Mass Torts Other

Attorney Pamela A. Borgess, the founder and managing attorney of Borgess Law, is an experienced and respected trial attorney who aggressively handles civil (non-criminal) disputes and litigation, including personal injury, defective medical drugs/devices or recalled consumer products, car & truck accidents, wrongful death, product liability, nursing home litigation, and contract/business disputes. She has extensive experience with numerous national high-profile cases, such as the national litigation involving a contaminated drug, Heparin, which claimed the lives of hundreds of people after being manufactured in an uninspected overseas facility. The case was featured in national news media, such as TIME magazine, CNN, Bloomberg and ABC News. Borgess Law was founded on the principle that serving individuals is an honor and privilege and that clients should be treated with dignity, professionalism and respect. At Borgess Law, we believe that seemingly opportunistic, “ambulance-chasing” attorneys who appear more interested in exploiting their clients’ injuries or legal problems than helping the clients overcome them, bring shame and dishonor to our profession and do a disservice to the clients. We seek to bring a higher level of professionalism, ethics and quality of legal services that are client-centered and results-driven. We only represents people with real injuries or legal problems. Borgess Law never charges a fee for an initial consultation. If your legal matter is not one that we handle, we will help you find an attorney who does.

Hezekiah is a National Partner and President of The Cochran Firm, founded by the legendary Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. The Cochran Firm is one of the nation’s largest personal injury, medical malpractice, and consumer law firms with some of the most aggressive personal injury attorneys, known for their tireless and effective legal representation. Hezekiah is also Chairman of the National Firm's Executive/Management Committee and the Managing Partner of the Firm's Atlanta Office. He has tried over 100 cases to verdict. Hezekiah and his trial teams have attained verdicts and settlements on behalf of injury victims and consumers in excess of $1Billion. Hezekiah has authored and lectured on medical professional liability issues, complex litigation matters, including class action and mass tort litigation, and has conducted risk management and risk assessment seminars for various clients. In addition to his trial experience, lecturing and advising clients, Hezekiah has also served as a mediator in hundreds of matters. Mr. Sistrunk’s practice focuses largely on the litigation of complex disputes involving common law, statutory law, contract law, physician and hospital liability law, product liability law, commercial, corporate, and business issues, catastrophic personal injury cases, and class action/ mass torts/pharmaceutical litigation. Over the course of his career, in fact, Mr. Sistrunk has prosecuted and defended hundreds of litigated matters before state courts, federal courts, and administrative agencies and has tried over 100 cases to verdict Mr. Sistrunk has lectured on medical professional liability issues, complex litigation matters including class action and mass tort litigation and has conducted risk management and risk assessment seminars for various clients. In addition to his trial experience, lecturing, and advising clients, Mr. Sistrunk has also served as a mediator in hundreds of matters.

In environmental law, in exceptionally challenging cases, an ordinary approach is just not enough. Gregory A. Cade, has made this clear when he developed his personal vision of "Know your case". This is his leading principle that successfully combines all the necessary traits in order to solve complex legal issues. Having a solid science background is also a notable difference in his unique approach. Greg is using his Industrial Hygiene degree in handling injuries resulting from exposure to asbestos, benzene, creosote, coke emissions, dioxins, PAHs, PCBs, and other known toxicants. Representing thousands of individual and community claims all over the Southeast for 20 years, Greg is always driven to help injured people, be it in an occupational setting or in an environmental setting, in a mass setting or a class action setting. None of these would be possible without taking things personally, something that not every lawyer has the dedication to do. He has instilled in his entire firm a strong motivation to establish real connections with every client. Detailed knowledge, time consumption and financial risk may be enough reasons for most law firms to avoid environmental cases. For Greg, this is not the case. Patience, loyalty and knowledge make Greg a powerful ally on the side of environmental victims.

Kevin Fitzgerald was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and is proud of his Midwestern roots and work ethic. Although neither of his parents are attorneys, Kevin jokes that he was “raised” by plaintiffs’ lawyers. He first began working at a plaintiff’s injury law firm when he was fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school. For the ten years prior to attending law school, Kevin served as a litigation assistant at a national law practice where he worked closely with the firm’s trial team representing clients injured by asbestos-containing products. Kevin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Minors in Geology and Geography from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Kevin attended the University of Maine School of Law where he graduated with honors. During law school, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Ocean & Coastal Law Journal. Kevin was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Land Use and Local Government Law, an outstanding scholastic achievement award in Environmental Law, and the Horace S. Libby Memorial Scholarship. In 2015, Kevin founded the Fitzgerald Law Group, LLC where he continues to concentrate his practice in representing men, women and children injured by medical devices, prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, asbestos, and in wrongful death and serious personal injury cases. Prior to founding the Fitzgerald Law Group, LLC, Kevin worked for another national mass tort law firm for fourteen years, serving as its managing attorney from 2008 to 2015. During his career, Kevin has played an integral role in developing, commencing and litigating significant injury cases from the initial case investigation stage through trial. He has taken or defended hundreds of depositions of plaintiffs, corporate employees, liability and causation experts, sales representatives and other key witnesses. He has helped identify experts in numerous disciplines and assisted in preparing their testimony for deposition and trial. He has also served as a member of the plaintiffs’ trial team in four national pharmaceutical drug cases, including Schedin v. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc., et al. in which the jury returned a $1.6 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Over the last fifteen years, Kevin has represented thousands of clients in a wide array of medical device and prescription drug cases as well as other consumer protection matters including Actos, Arava, Avelox, Baycol, Bextra, Biomet Hip Implants, Byetta, Celebrex, Depuy ASR & Pinnacle Hip Implants, Effexor, Ephedra, Fen Phen, Fleet Phospho-Soda, Fosamax, Gadolinium, Levaquin, Lipitor, Mesothelioma, Mirena IUD, Nuvaring, Ortho Evra, Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), Pradaxa, Pravachol, Rezulin, Risperdal, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Stadol, Stryker Rejuvenate & ABGII Hip Implants, Talcum Powder, Testosterone Replacement Therapy (“Low-T”), Transvaginal Mesh, Trovan, Viagra, Vioxx, Xarelto, Yaz, Zicam, Zimmer Hip Implants, Zithromax, Zofran, Zoloft, Zometa and Zyprexa. In addition to pharmaceutical and medical device cases, Kevin has experience handling wrongful death, personal injury, data breach, Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA), and consumer protection cases. Kevin lives in Portland, Maine with his wife, who is also a lawyer, and their three children. The family are members of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Portland. When he is not working late, he enjoys cooking, hiking and fishing throughout the State of Maine, coaching youth athletics, and cheering on his favorite Cleveland sports’ teams.

Matthew J. Fogelman is a founding partner of Fogelman Law LLC. Mr. Fogelman’s litigation practice is focused on employment law and personal injury cases. He is an experienced trial lawyer, having won a number of significant cases on behalf of plaintiffs, including prevailing before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a ground-breaking disability discrimination case involving an employee’s right to use medical marijuana off-site. Mr. Fogelman also reached a settlement in a catastrophic personal injury case for $11.5 million, one of the largest settlement in Massachusetts in 2024. Mr. Fogelman has also prevailed on a race and gender discrimination case in Middlesex County for $2.5 million, and on an age discrimination case in Norfolk County, securing a $1.2 million verdict at trial for his client. The firm also recently settled a wrongful death / dram shop case for $2.2 million at mediation. For his work on the Barbuto medical marijuana employment case, Mr. Fogelman was named one of the “Lawyers of the Year” for 2017 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly; he also received the award for most outstanding 2017 “Professional Achievement” of any member by USA500, a prominent networking group of lawyers and other professionals, out of 650 members. For eight consecutive years (2018-2025), Mr. Fogelman has been selected as a “Top 100 Super Lawyer” for both Massachusetts and New England, a distinction received by only 100 lawyers out of nearly 44,000 lawyers in Mass. and nearly 80,000 in New England. In the employment arena, Mr. Fogelman has litigated cases ranging from Wage Act and overtime cases to discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation matters. He has significant experience advising employees on non-compete and severance agreements. In the personal injury realm, Mr. Fogelman has extensive experience litigating complex personal injury cases and emotionally-charged cases, including allegations of sexual abuse and wrongful death, as well as car collisions, slip-and-falls, and dog bites, among many others. Mr. Fogelman is the current Vice President of the prestigious Massachusetts Association of Trial Attorneys (MATA), the leading plaintiffs’ lawyer group in the state. He will serve as President starting in the summer of 2026.

Known today as the "People of PA's Lawyer" or PoPAL for short. Attorney Levine has helped hundreds if not thousands of Pennsylvanians literally across this Great State of Pennsylvania achieve successful results to whatever Probate and Estate Administration matter put forth to Counselor Levine.Having successful outcomes in virtually every PA County, Attorney Levine knows the challenges Pennsylvanians face whether they be in Probate, Estate Administration or Estate Real Estate.One reason Brian has been dubbed PoPAL is his uncanny success with extremely challenging and extremely complex Estates most Attorney's would not touch or if they did soon realizing this Estate is too complex. Thus the People of PA have come to rely on his ability to help in the most difficult of circumstances.Brian's Clients come from all walks-of-life whether they be high net worth individuals or regular ole folk... All are Pennsylvanians or have ties to Pennsylvania who are in need of a helping hand, some guidance, assistance resolving a challenge with probating, executing or administering an Estate or any other Probate or Estate circumstance requiring counsel -- Brian has and will continue providing impeccable service to all with ties to the Commonwealth of PA. Mr. Levine founded the law firm in 2007 after undertaking judicial clerkships with trial court judges from the Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas from 2005-2006. He has also gained experience as a court-appointed criminal attorney for Lawrence County and Butler County Courts of Common Pleas where he has represented over 500 criminal clients. Mr. Levine has conducted legal seminars on estate planning and business planning for various nursing homes, businesses, and organizations located throughout Pennsylvania. He has taught CLE (continuing legal education) classes to other attorneys and insurance agents throughout Pennsylvania concerning title insurance and real estate closings. In his private practice, he utilizes an entrepreneurial, cutting-edge approach to lawyering. Other attorneys and business professionals enjoy working with Mr. Levine due to his good will, common sense, and direct communication. Mr. Levine, a third generation attorney, is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Real Property Trust and Probate section; Lawrence County Bar Association; and Lawrence County Board of Arbitrators. Brian received his J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law, Morgantown, WV (2002-2005), and was an active and honored member of Moot Court. He graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (1998-2002).

Scott E. Gwartney graduated from Liberty University in Virginia in 1985 with a degree in political science and human resource management. The Tallahassee native then returned home to attend Florida State University College of Law, graduating in 1991. He has remained in Tallahassee since. After working with the first attorney to successfully submit a nursing home case to verdict in the State of Florida, renowned trial lawyer Kenneth L. Connor, the two went on to create The Connor & Gwartney law firm. The firm eventually joined the Tampa-based nursing home litigation firm of Wilkes & McHugh, becoming its Tallahassee office, where Mr. Gwartney continued to work until he joined Brooks, LeBoeuf, Foster & Gwartney in 2002, becoming a firm partner in 2003. Mr. Gwartney’s practice is unique: While he always carries a significant number of case files for auto claims and medical litigation in his Tallahassee hometown, his expertise in the fields of Medical Malpractice, Assisted Living Facility, Nursing Home and Group Home litigation is widely known throughout Florida and Georgia. And so, he often finds himself pursuing claims in courthouses from Naples and Ft. Meyers, up the Gulf coast to Pensacola, and on the east coast all the way to Savannah and Augusta Georgia … and virtually all points in between. Mr. Gwartney passionately believes that our disabled and senior citizens deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. In the same manner that fine china is treated with a gentle and compassionate touch, our physically frail citizens also need to be treated with a gentle touch and great respect. The fragile among us deserve no less respect and dignity than that which is afforded to any other member of our society. The results of Mr. Gwartney’s experience and efforts on behalf of the elderly speak volumes about his expertise and dedication. His work on behalf of his clients has led to numerous verdicts and settlements of $1 million or more across the southeast. While Mr. Gwartney’s case load is most active throughout Florida and Georgia, he is also licensed to practice law in Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Marsh Law Firm focuses our legal practice exclusively on representing survivors of sexual abuse and discrimination. We pride ourselves on being survivor focused, trauma informed, and justice-oriented lawyers. We advocate for our clients both in and out of the courtroom to secure justice and hold perpetrators and the institutions that enable abuse accountable. Our legal team understands that disclosing sexual abuse is an incredibly difficult process. Our goal is to work closely with each of our clients and approach each situation with empathy, respect, and understanding. Our first promise to our clients is that we will support them throughout their healing journey. Marsh Law Firm has a robust legal practice in New York and Pennsylvania. Our attorneys have substantial experience handling claims involving childhood sexual abuse, including claims against the Catholic Church and other institutions, adult sexual abuse, as well as online sexual exploitation and child sex abuse material (CSAM). Our attorneys represent survivors of campus sexual assault and discrimination in educational settings at the K-12, college, or university level, state and federal administrative proceedings, and in the courts. Marsh Law Firm celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive atmosphere that is welcoming to all. We help survivors rebuild their lives with dignity and respect through comprehensive legal representation. Contact us today for a free legal consultation.

Rob grew up the son of a renowned San Jose injury lawyer, Bob Bohn, so he has been around the law his entire life. In college, Rob was a psychology major initially planning to practice as a clinical psychologist. It was there that he learned what would eventually be critical information in understanding people who have suffered trauma and studying the brain's structures and function. As he neared graduation, Rob realized he could do more good by becoming a trial lawyer. So, off to law school he went. After earning his Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1995, Rob took the California state bar and passed the first try, even being invited to return to grade the exam for future examinees. He then embarked on his journey helping people who needed the most help by caring for and representing people with serious life-changing injuries and families of those killed by others. Through the years, Rob has lectured to lawyers and paralegals about brain injury, jury selection and how to handle various kinds of injury claims. He has held leadership positions in local and state trial lawyer organizations and been recognized for his excellent results and service to his clients and, more generally, to the people of California. Rob is known to preach to other lawyers, "You must be a believer in our cause. This isn't a job - it's a calling to help others", a mantra he lives and practices by. Rob finds the practice of personal injury litigation interesting and rewarding. As a former competitive athlete and current youth sports coach (for more than 30 years now), he enjoys the competition and the strategy common in coaching sports and litigating major injury cases. Each take creativity, commitment, knowledge and grit. Each require good communication and teaching others. The thrill of victory keeps his juices going. With this unique background, you will not find Rob plastered on billboards, screaming at you on TV, claiming (like everyone else) "we'll fight for you", standing on a truck, wielding a baseball bat or all those other silly things that lawyers who consider practicing law to be "their business" do. The best lawyers do not need to resort to such silly tactics. The best lawyers, who are recognized by their peers and judges at the best at their craft and the most ethical, do not do those things. The best lawyers who are recognized and awarded by their peers for their good work, do not do those things. The best lawyers give back by leading other trial lawyers. When looking for a truly good and effective lawyer, these are the things lawyers look for. This is Rob's history. Golden State Lawyers, APC is a boutique firm that cares about and knows our clients. We are not a client mill where clients never even get to know their lawyer and are seen as financial resources rather than as human beings who need meaningful and effective help. Come let Rob take care of you.

After graduating from the University of Virginia Law School in 1975, Mr. Cocke moved to Clarksdale, MS to begin practicing in a general litigation firm. In 1982, Mr. Cocke and Mr. Merkel left that firm and established Merkel & Cocke, P.A., and since that time the emphasis of Mr. Cocke's practice has progressed more and more toward medical malpractice. At the present time his practice is exclusively devoted to handling medical negligence cases for the plaintiff, either as a result of direct contact by the client or as, more commonly occurs, on referral from other attorneys who are not familiar with the handling of medical negligence cases. Mr. Cocke handles all types of medical negligence cases, but a uniform requirement is that serious injury or death have occurred as a result of the medical mistake. Mr. Cocke has established a reputation for complex cases involving babies who sustain permanent brain injuries. He also handles cases involving deaths as a result of the failure to treat in the emergency room setting and the premature discharge of patients after surgery, as well as failure to promptly diagnose cancer. Mr. Cocke has developed a particular interest in the use of modern technology in medical negligence cases and has spoken at seminars on this subject. The Internet has developed into a very useful tool in conducting medical research and communicating with other attorneys handling similar cases via the Internet is also a major help in the handling of medical cases. Mr. Cocke was selected Best Lawyer of the year for 2012 and 2014 in The Memphis area in the field of Medical Malpractice and has been selected a Best Lawyer and Super Lawyer every year since 2006. Mr. Cocke has his pilot’s license, and enjoys flying his airplane for work-related matters and for fun. He owns Yazoo Pass restaurant in Clarksdale, and enjoys being involved in that venture. He is an avid promoter of blues tourism in Clarksdale.