Mr. Petri has been a long-time resident of Indiana. He attended high school in Hammond, Indiana. He later attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, after which he served several years in the U.S. Governmental Service. His experiences in the service inspired him to enroll in law school, and the skills he gained during his service were an invaluable foundation for the practice of law. He graduated from Indiana University School of Law in 1966, and was immediately elected Prosecuting Attorney for Owen County. He served as Prosecuting Attorney until 1974. Since 1974, Mr. Petri has owned and operated his own legal practice, known today as Vernon J. Petri & Associates. Mr. Petri has significant professional and leadership experience. He has served a term as President to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Association, as well as several years on the organization’s board of directors. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association. Lastly, he has served on the National Board of Directors of the Breast Implant Litigation Group of the American Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Petri has been named to the Million Dollar Forum, which is exclusively reserved for attorneys who earn verdicts and settlements in excess of $1,000,000. Even in the face of adversity, he has consistently obtained favorable verdicts for his clients. In his 40+ years of practice, he has fought to expand the rights of those injured in Indiana by exploring new theories of negligence, and in many cases, appealing them all the way to the Supreme Court of Indiana.

Frederick R. (Rick) Hovde is a founder of Hovde Dassow and Deets LLC and focuses his practice on the areas of medical negligence, car and truck accidents, construction site accidents, and injuries from dangerous consumer products all on behalf of plaintiffs. He has tried over one hundred ten cases to a jury verdict and obtained several maximum statutory verdicts in medical malpractice cases and several verdicts in excess of $1,000,000 in automobile accident, products liability, and insurance bad faith cases. He has handled many significant and complex construction, products liability, and accident and insurance claim cases. He has also been involved in a substantial amount of appellate decisions and authored a number or articles. Over the course of his career, Rick has received countless honors and awards in recognition of his legal excellence. He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 2003, recognized as an Indiana Super Lawyer since 2004, is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, American College of Trial Lawyers, Indiana College of Trial Lawyers, Litigation Counsel of America, Indianapolis Bar Foundation. He is also a long time member of the American Association for Justice and American Board of Trial Advocates. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association since 1990, the Executive Committee from 1995 to 2003, and was President during the 2002-2003 term. He has been extensively involved with the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association legislative committee and it's efforts in the state legislature. In 2019 he received the distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association.