Ryan D. Gleason
Ryan D. Gleason
Biography
Ryan D. Gleason is a Member in Burns White’s Litigation Practice Group located in the Pittsburgh office. Mr. Gleason focuses his practice in the areas of employment and complex and commercial litigation.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gleason served as a Judicial Law Clerk to The Honorable Dan Pellegrini, Senior Judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. While working for the Superior Court, Mr. Gleason assisted in the drafting of over 160 decisions, including several published precedential opinions.
He also serves as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve with a rank of Captain. He is currently Intelligence and Operations Law Officer for the 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. He was previously a Legal Assistance Attorney for the 153rd Legal Operations Detachments, and served on active duty as a Trial Counsel for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. He is a graduate of the Judge Advocate Officer Basic and Advanced Courses held at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Direct Commission Course held at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), Georgia.
Mr. Gleason served as the Chief Public Defender of Cambria County from 2012 to 2016. As Chief Public Defender, he oversaw an office of ten attorneys responsible for representing all persons unable to obtain legal counsel in any criminal action where representation is constitutionally guaranteed. He also served as one of the Office’s principal trial attorneys, appearing in court on a near-daily basis and trying over 25 cases to verdict. Mr. Gleason also served as a Law Clerk for Justice (later Chief Justice) Thomas G. Saylor of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Mr. Gleason received his Master of Laws, with distinction, in Advocacy from Stetson University College of Law. He received his Juris Doctor from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. While at Villanova, he served as legal intern for the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office and the Honorable Stephen J. McEwen, Jr., Senior Judge for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Mr. Gleason received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Susquehanna University. While at Susquehanna, he was awarded the Gene R. Urey memorial scholarship for excellence in constitutional law and the Blair L. Heaton Award for outstanding male student-athlete. He was an NCAA Division III All-American in Cross Country and later inducted into Susquehanna’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Mr. Gleason is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Credentials
Areas of Law
- Employment
- Complex and Commercial Litigation
- Litigation
Education
- Stetson University College of Law (LL.M., with distinction, 2019)
- Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. (J.D., 2007)
- Susquehanna University (B.A., magna cum laude, 2004)
Bar and Court Admissions
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of the United States
- United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Memberships
- Allegheny County Bar Association
- Secured the reversal of a nearly $100,000 property tax assessment that was imposed on a hospital after it had purchased and took over operations of a 57-acre park in Indiana County. In May 2024, the hospital purchased the park from a non-profit foundation for nearly $4 million. Since the time of its establishment, the park was exempt from the assessment of real property taxes. In August 2024, however, the county’s assessment office notified the hospital that the park would lose its tax-exempt status starting in 2025. Based on the value of the property, the change in assessment would result in an annual tax liability of nearly $100,000 for the hospital. After receiving notice of the assessment change, Burns White attorneys filed an appeal and application for exemption from taxation with the County’s Board of Assessment Appeals, arguing that the park was exempt from taxation under the Pennsylvania’s Constitution, the Purely Public Charity Act, and the Consolidated County Assessment Law. Before a hearing could be held on the hospital’s complaint, however, the County’s Assessment Office changed course and reversed its prior determination, thus agreeing that the park was exempt from real property taxes under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Purely Public Charity Act, and Consolidated County Assessment Law.
