Biography

Denise M. Montgomery is a Shareholder at Sweeney & Sheehan, P.C. and focuses her practice in the area of construction defect, representing prime contractors and sub-contractors in complex construction defect claims throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She also has extensive expertise in the areas of employment law, professional liability, retail liability and general liability. Ms. Montgomery is experienced in all aspects of litigation, including discovery, mediation, contractual and non-binding arbitration, and trial. She specializes in complex construction defect claims, and transition claims and is skilled in managing claims pre-suit and ensuring appropriate risk management.

After graduating from Villanova Law, she was selected for an Equity Clerkship with the Honorable John F. Callinan (ret.) of the Cape May County Superior Court. As the Equity Clerk, she assisted in reviewing all Equity Motions, Megan’s Law designations, drafting opinions, and effectively mediated hundreds of Special Civil and Landlord Tenant actions.

Following her clerkship, she practiced at a small regional defense firm in Pennsylvania handling a wide array of matters with a concentration in defending energy companies in environmental contamination actions and general liability matters, industrial equipment distributors in catastrophic injury actions, and car dealerships in general liability matters and consumer fraud actions.

Prior to joining Sweeney and Sheehan, she worked as in-house counsel with Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company which offered a wide range of commercial and personal insurance products and successfully maintained a caseload of approximately 500 matters from intake through trial throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Denise is active with the Defense Research Institute (DRI) and is Construction Defect Chair of the Construction SLG, the Vice Program Chair for the 2023 Construction Conference, and Program Chair for the 2024 Construction Conference. She is also active in the Pennsylvania Defense Institute where she is the Committee Chair, for Civil Practice and Procedure and VP of the Eastern District. She enjoys speaking and writing for both organizations and providing CE opportunities to insurance professionals.

Litigation Results

• Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of a construction defect action filed in Ocean County (New Jersey) against a contractor arising from the construction of a single-family home.
• Obtained summary judgment in Atlantic County (New Jersey) Superior Court in favor of a contractor who installed pilings for a new home in Margate, New Jersey.
• Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of a subrogation action filed in Bergen County (New Jersey) Superior Court against an entity which designed and installed shoring in a residential garage that collapsed during the project.

Recent Speaking Engagements

• The State of Affairs of the Pennsylvania Fair Share Act Post Spencer v. Johnson, Pennsylvania Defense Institute

Publications

• The Anatomy of a Construction Claim, USLAW Magazine, Winter, 2020
• Deeper Discovery:  Hitting All the Project Nooks and Crannies to Uncover Best Evidence, Walsworth, October 2021

Education

Widener University — B.A. History, Magna Cum Laude, 1993; Graduate of Honors Program
Villanova University School of Law — J.D., 1996

Bar Admission

• Pennsylvania — 1996
• New Jersey — 1997
• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey — 1997
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania – 2010
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania – 2010