Foster S. Goldman, Jr.

foster@gss-law.net

Foster S. Goldman, Jr., has been in the private practice of law since 1966 and is currently the President of Goldman Schafer & Spear P.C., where he has practiced for more than eleven years.

He has extensive experience in general litigation, and particularly in litigation and arbitration involving securities and commercial matters. Mr. Goldman regularly represents securities firms, brokers, and corporations in claims brought by a wide variety of plaintiffs in jury, non-jury and arbitration matters, as well as all manner of appeals. He is also experienced in preparing special needs trusts and estate work.

His brokerage clients include local, regional and national firms, and the Western Pennsylvania Securities Industry Association. His most publicized cases were the defense of Jim Quinn, “Banana” Don Jefferson and radio station WBZZ in a lawsuit initiated by the station's newsperson, and suing two real estate agencies, inter alia, for failing to disclose a known radon problem in a home purchased by Mr. Goldman’s clients.

Mr. Goldman is particularly proud of having changed the law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the case of Lang v. Commonwealth. As a result of that Supreme Court of Pennsylvania case, parents of children with disabilities are now able to plan their estates to establish discretionary trusts in such a way that state aid may, if desired, be utilized without necessarily dissipating the trust assets. He is co-author of an article entitled Estate Planning for Disabled Beneficiaries: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Confirms Effectiveness of Properly Drafted Discretionary Trusts.

Mr. Goldman is a cum laude graduate of Hobart College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and of Harvard Law School. He is a member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, the Civil Rules Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association, and the Civil Litigation Sections of the county, state and American Bar Associations. He has qualified as an arbitrator, mediator and early neutral evaluator with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

He has been active for many years with Achieva, formerly known as the Association for Retarded Citizens of Allegheny County, where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees, and he is the Chair of The Family Trust. He is a Past President of the Harvard Law School Association of Western Pennsylvania and the Concordia Club. Presently, he serves as secretary of Concordia Club, and is a member of the Board of Overseers of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio.