Paul M. (“Mickey”) Pohl is Of Counsel to the global law firm Jones Day, one of the world’s largest law firms. He retired from The Jones Day partnership in 2019, having been with The Firm for more than 45 years. He remains resident in The Firm’s Pittsburgh Office.
Mickey was the Head of the Firm’s Business & Tort Litigation Practice, the largest practice area in the Firm. Prior to holding that position he was the Head of the Firm’s Product Liability practice and he also served as the Partner-in-Charge of Jones Day’s Pittsburgh Office, which he opened in 1989.
Mr. Pohl has extensive trial and appellate experience, having tried a wide variety of jury and non-jury cases across the United States and has argued numerous appeals in state and federal courts. Mickey has counseled clients on U.S. litigation issues in Europe, South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Although he primarily represented large corporate clients, he has extensive experience representing Catholic dioceses, universities, colleges, charitable organizations and religious orders in matters relating to religious freedom. He headed the Jones Day team which successfully sued the government over the contraception mandate in Obamacare.
Mickey is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Life Member of The American Law Institute. He has chaired the Lawyer’s Advisory Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and has served as Chairman of the Board of the Rand Corporation’s Institute for Civil Justice. Mickey is listed in the The Best Lawyers in America in four categories, and Pennsylvania Super Lawyers has listed him as “Best Lawyer” in “Bet-The-Company” litigation. In 2017, the Legal 500 publication named Mickey to its inaugural “Hall of Fame” for his litigation successes.
He has lectured and taught in Trial Advocacy programs across the United States and in programs sponsored by the Pacific Judicial Council and The American College of Trial Lawyers. He has lectured at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. He has served on the Board of Directors of multiple public and private corporations, non-profit entities and universities. He presently serves as Chairman of the Board of The Vatican Observatory Foundation and also serves on the Board of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and The Foundation Maria Thron in Austria. He was the Chairman of the 2007 U.S. Open Golf Championship which was held at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, PA.
Mickey graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1970 where he won The Lyman H. Atwater Prize in Politics and received a National Science Foundation grant for post-graduate research. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps (1971-1972) and received the Navy Achievement Medal in 1972 for his service at Headquarters Marine Corps.
Following his military service, he graduated cum laude in 1975 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, elected to Order of the Coif and won the Gourley Cup Trial Competition sponsored by the Allegheny County Bar Association. While in Law School he was an intern to Judge Joseph Weis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for The Third Circuit. He was the Law Clerk to Justice Samuel J. Roberts of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1975-1976 Term). He then joined Jones Day in Cleveland in 1976.
He is a Knight of The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has also been awarded the Pro Eccesia et Pontifice medal by the late Pope Benedict XVI.
He and his wife, Kaya, have three children and five grandchildren and reside in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.
