2024 Justice Michael A. Musmanno Award Recipient: Joseph L. Messa, Born to Fight

By: Francesca A. Iacovangelo, Esq. and Thomas N. Sweeney, Esq.

Published in the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the Verdict September 2024

Joe Messa was born to fight. Just ask his Mom. She says he entered this world with his hands balled in fists up at his chin—like a boxer. Little has changed since then. A lifelong Eagles fan, Joe approaches game days like watching gladiators in Rome. He loves a good fight. Lucky for us, Joe Messa chose the courtroom as his field of battle where he has spent his career fighting for the less fortunate, the injured and the sick. This is why Joe Messa is this year’s Justice Michael A. Musmanno Award winner.

Joe was born and raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia where his parents ran a successful real estate business. They had him working at a young age doing all kinds of odd jobs. He sold Christmas trees on Philadelphia sidewalks during his winter breaks. He earned his real estate license at 18. He started his own painting business in college.

Joe excelled at academics and athletics at Chestnut Hill academy where he graduated second in his class. He was a three-sport athlete—earning varsity letters in football, wrestling and track. Joe left Philadelphia for New Orleans—his second favorite city—and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane with honors.

There was no question that after his years in New Orleans Joe would return to his Philadelphia roots. Joe’s father, Joseph Messa, Sr. always wanted to be a lawyer, eventually completing his law degree in his 50’s. Joe always wanted to be like his hero, so he followed in his father’s huge footsteps by coming home to attend Temple Law School—where he graduated in the top five percent of his class.

Understandably, the top firms in Philadelphia came calling and Joe accepted a position at Duane Morris. Joe’s first year associate salary was more than his father had ever made in a year. When Joe started working at the buttoned up, old school law firm, Joe knew he didn’t quite fit in. At Duane Morris, he had to wear his jacket at all times. This was not an easy transition for someone who had always been a sort of troublemaker growing up. He questioned the status quo. He defiantly asked a lot of questions about how things were done at the white shoe firm. This led to many arguments—and a few broken rules. Still, Joe remained unapologetically himself. He prided himself on being the hardest worker, but he did not lose his Germantown nature. When he passed the bar, he was a little “too” himself at the firm happy hour at the Irish Pub. The next day Joe was lectured on “The Duane Morris Way”. Joe learned quickly that the “Duane Morris Way” was not for him. He found little reward in defending negligent doctors and corporations. It was not long before Joe started getting a lot of calls from his large Italian family (he has 43 first cousins) and countless friends in need of an attorney. Duane Morris had little interest in representing Joe’s considerable client base. That is when Joe decided that he wanted to represent the people who needed him the most instead. Joe left Duane Morris to work for the personal injury firm of Ominsky, Welsh and Rosenthal. After ten years of cutting his teeth and building a client base, he started Messa & Associates with three dedicated staff members who are still with him today, and one other attorney.

Messa and Associates has grown to become one of the top law firms in Philadelphia. The lawyers who fill the building at 22nd and Sansom Street have taken on the identity of their leader. They
outwork their opponents, fight for their clients, and always do the right thing, even if it means going the extra mile or taking a tough position. There is hardly a day when you can walk into City
Hall and not see a Messa lawyer trying a case in one of the courtrooms. They are unapologetically themselves—unafraid of the good fight—just like Joe.

Joe Messa’s fighting spirit has benefited not just his own clients, but Pennsylvanians as a whole. His commitment to the pursuit of justice has resulted in some of the most significant legal
opinions that affect the rights of our clients. In just the last three years alone, Joe has been responsible for these landmark cases: Spencer v. Johnson (the Fair Share Act is inapplicable
where plaintiff is not contributorily negligent); Mertis v. Wilkes-Bare General Hospital (defense lawyers are prohibited from accepting dual representation of a party doctor and a treating
physician to acquire ex parte plaintiff’s medical information), and Chilutti v. Uber (reaffirming the right to a jury trial under Pennsylvania Constitution in online forced arbitration agreements).
Joe is also responsible for 13 other significant reported opinions that have resulted in favorable law for the victims of hospital negligence and defective products.

Joe’s firm does not often make any money from these appellate cases. Yet, Joe fights them anyway because he says, “It’s the right thing to do.” Joe also hates cheaters. In the Mertis case,
when the defense law firm tried to circumvent the Pennsylvania Rules in a medical malpractice case by simultaneously representing the target defendant doctor and his client’s treating
physician to get an unfair advantage, Joe was not having it. Joe took the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed with him unanimously.

Joe acknowledges these appellate victories and their significance. But it is the cases where the clients have suffered the biggest loss that fuels his fire. He has represented numerous families
who lost children in escapable fires due to defective smoke alarms. “The clients become part of your family. We are making a real difference in their lives,” he said. Joe can also push the envelope. He famously moved a modular home involved in a fatal fire from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania to a vacant family lot in Germantown. He had the modular home split in two, wrapped the two halves in plastic and had two trucks transport the home hundreds of miles down the Pennsylvania Turnpike to defeat the defense’s forum non conveniens and jury view arguments. The Superior Court affirmed the decision, Joe kept the case in Philadelphia, and most importantly, his clients ended up with a significant settlement on the eve of trial.

Joe Messa has also been responsible for significant verdicts including a $50 million bellwether verdict against 3M in Pensacola, Florida. This verdict along with others ultimately resulted in a
$6 billion settlement for thousands of military veterans. Most of these injured veterans will not know Joe’s name, but they and their families benefited from Joe being on their side.

As if building a successful plaintiff’s firm was not enough, Joe has dedicated countless hours to Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He became a Board Member in 2006 and was elected President in 2015. Since then, Joe has served as Trustee of PTLA’s PAC—the Committee for a Better Tomorrow. He has spent countless hours working with legislators to ensure that the law protects citizens’ access to the courts and justice. Most importantly, Joe has helped elect pro civil justice candidates for our state’s highest courts. When three vacancies opened on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015, many in PTLA would have been happy to get one pro civil justice candidate elected to the bench. Not Joe. He insisted on winning all three seats. He, along with PAJ and the Northeast Trial Lawyers, helped raise more than $4 million dollars for those races. As a result, pro civil justice candidates won all three seats. One CBT member said, “There is not a successful statewide judicial race that Joe hasn’t helped orchestrate.” According to Joe, “There’s still plenty of work to do to create positive legislation that protects our clients.”

Translation: he will never stop fighting.