Alan H. Bender is the co-owner of Goldstein Bender & Romanoff. As the senior and managing partner of the litigation department, Alan works tirelessly to ensure his clients receive the compensation they deserve. Alan was born in Chicago but moved to Brooklyn, New York, when he was 11 years old. He graduated Brooklyn College, which is part of the City University of New York, with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and went on to graduate Law School from the University of Illinois, School of Law.

There must be a better way. There must be a way to inform injured individuals of their legal rights, retain clients, and help lawyers communicate better with potential and existing clients. These were the concerns that became the focus for Jessica through her work at TorHoerman Law, a law firm she built with her husband, a personal injury attorney. Jessica is an Illinois lawyer, a CPA, and a mother of three. She spent years working as an international tax attorney at Deloitte before her career took a back seat to raising her kids. Her return to work, nearly 10 years ago, was intense. The timing of her return to work collided with an opportunity for the Hoerman family to start a personal injury law firm. Overnight, they had 30 employees depending upon the new law firm’s success. Jessica took on the role of marketing manager and immediately focused on client outreach – knowing full well that their law firm would fail if they couldn’t find clients to serve. Out of this hands-on work building a successful law firm, TruLaw was born. TruLaw developed a platform that gives injured individuals and their families immediate answers as to whether the law firm can assist them in personal injury and product liability cases. TruLaw has been very successful, but Jessica now recognizes a digital transformation taking place leaving in its wake a new kind of legal client – one that expects immediate and valuable information without reading through website information. Jessica believes that no platform is better positioned to make the transition to provide this information than TruLaw. TruLaw is currently building “TruBot” which promises to be a huge improvement over current legal outreach models in meeting these expectations and giving injured individuals improved access to justice.

Kathryn Ann Gallanis is a personal injury defense attorney located in Chicago, IL. Understanding that every case and every client is unique, Attorney Gallanis utilizes teamwork and communication to help her clients achieve legal success. In her previous role as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Felony Trial Division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Attorney Kathryn Ann Gallanis worked diligently to validate the arrest of any individual charged with a crime. Active in the legal community, Attorney Kathryn Ann Gallanis previously served as president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois. For legal help, contact Attorney Gallanis at 312-683-1058.

Bradley Skafish has been practicing law, specifically in the realm of personal injury and civil litigation, since 2002. He is admitted to practice in Illinois (2002), the Northern District of Illinois (2002), Indiana (2004), the Northern District of Indiana (2004), the Southern District of Indiana (2004), the Southern District of Illinois (2012), and the Central District of Illinois (2014). Brad became a partner at Deutschman & Skafish in January 2019. He was admitted to the seventh circuit court of appeals in 2018. Brad is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar. Prior to joining Deutschman & Skafish, Brad operated the Law Offices of Bradley A. Skafish from 2003-2007, focusing primarily on personal injury litigation. Brad has tried more than 50 jury trials. He received his law degree (J.D.) as well as a B.S. in Marketing from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and remains an avid Indiana Hoosiers fan. Brad is married with two daughters, and devotes much of his free time to attending his girls’ activities, including gymnastics and dance. Brad is also the author of the Bad Cats children’s book series. Additionally, Brad sings, writes music, and plays guitar for local rock band, the Figbeats. Author: “Smut on the Small Screen: The Future of Cable-Based Adult Entertainment Following United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group,” 54 Federal Communications Law Journal 319, 2002.

Since joining TorHoerman Law in 2009, Jacob Plattenberger has taken hundreds of depositions, argued in countless hearings, and tried over thirty-five (35) cases to a jury. His experience in and out of the courtroom has made him a passionate advocate for those injured due to the negligence of others. Jake started his career trying cases at one of the busiest civil courthouses in the country – the Richard J. Daley Center in downtown Chicago. He started out doing insurance defense because he knew that afforded him the best opportunity to get courtroom experience. This type of real trial experience is exceedingly rare in complex civil litigation and having seen it from the defense side gives Jake an added advantage.

Eric W. Cracken joined TorHoerman Law in 2019, to work in our Chicago office. At TorHoerman Law, Eric works in our Chicago office as a member of our trial team that focuses in nationwide, complex litigations representing clients who have been injured by the actions of large corporations and organizations.

Darren VanPuymbrouck is a trial lawyer with an active nationwide trial practice. As first-chair, he has successfully tried dozens of high-profile, bet-the-company cases involving myriad issues before juries in state and federal courts around the country. Most of his cases involve complex engineering, science, medical, and financial issues and he has successfully deposed and cross-examined thousands of expert witnesses. Recently, he successfully completed a month-long jury trial as first-chair in Ocean County, New Jersey involving construction defect and professional liability issues resulting in one of the largest verdicts in that county. In the fall of 2014, he successfully tried a high-profile product-liability case that resulted in a $22 Million jury verdict, among the top 100 verdicts nationally. Mr. VanPuymbrouck recently won the dismissal of a RICO class action in the Northern District of Illinois that has been the subject of national press coverage. Mr. VanPuymbrouck has also successfully briefed and argued appeals in state and federal courts around the country, including in the Missouri Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. VanPuymbrouck has litigated and tried cases for well-known companies in the consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical supply, financial services, construction, professional services, electronics, food, gas and electric public utilities, chemical, and many other industries. In addition to trials, those cases have included the defense of nationwide class actions, including MDL proceedings, national litigation strategy, and the trial of bell weather case, arbitrations, and mediations. Utilizing his trial experience, Mr. VanPuymbrouck also advises and conducts investigations for domestic and international clients on risk avoidance, regulatory compliance, and litigation strategy. Mr. VanPuymbrouck is also an internationally recognized leader in the investigation and litigation of catastrophic fire and explosion matters about which he is a frequent nation-wide speaker. He also conducts emergency response exercises for clients in the petroleum, natural gas, electric generation and transmission, and transportation industries. He has specialized expertise in the defense of claims involving lithium-ion and polymer batteries.

Rachel Rojas is an attorney at TorHoerman Law who specializes in product liability and pharmaceutical litigation. A Corpus Christi, TX native, Rachal moved cross-country to attend Columbia University in New York City and completed a bachelor’s degree in political science. Before law school and after graduating from Columbia, she worked on both sides of civil litigation as a paralegal for a plaintiff’s asbestos law firm and a corporate defense firm.