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Sara Anderson Frey

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Sara Anderson Frey is a Partner in the firm’s Philadelphia office and a member of the firm’s Appellate, Aviation, Commercial Litigation, Employment, and Tort and Product Liability groups. Sara represents a wide variety of corporations and insurance companies in all types of litigation matters in both federal and state courts. Her experience includes handling matters in the areas of aviation, employment discrimination, mass tort litigation, premises liability, product liability, and general commercial litigation.

Sara has represented manufacturers and suppliers in product liability litigation across the country.  From 2014 through 2019, she has served as an integral member of the national trial team representing a supplier of raw materials in mass tort litigation pending in multiple state and federal courts throughout the country. In that role, she has had substantial experience developing case strategy, building the company story, engaging in dispositive motion practice, and ensuring the record is preserved during trial for appeal. She has been particularly involved in the discovery aspect of that matter, managing document review and production of hundreds of thousands of documents, making and defending privilege determinations, and taking and defending key plaintiff and company witness depositions.

Her representation of aviation clients has spanned the full scope of the aviation industry, including airlines, aircraft and component part manufacturers, fixed based operators, and municipal airport owners and operators. She has handled wrongful death and survival claims, product liability claims, passenger injury claims, and aviation product recalls, in a number of jurisdictions across the United States.  She is particularly well-versed with respect to legal issues affecting the aviation community, including federal preemption, the General Aviation Revitalization Act, and the Montreal Convention.

Sara also represents a variety of companies in the defense of employment discrimination and wrongful termination cases, in court, as well as before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  She has litigated on behalf of employers in a myriad of cases involving employment agreements, deferred compensation, and severance packages.  She has litigated matters involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA).  She is a frequent presenter for the firm’s National Employment Webinar Series.

In addition, Sara has extensive appellate experience and serves on the Appellate Advocacy Committee and Amicus Curiae Brief Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.  She is admitted in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Districts. She has successfully argued in the Superior, Commonwealth, and Supreme Courts in Pennsylvania, as well as appellate courts in other states. Her appellate appearances include successfully arguing in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a matter of first impression in Carrozza v. Greenbaum, 916 A.2d 553 (Pa. 2007).

Prior to joining GRSM, Ms. Frey was a partner in a national law firm. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Arnold L. New in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.

  • Served as member of national trial team on behalf of raw materials supplier in mass tort litigation involving talcum powder.
  • Obtained dismissal in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on behalf of a raw materials supplier on the basis of lack of personal jurisdiction.
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of an airport authority based on governmental immunity and the hills and ridges doctrine in a premises liability matter.  Dismissal was affirmed by the Commonwealth Court of Appeals.
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a life insurance company in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey involving interpretation of the policy’s suicide exclusions
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a major healthcare insurer in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in an ERISA matter.
  • Defense arbitration award on behalf of a major airline carrier in a personal injury action.
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a major airline carrier in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in a premises liability matter.
  • Defense jury verdict in the  United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of a fixed base operator, arising out of the crash of a single engine airplane. 
  • Defense jury verdict in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on behalf of a national ear piercing retailer 

  • Telecommuting Traps: Hidden Risks and How to Handle Them, GRSM National Employment Webinar Series (November 2018)
  • Whistleblower and Associational Discrimination, GRSM Employment Webinar Series (June 2017)
  • Employment War Stories: Avoiding Costly Mistakes, GRSM National Employment Webinar Series (December 2016)
  • The Art of the Deposition, Pennsylvania Bar Institute (November 2016)
  • Sexual Harassment Awareness Training, National Monitor Webinar Series (March 2016)
  • Telecommuting Traps: Hidden Risks and How to Handle Them, GRSM National Employment Webinar Series (October 2015)
  • The Art of the Deposition, Pennsylvania Bar Institute (June 2015)

Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern and Middle Districts
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth and Ninth Circuits

Memberships

  • Philadelphia Bar Association
  • Pennsylvania Bar Association, Advocacy Committee and Amicus Curiae Brief Committee
  • American Bar Association
  • Bar Association of the Third Circuit

Education

J.D., cum laude, The Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University, 1998

  • Dickinson Law Review, member

B.A., cum laude, Messiah College, 1995

Internships

  • Honorable Arnold L. New in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County

Honors

  • Super Lawyers® Rising Stars distinction in Aviation & Aerospace, Appellate, and General Litigation (2012-2013)
  • Top Lateral Hires of 2013, The Legal Intelligencer
  • Best Lawyers in America® distinction in Insurance Law (2024-2025)

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