Local Education Reform
As a former school teacher, Mr. Wilkey is a strong advocate for local educational reform and provides advocacy support to local school districts, administrators, teachers, parents, or students, whether it be issues involving educational compliance and standards, student educational access, school employment including teacher union issues, special needs and ADA accomodation, civil rights, admissions, access, curriculum, school district and board accountability and transparency, and other educational issues.
PA-LCL
He is also a proud and active volunteer for Pennsylvania's Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (PA-LCL), at the local, state, and national Chapters. He provides extensive support to both legal and non-legal professionals in the area.
Environmental Regulatory, Administrative, and Complex Civil Litigation Work
Mr. Wilkey has extensive environmental legal regulatory, administrative, and complex civil litigation experience and work, including the representation of Plaintiff land-owners against coal fired power plants and natural gas drilling companies, specifically involving issues related to fly-ash exposure, air and ground water contamination, environmental personal injury based claims, economic property diminution and loss of use and enjoyment claims, remediation, fracking, medical monitoring, citizen suits, and other contamination and environmental related claims.
Most notably, the high profile cases have involved mass tort and class action cases against FirstEnergy, the Bruce Mansfield Plant, and Little Blue Run, and collaboration with other organizations such as Penn Future and the Environmental Integrity Project. See Patrick et. al .v. FirstEnergy, No. 08-cv-1025 (W.D. Pa. 2008) (Mass tort and property diminution class action involving coal fly ash); Price et. al. v. FirstEnergy, No. 08-cv-1030 (W.D. Pa. 2008)(Mass tort and medical monitoring case involving coal fly ash); and Hartle. al. v. FirstEnergy, No. 08-cv-1019 (W.D. Pa. 2008) (Personal injury and medical monitoring involving coal fly ash). Other work has involved various litigation efforts regarding the Homer City Power Plant outside of Indiana, PA, and various environmental cases asserted in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). See Jackson v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P., et. al., No. 2:11-cv-00028 (W.D. Pa. 2011).
One of the most significant environmental cases Mr. Wilkey was involved in, is a very well-known fracking case in Washington Township, Pennsylvania, Stephanie Hallowich, et. al. v. Range Resources, et. al., No. 2010-3954 (C.C.P. Washington, 2010). The case has received global notoriety and attention, not only with respect to the substantive issue of fracking in rural Pennsylvania, but also in regards to the gas companies’ efforts to impose gag-orders and First Amendment restrictions as conditions of settlement. Other significant cases have involved a dike failure at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant, resulting in the largest fly-ash containment spill in U.S. History, Chesney et. al. v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 3:09-cv-09; and Diess et. al. v. Pa. DOT, et. al., (CCP Allegheny County, 2008) (PADEP defining fly ash a “hazardous substance”).
Complex Civil and Commercial Litigation
Mr. Wilkey provides extensive legal consultation, litigation support services, and representation, to individuals, small business, and large corporations, both in Philadelphia, and in the surrounding counties, involving complex commercial matters including among others: claims involving Federal and State laws involving unfair trade practices and consumer protection; banking and lending standards, credit services and truth in lending regulations, breach of good faith and dealing claims, and breach of fiduciary duties.
Class-Action and Mass-Tort
Mr. Wilkey has extensive civil litigation experience involving class-action and mass-tort litigation, including, the design and development of class formation, structure and claims; marketing, advertising, and intake development; class-wide discovery and maintenance; class-action and mass-tort motions practice, litigation; class certification; Daubert-expert review; and class notification and resolution. He provides legal consultation and litigation support services to firms seeking or considering class action and mass-tort related activities.
Asian-American (Domestic and International)
Mr. Wilkey is involved in various projects impacting the Asian-American Community in the region, including educational, housing, banking and lending practices, and civil rights related matters. Mr. Wilkey has authored legal scholarly articles regarding Vietnam's regulation of the Internet, including coining the term "Bamboo Firewall" as it relates to the Country's regulatory and censorship activities involving the Internet, social media and IT. He served as a volunteer representative in Philadelphia, serving the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laos populations, and continues to remain active in community outreach, advocacy, and educational reform efforts.
Employment, Labor Reform, and Whisteblower Protection
Mr. Wilkey has extensive employment, labor reform, and whistleblower protection based experience and expertise. He has been involved in a number of complex civil litigation cases involving employee rights, benefits, wage and hour, retaliatory, and other employment based legal claims. Additionally, Mr. Wilkey is involved in various labor reform and whistleblower advocacy related projects, including providing employment based support to medical residents for claims and grievances before the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the effectuation of maximum hour legislation, whistleblower protection and employment based reforms for medical residents and health care professionals. Mr. Wilkey remains active in the publication and scholarly legal work regarding employment and labor reform based issues.