Melissa D. Wischerath
I am a general personal injury practice attorney, with a focus on civil rights, work place accidents, products liability and complex litigation.
Melissa has spent her career successfully fighting to protect the rights of people who have been hurt, abused, or neglected through no fault of their own. For this work, in 2016, Ms. Wischerath received the prestigious Honorable James M. Burns Federal Practice Award, an award usually only given to late-career lawyers, in recognition of her professionalism and service representing low-income and under-represented clients. She has also been named a Best Lawyers “One to watch,” a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyer every year since 2016. Melissa handles state and federal personal injury, and federal civil rights litigation; a committed trial lawyer, Melissa has successfully represented clients in state and federal courts across the nation, including:
Civil Rights
Construction Accidents
Workplace Injuries
Automobile Accidents
Defective Products/Products Liability
Slip and Fall Accidents
“Melissa won our daughter the largest compensatory education award in the past decade at the administrative level.”
“ “Melissa is reliable and has great integrity and I would recommend her to others.”
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“Melissa is cut from a different cloth. She exhibits a high level of integrity. ”
“Melissa stands out as a dedicated and fearless advocate.”
Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP
Physical Address:
42 Delaware Ave. Suite 120
Buffalo, NY 14202
o. (716) 849-1333
e. mwischerath@lglaw.com
Hours by appointment only.
Contact Us
free 15-minute initial consultations
Awards and Honors
Wischerath named Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch
Named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in 2021 and 2022 for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs and Product Liability Litigation-Plaintiffs. The Best Lawyers in America give this award as a recognition to attorneys who are earlier in their careers for outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the United States.
Wischerath named Super Lawyer Rising Star
Named to Upstate New York Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” for 2018, 2019, and 2020; Named to Top Rated Civil Litigation Attorney in Eugene, OR for for 2018-2021; no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in a state earn this distinction.
Wischerath received the Honorable James M. Burns Federal Practice Award
Melissa Wischerath received the Honorable James M. Burns Federal Practice Award on May 26, 2016. Named in honor of a widely respected federal trial judge, the late James M. Burns, the Federal Bar Association for the District of Oregon (Oregon FBA) gives the award to lawyers who have “improved the practice of law before the U.S. District Court of Oregon.” The Oregon FBA selected Melissa for the award in recognition of her professionalism and her hours of service representing low income clients in the FBA's Pro Bono Appointment program.
In the News
Protester Martin Gugino Files Lawsuit Against City of Buffalo, Police Officers
The 55-page civil suit alleges three members of the Buffalo Police Department's now-former Emergency Response Team forcibly pushed Gugino to the ground without warning, leaving him unconscious in a pool of blood with a fractured skull.
Man Shoved by Officers During Protest Sues Buffalo Police
“By assaulting Martin Gugino as he peacefully protested in Niagara Square, the City and BPD attacked Martin Gugino’s most fundamental rights as an American,” Melissa Wischerath, co-counsel for Gugino at law firm Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, said in a statement Monday. “If any one person’s rights are suppressed by the state, it harms all of us by eroding the foundation of our constitution.”
A federal jury has sided with a man who claimed that sheriff’s officials illegally towed his car after a traffic stop, then denied him a fair hearing to contest the decision.
The county was ordered to pay Long $25,418 for violating the his constitutional rights by improperly seizing his car and failing to provide him with adequate due process. “This verdict sends a message to the county that they need to take our Fourth Amendment and 14th Amendment civil liberties seriously,” Wischerath said in a statement.