Celebrating Justice

Some trial lawyers walk into a courtroom hoping they are ready. Rich Ruohonen walks in the way a world-level athlete steps onto the ice — because he has already thrown the shot a hundred times before it matters. Rich...

For years, the defense insisted the case was worth $10,000. Kate Feroleto believed her client — and the truth — were worth far more, and she spent four years proving it. Kate Feroleto did not have a single aha moment...

He was seventeen when a torn meniscus ended a professional soccer career in Ukraine — and put him on a plane to a country whose language he did not yet speak. Boris Grushko has been building on that improbable start...

As a kid, Denis Delja wanted to be a gunslinger — the man with no name who lives by his own code and always ends up fighting for the weaker guy against the bully or the land baron. He grew out of the cowboy stage, but...

Jason Green never planned to be a trial lawyer. He grew up watching Perry Mason and LA Law with his father — a former civil rights attorney — and went to law school thinking he would practice law, not try cases. Then a...

When Alexis Bale was eleven, her sister told her — not entirely as a compliment — that she was good at arguing and should become a lawyer. She took it as one. In Episode 60 of "Celebrating Justice," the "newer" (or...

Jason Doucette will tell you he doesn’t have a great origin story — no lawyers in the family, a pre-med track abandoned somewhere between organic chemistry and an intro-to-criminal-justice elective that happened to fit...

The most powerful advocates are often born from the most painful experiences. Sarah Klein knows this better than most. A survivor of Larry Nassar’s abuse and a trial lawyer who has dedicated her career exclusively to...

Rob Bilott never planned on any of this. He wanted to be an architect, maybe a city planner. It was his father — a retired Air Force officer who enrolled in law school chasing a dream of being Perry Mason — who nudged...

Mike “Pap” Papantonio didn’t set out to be a lawyer. He trained as a journalist, ready to chase revolutions abroad — until a conversation with the legendary Perry Nichols reframed the craft of trial work as storytelling...

As a middle school track coach, she taught kids to breathe on the back stretch and relax their arms on the far turn. They won. More importantly, they believed in themselves. Years later, a worn-down client sat across...

Michael Alder’s entry into plaintiff’s work wasn’t planned at all — it started in a tiny 700-person Louisiana town with preacher-teacher parents, took a surprising turn on a fraternity lawn, and ultimately led to a...

Pasadena trial lawyer Michael S. Carrillo didn’t plan on following in his father’s footsteps. Growing up, he watched Luis Carrillo pour time and money into righteous, pro bono fights — even when the family struggled...

“True advocacy starts and begins with a well-trained lawyer that is providing independent legal counsel in the best interest of the client, not in the best interest of shareholders or a corporation.” Lance K. Brubaker...

Trial lawyer Tom Scolaro of Scolaro Law P.C. shares why the motto “Hustle & Heart, Set Us Apart” isn’t marketing fluff for his firm, it’s operating instructions. Scolaro grew up in a blue-collar upstate New York town...