Joseph Anthony Moro

The son of a Youngstown steelworker, Atty. Joseph A. Moro is acutely aware of the challenges that working people face and the dire impacts that injuries and impairments can have on them and their families.

“I think I identify with a lot of our clients because of my own background, coming from a blue-collar family,” he says.

In addition to being raised in a blue-collar family, Atty. Moro has his own experience working in the steel mills. He spent his summers during his undergraduate college years at Youngstown State University working at Republic Steel Corp. as well as at the General Motors’ Lordstown assembly plant.

He knew then that he wanted to be a lawyer, and after getting his B.S. degree from Youngstown in 1981, he enrolled at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He received his J.D. there in 1985 and worked for a year in a law firm and another year in the City of Youngstown’s Law Department before joining this firm in 1987.

From the start, his practice has focused on workers’ compensation claims, but he has also been a trial lawyer handling both workers’ compensation appeals and personal injury cases. Over the years, he has obtained a number of favorable jury verdicts on behalf of his clients, including the following:

• Winters v. General Motors. A jury in the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas returned a verdict that Moro’s client was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits that he had been denied after suffering a gradually developing injury while working at GM’s Lordstown plant.

• Hartson v. Infocision Management Corp. Moro obtained a favorable jury verdict in Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas, resulting in his client’s workers’ compensation claim being recognized for a psychological condition.

• DeSimio v.Eaton Corp. A Portage County Court of Common Pleas jury returned a favorable verdict to allow workers’ compensation benefits that were denied to Moro’s client by his self-insured employer after sustaining a significant back injury.

• State ex Steel Erectors, Inc. v. Indus. Comm. 144 Ohio St. 3d 243, 2015 Ohio 4525. Moro and Atty. Robert Foley obtained a significant safety violation award for their client, who had been injured after suffering a fall while working as an iron worker. The employer subsequently appealed the case to the Ohio Supreme Court, but the Court ruled in favor of the injured worker.

To Atty. Moro, the greatest professional rewards come from being able to help people put their lives back together following oftentimes devastating setbacks.

“We come in contact with them when there’s a state of disarray and there’s a lot of uneasiness and uncertainty in their lives,” he says. “We try to get them through this process and this system and get them the best possible result given their circumstances.”

Atty. Moro’s commitment to working people extends beyond his own practice. He has been extremely active in several professional organizations, including the Ohio Association for Justice and the Ohio State Bar Association. He is a past vice-chair and past chair of OAJ’s Workers Compensation section and a past member of the organization’s Executive Committee. He currently serves as the Regional Representative for OAJ for the Youngstown-Warren area. He is currently a member of the OSBA Workers’ Compensation Specialty Board. He has also been named as an Ohio SuperLawyer by SuperLawyer Magazine.

He is fluent in Spanish and is an active member of OCCHA (Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana American, Inc.), which provides social, economic, cultural, and educational programs for Spanish-speaking people in the area. He has served on OCCHA’s Board of Directors.