Ryan D. Gleason
Ryan D. Gleason
Biography
Ryan D. Gleason is a Member in the firm’s Litigation Practice Group focusing in the areas of employment, business and complex and commercial litigation. Mr. Gleason represents businesses and individuals in federal and state courts throughout Pennsylvania in a broad range of complex, high-stakes litigation issues, including employment discrimination, breach of contract, wage and hour actions, non-compete agreements, and tort defense litigation. His litigation experience spans all stages of the litigation process, from pleadings and early case assessment through fact and expert discovery, including complex e-discovery matters, and trial. He also regularly advises and counsels companies and businesses on a wide range of internal human resources and employment matters, including workplace policies, employee relations, investigations, disciplinary actions, and compliance issues.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gleason was the Chief Public Defender of Cambria County for over four years. As Chief Public Defender, he oversaw an office of ten attorneys and served as one of the office’s principal trial attorneys, appearing in court on a daily basis and trying over 25 cases to verdict, including as first-chair in over a dozen felony jury trials. Based on his experience, Mr. Gleason was qualified represent defendants in death penalty cases. While Chief Public Defender, Mr. Gleason graduated from the National Criminal Defense College held at Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Georgia.
Mr. Gleason also has substantial experience in appellate law, serving as a law clerk for nearly seven years in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Superior Court. For nearly five years, Mr. Gleason served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Dan Pellegrini, Senior Judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. During that time, Mr. Gleason assisted in the drafting of over 160 decisions, including several published precedential opinions. Mr. Gleason also previously served as a judicial law clerk for two years to Justice (later Chief Justice) Thomas G. Saylor of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Mr. Gleason is also a Judge Advocate in the United States Army Reserve with a rank of Major. He is currently Brigade Judge Advocate for 2nd Brigade, 104th Division (Leader Training) headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, serving as the primary legal advisor to the Brigade Commander, Battalion and Company Commanders, and Primary Staff on military justice, disciplinary actions, and internal investigations for a unit of over 600 Soldiers. His prior military assignments include Intelligence and Operations Law Officer for the 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and Legal Assistance Attorney for the 153rd Legal Operations Detachments. From 2017 to 2018, Mr. Gleason was mobilized on active duty as a military prosecutor for the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he prosecuted and tried several courts-martial. His military education includes the Intermediate-Level Education (ILE) Common Core Course through the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Judge Advocate Officer Basic and Advanced Courses held at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Mr. Gleason 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., Superior Court of Pennsylvania. He received his Master of Laws, with distinction, in Advocacy from Stetson University College of Law. Mr. Gleason graduated, magna cum laude, from Susquehanna University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. At Susquehanna, he was awarded the Gene M. Urey memorial scholarship for excellence in constitutional law and continues to serve as a student-mentor for the scholarship’s competition. Mr. Gleason was also a four-year member of the Cross Country and Track teams and named outstanding male senior student-athlete after earning NCAA All-American honors in Cross County.
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
- Commercial Litigation
- General Liability
- Automotive and Motor Carrier Liability
- Employment Liability Practices
- Business Practices
- Complex and Commercial Litigation
- General Litigation
- E-discovery
- Appellate Law
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
- Defense Research Institute
- Federalist Society
- Panelist, Ask an Employment Attorney, Burns White Employment Law Seminar, October 2025
- Obtained a complete dismissal of all claims against their school district client in the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County, Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs alleged negligence related to certain school bus operations. Pohl and Gleason briefed and filed preliminary objections raising immunity arguments under Pennsylvania’s Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act. At oral argument, Gleason then successfully argued that the plaintiffs were attempting to establish a novel theory of liability under the “motor vehicle exception” that could result in an expansion of school district liability not intended by the legislature. The court accepted the Burns White team’s arguments, and the school district was dismissed from the case with prejudice.
- 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.
