About Frederick B.
Frederick B. Goldsmith graduated from Tulane University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He returned to Tulane for law school and earned his J.D. in 1988. The early years after law school took him into a federal clerkship. He served as a law clerk to Judge Howell Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 1990, a role that introduced him to federal procedure and courtroom practice.
He moved into private practice as an associate at Bell & Murphy, P.C. in 1991. Over the next decade his résumé shifted between firms and industry. He was a senior associate at Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown, LLP in 1996 and then established a solo practice in 1997 under his own name. In 2000 he left private practice to become vice president and general counsel for The Great Lakes Towing Company. That in-house position prefaced his return to firm life, where he chaired the Admiralty & Maritime Practice Group at Burns, White & Hickton, LLC in 2002 and became a partner at Blumling & Gusky, LLP in 2005. Since 2006 he has served as managing member of Goldsmith & Ogrodowski, LLC.
Maritime law has been a steady theme throughout his career. He has been a proctor member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States since 1992. The combination of in-house work at a towing company and years leading admiralty practice groups gave him practical exposure to vessel operations, maritime claims, and regulatory issues. He has handled cases and advised clients on matters that touch both federal admiralty jurisdiction and state-law tort claims.
His admissions span multiple states: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Texas. He has also been active in the local and federal bar in Pittsburgh. He has served on the Local Rules Advisory Committee for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania since 2014 and has long-standing memberships in the Allegheny County Bar Association and its Court Rules Committee. He chaired the Federal Court Section of that association from 2011 to 2012. He is a member of the West Virginia Association for Justice, the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, and sits on the legal committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
Today he practices from Goldsmith & Ogrodowski, LLC, where he handles admiralty and maritime matters, civil litigation, and related regulatory work. He currently focuses on admiralty and maritime law, civil litigation, and maritime regulatory matters.
