Christopher C. Cara joined Pond Lehocky in September of 2012. Chris attended Middlebury College in Vermont where he made the Dean’s List and graduated with a B.A. in English and with Honors in Environmental Studies. He received his J.D. from Villanova University in 2012. Following his undergraduate graduation, Chris worked at Isles in Trenton, NJ, a nonprofit community development organization. During his time at Villanova, Chris was a three-year recipient of the Deirdre L. Bailey Leadership Scholarship, member of the Pro Bono Society, and treasurer of the Environmental and Energy Law Society. Additionally, Chris worked as a law clerk for the following organizations: Exelon Corporation, the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Regional Counsel for Region 3 in Philadelphia, and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office in Trenton, NJ. During law school, Chris interned with the Honorable Judge Linda Carpenter in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Chris’s interest in Workers’ Compensation law sprung from his enrollment in a Workers’ Compensation course at Villanova taught by Workers’ Compensation Judge Todd Seelig, Mr. Cara earned one of the highest grades in the class. Chris now devotes his practice to representing injured workers.

Samuel H. Pond has concentrated his practice in the area of workers' compensation litigation since his graduation from Temple University School of Law in 1984. He is a founding and managing partner of Pond Lehocky Giordano. Mr. Pond’s advocacy for his clients has resulted in some of the largest settlements in Pennsylvania and the nation. Mr. Pond is a member and past president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the current treasurer of the organization’s political action committee, the Committee for a Better Tomorrow. Mr. Pond is the past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association, past chair of its Education and Ethics Committee and its Workers' Compensation Section Executive Committee. Mr. Pond was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve on the Board of Law Examiners. He also served on the Board of The Pennsylvania Federation of Injured Workers, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Charitable Foundation. Mr. Pond was appointed by the Speaker of the House of Pennsylvania to the Workers' Compensation Advisory Board. He is a current board member of the Pennsylvania Alliance and the USC Shoah Foundation's Next Generation Committee. He sits on and has served on numerous other boards. Mr. Pond is also president of Union Services Access, a legal consulting services network for unions and their members. In addition to his practice as a workers' compensation attorney, Mr. Pond is a frequent author and lecturer in workers' compensation matters. His Martindale-Hubbell rating concerning Legal Ability and Ethical Standards has been given the highest grade. Mr. Pond was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® from 2007-2016. Mr. Pond has also been selected for inclusion in the Super Lawyers® Top 100 in Pennsylvania and Top 100 in Philadelphia lists for consecutive years. Through lectures and seminars, Mr. Pond educates union members and employees throughout the region on their rights under the Workers' Compensation Act. His charitable contributions are extensive and focused on children and education; they include the Union Services Access Scholarship Fund, The Pond Lehocky Trial Advocacy Scholarship and The Pond Lehocky Legal Studies Department Head Office at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business. He also created the Marie Pond Scholarship Fund in honor of his mother, which is a yearly scholarship awarded to a member of the Torresdale Boys Club.

Jerry M. Lehocky is a partner at Pond Lehocky Giordano, LLP. Mr. Lehocky has been a litigator of workers' compensation and Social Security since being admitted to practice in 1985. Initially, his practice involved representing employers and insurance companies. In 1991, Mr. Lehocky began representing claimants exclusively in the areas of workers' compensation and Social Security disability. A former chairman of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Workers' Compensation Section (for 12 consecutive years), Mr. Lehocky served as a consultant to several Pennsylvania governors as well as numerous state senators and representatives on workers' compensation issues. He co-authored “House Bill 2738,” which created the Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund. This fund provides workers' compensation benefits to injured workers whose employers do not carry workers' compensation insurance. The bill was signed into law by Governor Rendell on November 9, 2006, and was the first piece of workers' compensation legislation in favor of injured workers to become law in over 30 years. Mr. Lehocky continues to serve on the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, and was previously on the Board of Directors of the Volunteers for the Indigent Program. Mr. Lehocky is also a member of the Workplace Injury Litigation Group and a committee member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Mr. Lehocky is a former president of The Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the first workers' compensation attorney in the organization’s history to hold that position. Mr. Lehocky has been selected for inclusion in the Super Lawyers® Top 100 in Pennsylvania and Super Lawyers® Top 100 in Philadelphia lists. Mr. Lehocky was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2012-2016. Mr. Lehocky received the 1997 Legal Leader Award from Philaposh for distinguished service to injured workers of Pennsylvania and has also received an accommodation of dedicated service from the State Senate of Pennsylvania for his efforts on behalf of injured workers in Pennsylvania. Mr. Lehocky also received the Joe Hand Gym's 2014 Good Guy Award for his support of urban youth athletics. Mr. Lehocky has written numerous articles and publications on workers' compensation and lectures extensively on various workers' compensation issues. Mr. Lehocky has appeared on many different television shows to discuss workers’ compensation issues, and has been interviewed by National Public Radio to address the crisis of injuries to healthcare workers in America.

Thomas J. Giordano, Jr. joined the firm in October 2005 and currently heads the Social Security Disability department, where he focuses his practice solely on obtaining Social Security Disability benefits for disabled individuals. Mr. Giordano has represented individuals before Administrative Law Judges throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. He has been invited by labor and disability organizations as well as physicians throughout the tri-state area to lecture on Social Security Disability law. He is currently a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR) as well as a member of the Social Security Disability law section of the American Association of Justice.Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate with a large Philadelphia defense firm where he represented self-insured and commercial insured businesses in a wide variety of industries, as well as to third-party administrators throughout Pennsylvania. He also served as a legal intern for the Philadelphia District Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Mr. Giordano is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He earned his undergraduate degree, cum laude, in communications from Towson University in Maryland. He received his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He is an active member of the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations, the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Associations, and the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania.

Melissa R. Chandy is a Partner with Pond Lehocky and has focused her practice exclusively on Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law since graduating from Penn State – Dickinson School of Law. Ms. Chandy was born and raised in Canada where she attended the University of Toronto and was accepted into a highly competitive Specialist Program in Commerce and Finance. Following law school, Ms. Chandy served as a law clerk for two Commissioners on the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board. She then joined a leading regional firm, where she developed her legal writing and trial advocacy skills. When Ms. Chandy joined Pond Lehocky, she continued to devote her time to protecting the rights of injured workers. While working at Pond Lehocky, Ms. Chandy earned the title of Partner. Additionally, she manages the brief writing department in the law firm. In this role, Ms. Chandy uses her knowledge to train and teach new associates the nuances of the brief writing processes, to ensure that from start to finish, Pond Lehocky cases are passionately and articulately argued. Ms. Chandy also plays an active role in Pond Lehocky’s Summer Associate and Clerkship Program.

Michael J. Parker earned his undergraduate degree in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2001 and went on to receive his J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University in 2004. Mr. Parker has focused his practice on advocating for the disabled for almost fifteen years. He is a board-certified Social Security Disability Advocate by the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification, an American Bar Association accredited organization. Mr. Parker has been recognized for his legal expertise as a Super Lawyers® Rising Star, which represents the top 2.5 percent of all attorneys under the age of 40 in 2010-2017. In January of 2018, Mr. Parker spearheaded the formation of our Pond Lehocky’s Long-Term Disability Department. Mr. Parker has taken his passion for representing disabled individual and applied to helping disabled individuals who are wrongfully denied insurance benefits. He is very involved in the legal community and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Lackawanna County Bar Association, the Pike County Bar Association and the National Organization of Social Security Claimant’s Representatives. Mr. Parker is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Affairs and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Frank N. Ciprero graduated from Dickinson College in 1995 with a B.A. in Anthropology. In 1998, he earned a law degree from The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University. He served as a legal intern for the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General in the Medicaid Fraud Control Division. He then became a Senior Associate with a mid-sized defense firm handling Workers’ Compensation and general liability defense litigation in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With over five years of experience in Workers’ Compensation, he then joined a leading regional firm, where he focused his practice exclusively on Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Law. In June 2010, he joined Pond Lehocky, where he continues to focus his practice on Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Law and protecting the rights of injured workers as a Partner.

Kajal Alemo is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She is a member of both the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and American Association for Justice, where she serves on the Social Security Executive Council. Before joining Pond Lehocky, Ms. Alemo practiced for a large Philadelphia law firm, where she assisted senior counsel with the coding of potentially discoverable corporate documents, including privilege determinations for a high profile merger. She was also co-editor of a legal textbook regarding law and business enterprise. A graduate of Villanova University School of Law, Ms. Alemo was the Villanova Law student director of Face to Face Legal Clinic for the Pro Bono Society. She interned at Face to Face during all three years of law school. She was also a student attorney at the Villanova Civil Justice Clinic where she handled her first Social Security case. Prior to law school, Ms. Alemo obtained a B.A. in Psychology from George Washington University, graduating in 2008 on the Dean’s List. She is also a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International. Under her leadership as President/Justice, Phi Alpha Delta’s King Chapter was awarded most improved chapter in its district.

Nicholas Feden is a practicing lawyer in the state of Pennsylvania handling Social Security matters.

Andrew F. Ruder earned a B.S. degree from Towson University in 2007 and went on to receive his J.D. from Rutgers School of Law in Camden in May of 2012. While in law school, Andrew was a member of the Rutgers Law Journal. His comment, “The Use of Risk Assessment Tools in Formulating Individualized Sentencing Programs,” will be published in the next volume. Additionally, Andrew participated in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Project. In the summer of 2010, Andrew interned with the Honorable Mitchell S. Goldberg in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and also with the Honorable Shelley Robins New in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Andrew served as a law clerk for a small firm in New Jersey as well as for a mediation company under Judge James D. Clyne. He joined Pond Lehocky in September 2012 to practice in the area of Workers’ Compensation. Andrew is admitted to practice law in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Tech2Educate, a non-profit that raises money to provide new technology to charter schools in the Philadelphia area. Most recently, he co-authored an article with Samuel H. Pond entitled “AMA’s Approach to Impairment Rating Evaluations is Unconstitutional” published in The Legal Intelligencer. Andrew was also featured as a contributing writer in the Spring 2013 edition of New Jersey Chiropractor, a quarterly publication distributed by the Association of New Jersey Chiropractors.