Ethics

Christopher J. Marzzacco is the managing attorney at Marzzacco Niven & Associates. As a Harrisburg personal injury lawyer, he focuses his practice on personal injury cases, including car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, workplace accidents, slip and fall accidents, product liability, and other accident cases. Mr. Marzzacco is a native of Carbondale, PA. He earned his undergraduate degree from Wilkes University. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree from Widener University School of Law. Mr. Marzzacco was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania in 1996. Since then, Mr. Marzzacco has received many honors and awards. He has been recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s “Super Lawyers” since 2017. He has also been listed among “The Best Lawyers in America” since 2017. The firm has a coveted AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell for legal knowledge and ethics. Mr. Marzzacco is a member of several professional organizations, including the Dauphin County Bar Association, York County Bar Association, Cumberland County Bar Association, Pennsylvania Association for Justice, York County’s Panel of Arbitrators, and American Association for Justice. He also teaches trial advocacy and coaches mock trial teams at Widener University School of Law. Over his career, Mr. Marzzacco has recovered millions of dollars for injured, ill, and disabled clients. Mr. Marzzacco and the lawyers and staff at Marzzacco Niven & Associates strive to provide the highest-quality representation to achieve the best possible results under the law. Contact Marzzacco Niven & Associates for a free consultation with a Harrisburg personal injury lawyer to discuss your case and discover your legal options for recovering compensation.

Steven F. Fairlie has been designated a Pennsylvania “SuperLawyer” in both Personal Injury and Criminal Defense and placed on their lists of the Top 100 Lawyers in Pennsylvania for more than a decade straight, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Top Rated Attorneys in Pennsylvania as published in The Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the The Legal Intelligencer, The National Advocacy for DUI Defense Top 100 Driving Under the Influence (DUI) Attorneys, and is a holder of Martindale-Hubbell’s prestigious “AV” rating and Client Distinction Award, designating preeminent lawyers based upon legal ability, ethics, and client satisfaction. He has been rated a perfect 10.0/10.0 on AVVO.COM and is one of a just 35 attorneys in Pennsylvania to be named a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer in 2006. He has been named a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (awarded to less than one-half percent of judges, lawyers, and scholars in America), received the National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys Top 10 Attorney Award, and been named a Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyer by the American Society of Legal Advocates. He has won many other awards for his trial work that are simply too numerous to list here. He has successfully handled numerous civil (slip and fall, auto accidents, land development litigation, etc.) and criminal trials (narcotics, DUI, capital murder, robbery, rape, etc.). Prior to private practice, he worked on the Narcotics Team and the Major Crimes Team of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office from 1996 to 2000. He successfully argued for the death penalty in 1999 and was lead prosecutor in a case involving $55 million of cocaine. Subsequently, as a defense attorney, he took the appeal of a client sentenced to death and convinced the prosecutor to vacate the death sentence. He used forensic tire print evidence to prove another client not guilty of attempted murder. In yet another case he uncovered evidence which reduced the offer on a robbery case from 25–50 years down to 2 years probation. He represented one individual charged with 3 separate charges of DUI and had the first case dismissed at the Preliminary Hearing, the second accepted into the A.R.D. program, and the third case dismissed after a trial judge granted suppression of all evidence in the case. Mr. Fairlie has obtained not-guilty verdicts in major jury trials involving shootings, burglaries, rape, etc. despite positive eyewitness identifications of his clients. On appeal, he has successfully argued for reversal of a death sentence in one case and a sentence of 70 years in another case. Recent successful plea negotiations include 2 1/2 to 5 years in the case of a man who struck his wife in the head with a hammer and strangled her and 6 to 12 years in a First Degree Murder case. Mr. Fairlie went to trial on a case involving more than $50 million of land transactions and settled the case in the second week of trial. He has obtained six-figure settlements in numerous personal injury cases, including car accident, back injury, and dog bite cases. Mr. Fairlie often serves as a speaker or course planner for various organizations such as the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Annual (2007–2025) Criminal Law Symposium in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Montgomery and Bucks County Bar Associations, and various law enforcement training programs. He also teaches numerous other continuing legal education seminars for lawyers every year. He earned his B.A. in Government and Law from Lafayette College in 1991 and his J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law in 1995 where he was a member of the Appellate Moot Court Board, the Environmental Law Journal, and a Chairman of the Student Bar Association. He has been Co-Chairman or Chairman of the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Criminal Defense Committee since 2001, a member of the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Judiciary Committe and Trial Lawyers’ Section, a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Professionalism Committee and Civil Litigation Section, a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Hotline Panel of Experts Committee, a member of the Montgomery County Sexual Assault Task Force, a member of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and an Associate Member of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Mr. Fairlie’s areas of practice include personal injury, car accidents, criminal defense, and DUI defense. Mr. Fairlie enjoys scuba-diving, hunting, fishing and coaching youth sports.

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.

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.

Roger Merrill is a practicing attorney in the state of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with his J.D. in 1991. He currently works at his privately owned firm of The Law Offices of Merrill and Associates specializing in Personal Injury.

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.

Attorney Joseph Michael Dickerson and his team of professionals deliver legal solutions for your life and business. Since 1995, Mr. Dickerson has helped hundreds of families and business owners protect everything they have worked so hard for. Will the attorney you hire make a difference when handling your estate planning, real estate, or business transaction needs? If all you are looking for is a quick signature on the bottom of a document, probably not. But if you need to make sure handling your legal papers or dispute today will help you eliminate problems in years to come, there is no question the right attorney can make a difference. Many people only think of hiring a lawyer when something needs to be fixed. I see things differently. I am attorney Joseph Michael Dickerson of Laredo, Texas. Colleagues tell me I'm a different kind of lawyer. I like building things rather than breaking things apart. Since graduating from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio in 1995, I have always focused my career on helping people prevent problems now, so they don't have to fix them later.

Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., my law firm, has been a trusted name in Houston since the 1970's. We proudly represent the little guys against big insurance companies and corporations. I earned my law degree and passed the bar in 1995. I immediately began my practice in personal injury trial law with Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. as a trail attorney. I became Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law in 2005 in Texas. I have received recognition as a “Top Lawyer” by H Texas Magazine in 2013 and was most recently named A Texas Super Lawyer by Texas Monthly's Super v Meragazine. I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Texas in 1992 and earned my Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law in 1995. While in school, I was a member of the Phi Delta Phi Honorary Legal Fraternity, the Student Bar Association Student Concerns Committee, and the Houston Young Lawyer’s Association Environmental Committee.

Only two lawyers in Southeast Texas are both Board Certified in Criminal Law and Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Texas; Ryan Gertz is one of them. Focused on defending serious state and federal criminal charges, Ryan routinely tries complex cases and has met with great success.

Ben Hand is the founding partner of Hand Law Firm, LLC. as well as a partner in Hand & Hand Mediation, LLC. Ben was admitted to the Bar in Alabama in 1990 after earning his Juris Doctor from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. Ben completed his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Auburn University in 1987b and has remained an avid Auburn fan. Ben was born in Valley, Alabama and traveled as a child to Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico with his parents who worked as missionaries and teachers. It was during his childhood travels that he learned to love the Central American culture and learned to speak fluent Spanish. After high school, Ben returned to Auburn and has remained a citizen of Lee County for the past thirty-five years. In 1990, Ben founded Hand Law Firm, LLC. He has been practicing for over twenty-five years. Ben focuses his practice on criminal defense, civil litigation, social security, family law, and probate law. In addition to his duties at Hand Law Firm, Ben is also a state registered mediator and has served as a Municipal Judge for over twenty years. Ben has served the cities of Roanoake, Wedowee, Camp Hill and Opelika during his tenure as Municipal Judge and Prosecutor and thus has a unique perspective in criminal defense. Ben lives in Opelika with his wife, Elizabeth Hand and together they are raising their ten children.