David F. Weiner, who made a name for himself as a pioneer in employment law in Pittsburgh, died on June 7 at his Oakland home. He was 86.

The cause was cancer, his daughter, Bentley, said.

After turns working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., for the Interstate Commerce Commission and in New York as an attorney for NBC, Mr. Weiner returned to his native Pittsburgh in 1973 with his wife, Barbara (née Bentley). They soon welcomed their daughter, Bentley.

Mr. Weiner made his Pittsburgh career fighting for employees and against both small companies and multinational corporations.

This choice of specialty was a matter of happenstance, said his longtime legal partner, Robert Gallo, now a retired Allegheny County judge. It began with a Sharpsburg resident named Lillian Sundo.

At the time, Mr. Gallo was a Sharpsburg councilperson. Constituents would come in to his office there ask for his advice, including Ms. Sundo, a “saintly lady,” according to Mr. Gallo. She worked at the front desk of a local Kmart and was known as “the Kmart lady.”

She told him she had been terminated for failing to report a suspected theft. Mr. Gallo replied that Pennsylvania law allowed employers to terminate employees at will, for any or no reason at all.

Nevertheless, he told Ms. Sundo to consult his partner, Mr. Weiner.

“He interviewed her and he comes back, he says, ‘We can go to court in this case,’” Mr. Gallo recalled. Despite Mr. Gallo’s doubts, they took the case to trial and won for wrongful...

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