Insurance

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mr. Guerra is the founder of Guerra Law Group, with offices in McAllen, TX; Houston, TX; and Rio Grande City, TX. Mr. Guerra has represented thousands of clients who have been injured due to the negligence of others, including auto accidents, premises liability claims, defective drugs, defective medical devices, and defective products. Mr. Guerra brings to the law office a diverse background as an assistant district attorney, an associate attorney with Lewis, Pettit, and Hinojosa, and years of experience in private practice. He is also proud to be a member of the American Association of Justice.

Gregory H. Herrman has been committed to providing quality legal representation for injured accident victims in the Corpus Christi area and the Rio Grande Valley for many years. A native of Hays, Kansas, Herrman comes from a family of lawyers. His father had a general practice in Hays, and an uncle and grandfather also were attorneys. He came to Texas and received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas in 1982 and his J.D. from Baylor University School of Law in 1986. During his undergraduate years, he worked his way through school by selling Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door, and started his own Kirby franchise during law school. After getting his J.D., Herrman joined a firm in Corpus Christi, handling both plaintiff’s personal injury and insurance defense cases. After five years, he joined his brother, David, and another attorney to form their own law firm committed solely to representing injured accident victims. Herrman has maintained that focus in his practice ever since. He has had a hand in many significant resolutions on behalf of his clients, including multiple seven-figure settlements. While big wins are satisfying, Herrman takes the same professional satisfaction from successful outcomes for clients with smaller cases. “I just like helping people and getting what I consider justice from the insurance companies,” he says. “They always try to pay as little as possible.” In addition to giving each case his most exacting legal attention, Herrman is also committed to providing his clients the best in customer service. “Our mission is to be the number one firm for client satisfaction,” he says. “We tell people that while we can’t promise a result, we’ll do the best we can—and that what we can promise is that we’ll give you the best client service we can and be responsive to your needs.” Through his efforts in helping people, Herrman has built strong ties in the South Texas communities served by the firm. He is involved in numerous charities, including the Beach to Bay relay marathon race, Toys for Tots, Stuff the Bus and Fiesta De La Flor. The firm also sponsors an annual Innovation Scholarship Essay Contest, providing $5,000 in scholarships to students who submit essays on topics dealing with safety, and a program called People Assisting Animal Control, in which the firm helps to protect the Corpus Christi pet population by providing 25 spays and neuters per month. While Herrman’s primary joy in life is providing service to residents of the Corpus Christi area and Rio Grande Valley, he also enjoys fishing, hunting, sailing, hiking, skiing and keeping fit.

Ms. Dean's professional experience encompasses a broad range of legal matters. Her primary emphases are estate planning, elder law, and probate. Her estate planning practice involves helping clients orchestrate their estates by drafting a vast array of trusts, wills and powers of attorney. Ms. Dean also provides compassionate legal advice while assisting families through the probate process. Ms. Dean's legal expertise in civil appeals includes both advising at the trial court level and handling all aspects of the appeal. She has handled appeals dealing with complex insurance matters, business matters, personal injury and family law appeals. She has successfully argued in federal and state courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, on behalf of a major insurance company, corporations, and individuals. She works with trial attorneys and clients to preserve error on the trial court level, preparing legal motions, handling mandamus actions, preparing and arguing the jury charge and handling all post-judgment motions. At the appellate level, Ms. Dean leads the appeal of a judgment, including preparing briefs, petitions for review and briefs on the merits to the Texas Supreme Court, and presenting oral argument before diverse panels of judges. Throughout her career, Ms. Dean has handled other civil matters as well, such as complex commercial litigation, corporate buy-outs, employment and business contracts, consumer issues, family law litigation, adoptions, real estate transactions and personal injury litigation. She successfully negotiated and closed a multi-million dollar buy-out of a snowboard clothing company to a major sporting goods conglomerate. Prior to specializing in appellate law, Ms. Dean engaged in a successful trial practice and as a result, understands the needs of trial attorneys and what it takes to make them successful at the trial level and on appeal. Integrity and operating under a high standard of ethics are of utmost importance to us at The Dean Law Firm. We abide by the Texas Lawyer's Creed.

Paul has a trial practice focused on personal injury cases. He has earned experience in all facets of trial from preliminary hearings through trial and appeal. He has tried cases to verdict in the state and federal courts of Texas and has argued appeals before Texas and federal courts of appeal. Paul started his legal career with the law firm of Worsham, Forsysthe, Sampels & Wooldridge, L.L.P., a venerable Dallas firm started in the 1930s that focused on representation of railroads, utilities, and industrial clients. When Worsham Forsythe merged with Hunton & Williams, L.L.P. in 2002, a 100-year old Virginia-based firm, Paul joined as a litigation partner. Over the next seven years, Hunton & Williams grew to a firm with 1000 lawyers, 150 of which practiced in Dallas. In 2009, Paul left the international firm of Hunton & Williams to start his own firm, Wickes Law, PLLC. He now has the flexibility to represent individual clients and bring his years of experience to help injured victims.

Mr. Wood has obtained numerous substantial jury awards and settlements on behalf of his clients, and as a result, he is a life member of the invitation- only Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollars Advocates Forum. His fellow attorneys acknowledge his success and skill honoring an AV Preeminent* peer review rating through Martindale-Hubbell since 2004 and a 10.0 “Superb” peer review rating through Avvo and Mr. Wood has been included in The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 since 2010 and as a Texas Super Lawyer* in personal injury every year since 2006. Admitted to practice before all Texas state courts, Mr. Wood is also admitted to practice before the U. S. District Courts for the Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern Districts of Texas, the U. S. Courts of Appeals for the 5 th and 10 th Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States. An active participant in numerous legal associations, his memberships include the American Association for Justice, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and the Litigation Counsel of America. Mr. Wood, who obtained his Juris Doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1994, Mr. Wood is certified as a specialist in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and as a Civil Trial Law Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. *AV, AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell and Super Lawyers are designated based upon peer review of fellow attorneys and judges familiar with attorney’s practice area, skill and ethics. AV Preeminent is the highest rating available.

For the first seven years of his legal career, Philip maintained a general civil trial practice, concentrating on personal injury defense and commercial litigation. In personal injury cases, he defended businesses and individuals facing claims involving premises liability, products liability, motor vehicle accidents, and general negligence. His commercial litigation work included defending businesses against allegations of breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and insurance coverage disputes. In 2008, Philip shifted his practice away from representing corporations, insurance companies, and insureds, turning his focus to family law. Since that time, he has handled hundreds of family law cases, addressing matters such as divorce, the modification and enforcement of divorce decrees, paternity actions, termination of parental rights, domestic adoptions, grandparent access, premarital agreements, and separation agreements. Philip’s background in civil litigation, combined with his deep understanding of procedural and evidentiary rules, allows him to effectively advocate for clients when family law disputes require courtroom litigation. Philip earned his law degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in 2001, after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Houston-Downtown in 1998. He has remained active in his community, coaching boys' basketball teams and mentoring Plano middle school students through the annual Collin County Mock Trial competition. Philip is married to Kelly Moore, and together they are raising three children in a blended family. Having experienced divorce personally, Philip recognizes the importance of delivering meaningful results for his clients while minimizing unnecessary conflict in their lives. For divorce legal help in Collin County, Denton County, and Dallas County, contact Frisco family law attorney Philip W. Moore at 214-764-8033.