employment law matters, education law matters, medical liability, complex general liability, and class action matters brought in federal and state courts, state agencies, labor boards, and educational agencies.
She handles alleged wrongful termination actions that include 1983 and First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment claims in federal suits filed in the Middle and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania. Sharon defends a wide variety of matters including those brought under the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law and related claims brought in state law actions filed in county courts. Sharon has also defended individual, collective, and class actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law, as well as the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law, and related claims.
Sharon's agency practice involves actions brought to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, and special education matters brought in the Pennsylvania Special Education Office for Dispute Resolution.
The employment matters that Sharon handles, typically involve claims brought in alleged unlawful discrimination and retaliation matters involving Title VII actions, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and other similar federal statutes. Sharon also defends school districts in due process matters brought under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and related federal and state statutes where a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is typically disputed or related educational services are challenged relating to both gifted and disabled students.
Sharon's practice also involves the defense of matters brought to arbitration under the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act and further provides defense litigation support to public entity solicitors as requested in matters ranging from education issues to employment matters.
Sharon's professional liability practice involves the defense of realtors, insurance agents and brokers, residential and commercial real estate appraisers, and other licensed professionals, including health care professionals, brought in negligence actions in federal and/or state court, and licensing matters brought before the Bureau of Occupational and Professional Affairs. In addition, she has experience in handling construction litigation matters.
Sharon provides defense litigation services to all of her clients who range from self-insured corporations to private and public entities insured under errors & omissions, directors & officers, professional liability and employment liability practices insurance policies.
In 1990 Sharon graduated from Kings' College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and achieved a juris doctor from Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in May 1996. Sharon joined Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in August 1996. She was elected shareholder in 2004.
Sharon has published several articles, some of which have appeared in Pittsburgh Legal Journal and the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly. She also speaks to various organizations on employment, education, and professional liability litigation issues.
Honors & awards
Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Star
2005
Harrisburg Style Magazine, December, 2015, Select Lawyers, (peer rated) in Education and Employment Discrimination Law
Results
Successful Defense of OSHA Whistleblower Investigation
Employment Law
April 21, 2016
Successfully defended a whistleblower investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration against our client, an environmental cleaning contractor. The contractor was alleged to have violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act when one of its drivers logged more than 10 hours on the road and then returned to work several hours later for another shift that required him to acquire, transport and dispose of a brine solution.
Blogging Teacher Loses Appeal Over Firing
School Leaders Liability
January 22, 2016
Marshall Dennehey won a Third Circuit victory over a former teacher who appealed a summary judgment ruling in favor of the teacher's Pennsylvania school district. The teacher was fired for performance reasons but claimed she was fired in violation of the First Amendment's protection over free speech when she unwittingly allowed crude and profane comments she blogged about her students and colleagues to leak into the public realm. The Third Circuit affirmed the trial court's ruling that her speech wasn't protected, leaving no genuine issue of fact for deliberation b
Claims Against School Board Member Dismissed
School Leaders Liability
June 8, 2015
Won a dismissal of a school board member on a 12(b)(6) motion. The board member was sued for defamatory comments made during a public school board meeting about a teacher who was terminated from her employment with the district.
School District Prevails in Blogging Teacher Case
School Leaders Liability
February 16, 2015
Obtained summary judgment in favor of a Pennsylvania school district and its administrators who terminated a high school teacher for blogging derogatory comments about her students. The plaintiff argued that her blog entries were free speech protected by the First Amendment and that her termination was unlawful retaliation for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech. The defense argued that her speech was disruptive, which was not protected by the First Amendment. The judge agreed.
Thought Leadership
Sharon ODonnell (Harrisburg) was on the faculty at the Pennsylvania Special Education Law seminar
January 12, 2012
Sharon O'Donnell (Harrisburg) was on the faculty at the Pennsylvania Special Education Law seminar hosted by NBI (the National Business Institute).
Legal Updates for Employment Law
Harrisburg
Employment Law
November 8, 2018
WHAT COULD ALSO MEANS ALSO MEAN? In Mount Lemmon Fire District v. The material in this law alert has been prepared for our readers by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.
U.S. Supreme Court Pulls the Plug on DOMA and Opens the Floodgates to Litigation
Harrisburg
Public Entity and Civil Rights Litigation
September 1, 2013
by Sharon M. O'Donnell, Esq. *Key Points: Defense Digest, Vol. 19, No. 3, September 2013
Classes/Seminars Taught
Education Law and related statutory and legal updates to various school districts, insurance companies and professional associations, 2005-2015
Employment Law and related statutory and legal updates to various school districts, insurance companies and professional associations, 2005-2015
Pennsylvania Special Education Law Seminar, National Business Institute, December 2, 2011
Lawfully Managing Student Records Without Violating Privacy Rights, National Business Institute, June 6, 2013
Hot Topics in Employment Law , Cumberland County Society for Human Resource Managers, 2002