NEWS

HIGHLIGHTS

BY LISA LITZINGER

When Sam Pond ’81 speaks, three things are obvious: He’s got the confident air of a politician, the
contemplative nature of a philosopher, and the Philly accent he acquired growing up in Torresdale. Ask him a
question and you can practically see the wheels turning in his head before his gaze shifts back to meet yours
and he delivers the perfect response.

He has degrees in finance and law, but his formal education isn’t the only key to his success. Some of the
skills that make him a highly respected workers’ compensation lawyer and successful entrepreneur came from
experiences Pond had a world away from university life, while working in a union. And in the ring.

Pond began boxing at the age of 17, competing in amateur bouts around Philadelphia when he could find the
time between work and school, for the next two years. “It isn’t a thug sport,” he explains. “It’s contemplative in a
lot of ways. Anything that allows you to get confidence and deal with fear helps you reflect upon yourself.”

Boxing requires skills that clearly translate to the courtroom, and not only because both involve winning the
opinion of a judge. He says it’s a combination of sport and art: “There are so many intricacies: throwing a punch,
doing a combination, sizing up your opponent, moving your feet. You’re dancing to a certain extent, all while
someone is trying to hit you.”

But most importantly, Pond says, boxing taught him the hyper-focus that would make him a formidable
opponent in the courtroom.
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Not many people who hold a juris doctorate will tell you they considered skipping college altogether. But for
Pond, it seemed like a viable option. “I wanted to go into the construction trades just like everybody else in my
neighborhood,” he says. In fact, he began working his first job as a union laborer before he even graduated
high school, during the summer after his junior year, on a tie-in crew laying a pipeline through Pennsylvania.

“When you lay a pipeline and you come to a river, swamp, crick, you have to slow down, get things right. We
would work 90 hours a week. I made over $1,000 a week in 1975.”

But his father worked for PGW with Local 686 gas workers union and had earned his associate degree from
Drexel years earlier. Academically, Pond was a good student, and his father impressed upon him that it would
be a waste to not at least enroll in college.

Pond took his father’s advice and started his undergraduate studies in finance at Drexel LeBow in 1976.To pay
his tuition, he took another union job that worked around his class schedule – a tough and dirty job with the
local mailer’s union at the Philadelphia Inquirer on weekends. He would put in two long shifts within a 24-hour
time frame starting Friday nights at 10 p.m. He would earn a whopping $400 a weekend.

“When I first went in there, I literally thought I went back to 1890. It looked like
being part of the first industrial revolution. We were working on the presses
where the papers would come off – we would put them on skids and load
them onto the trucks. We were covered in ink.”

Pond worked at the Inquirer’s printing room for nine years – through his
entire career at Drexel and even during his three years at Temple’s law
school.

Two of his Drexel co-ops were in production management at iconic

Philadelphia companies: Tastykake and Schmidt’s brewery, where “I got into
quality control so I had to make sure the beer was good,” he says with a
smile. His friends were jealous.

It was a pivotal time in the brewing industry, he explains. “All these little breweries were being put out of
business by the Millers and the Budweisers, and we were buying up these smaller labels like Reading Beer and
Knickerbocker.”

They were making big decisions around marketing and branding, which Pond had the opportunity to weigh in
on. His co-op even turned into a part-time job there, which he kept until he graduated.

The owner at the time was William Pflaumer, better known as “Billy the Beer King.” Pond describes him as
“magnamorous” because he would subsidize things for his workers. “He was a neighborhood guy who cared
about his employees, and I took something away from that,” Pond says.

He isn’t much of a beer drinker anymore – nowadays he prefers Bordeaux.

Pond met his wife in first grade. Mimi lived in his neighborhood, a few streets away, and they started dating in
high school. They have been together for more than 30 years and now make their home in Newtown Square.
Sam calls Mimi “the wind beneath my wings.” They have one son, Dylan, who is currently a freshman at the
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Prize Fighter, continued from page 2

Pond (left) and his son Dylan (right) at Joe Hand Boxing Gym with pro trainer Danny Davis.

University of Southern California.

Boxing is a family tradition of sorts among the Ponds. Sam Pond’s father was a boxer himself, though it was
against his father’s wishes and at the urging of a high school football coach that the younger Pond began to
box. And now, his son Dylan has picked up a taste for the sport, too. Sam Pond says that after his days as an
amateur competitor were over, he continued to spar for fun in his 20s and then picked it up again around age
50, when he and Dylan started visiting Joe Hand Boxing at 3rd and Spring Garden streets to work out together.

The Pond family also enjoys spending time at their house down the shore in Sea Isle City, where they kayak,
surf, wakeboard and play tennis.

Sam Pond was raised by two particularly thoughtful parents who agreed on most things, except politics. “My
mother would pray to the Virgin Mary. My father would pray to Roosevelt.” Pond describes his father as a union
guy with a socialist mentality. He only saw him cry twice: “When my mother passed away, and when Nixon beat
Humphrey in 1968.”

Pond’s mother, Marie, an Italian-American Republican from South Philadelphia, really loved American capitalism
and was a member of Republican organizations in South Philly.

Politically, Pond sides with his father, who is also named Sam, but says that at the end of the day, the most
important thing his parents gave him was a belief system; not really religious in nature, he describes it as a
“destiny belief system.”

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Prize Fighter, continued from page 3
“There’s doubt in anyone’s mind. But there was not much doubt that we had the ability to make our dreams

come true, that the impossible was possible, especially in this country.”

Pond’s first year as a law student at Temple was difficult, but not because of his workload.

His mother, who had recently suffered an injury at the dry cleaning factory where she worked at 13th and
Venango for $160 a week, was laid up with a broken hip. Shortly after that injury, she was diagnosed with
cancer.

Perhaps ironically, the family never even filed a worker’s compensation claim. They had other, more important
things to worry about. She died a few months after her diagnosis.

In what may have turned out to be a formative experience, Pond’s father attempted to change the designation
on his union pension to his children. “He knew the pension laws pursuant to his collective bargaining
agreement inside and out,” Pond says.

But the claim was denied on a “crazy technicality.” Only months after his mother’s death, his father died of
cancer, too. The claim was denied because his father wasn’t alive on the first day of the month following the
change in designation.

His father had worked as a machinist with the gas workers union, paying into his pension for 35 years. And the
PGW commission that oversaw the pension fund tried to give his family nothing in return. Pond fought it and
won.

Losing both of his parents at such a young age put things in perspective for him. “Everyone else was worried
about the so-called paper chase the first year of law school. I was looking at life-and-death things.”

Pond still receives those checks from his fathers’ pension – but he doesn’t keep them. He designated that
money to create the Marie Pond Scholarship Fund, which provides
selected members of the Torresdale Boys Club some funds toward
college.

After graduating law school, Pond spent two years representing

insurance companies before jumping across the table. He spent a
little over two decades with the firm Martin Banks Pond Lehocky &
Wilson before he and Jerry Lehocky broke off to blaze a trail of their
own. They formed Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano in 2010 with 22
employees.

To say it’s grown quickly is an understatement; over the course of

four years, it has grown into a full-service workers’ comp and Social
Security disability firm with more than 200 employees, complete with
its own medical staff to help coordinate the proper care for clients.
Words of wisdom from his parents still come to mind today when he’s
making long-term decisions involving the firm’s future. His father would

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remind him of an old proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.”

Prize Fighter, continued from page 4

“Those little things that were said to us that really sunk in.” For example, when an employee comes to him
with an idea, he thinks of the long-term view of how it might help the firm succeed. When a task seems
overwhelming, Pond’s attitude is: “Put the days together; put the weeks together; put the years together, and
you’ll be surprised with what you can do.”

Pond says he’s had many cases where the stakes were high for the individuals he was representing, but the
ones that stand out the most are cases where he fought to provide benefits to families after a death. “I think
when you represent a widow, someone who’s lost her husband and has young children, helping them get
through that and get the benefits they need is rewarding. It’s an honor and a blessing to represent someone
who is really putting their trust and their life in your hands.”

He cites an abundance of fraud-like behavior within the insurance industry for his firm’s success. Injured
workers are often perceived as committing fraud, he says. “And yet, I don’t think I’ve had a fraud action brought
against any of my clients in 25 years, whereas I think dishonesty is pretty rampant on the insurance company
side as far as denying claims that have no basis for denial.”

In one example, an insurance company refused to modify the home of a construction worker who became
paralyzed at work. So Pond’s firm went ahead and had the work done – confident that they would win. And
they did, and the insurer had to pay the firm’s legal fees and a significant penalty to the injured client.

Pond credits the business education he acquired at LeBow for giving him a big-picture view of how to form
a law firm with a business mindset. “I clearly think having a finance degree and an interest in economics, the
business world and entrepreneurship has really been as asset for me, whereas a lot of my colleagues were
history, English or political science majors.”

While other types of law practices had to downsize with the recession, workers’ comp was largely unaffected,
which gave him the opportunity to hire a lot of good talent. This fall, his firm will move from its current location
in United Plaza on South 17th Street to newly renovated offices in One Commerce Square.

These days, Pond spends a lot of time on strategic planning and managing his large firm and tending to other
professional duties. He’s currently the president of Union Services Access USA, and he’s a past-president of the
Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. “My mother always told me I’d be president,” he jokes.

But from time to time, he still finds himself sparring in the courtroom, and in the ring, utilizing those hyper-focus
skills. “If I’m in a ring and I’m looking at my opponent, it has me focused on my confidence and staying in the
moment. If I’m doing a cross-examination or a direct-examination, I’m not thinking about lunch.”

Photography by Colleen Stepanian

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T h e O l d e s T l a w J O u r n a l
philadelphia, monday, november 21, 2011
r e g i o n a l
$3 Mil. Workers’ Comp Accord Reached in $38 Mil. Dram Shop Case
By zack needles
Of the Legal Staff
a
former highway construc-
tion worker who was
awarded nearly $38 million
and later settled for an additional
$20 million with a third-party in-
surer after he was left quadriplegic
by an allegedly drunken driver has
also reached a $3 million settlement
with his employer’s workers’ com-
pensation carrier.
The plaintiff’s workers’ compen-
sation attorney, samuel h. Pond of
Pond lehocky stern Giordano in
Philadelphia, said he believes it may
be the largest workers’ compensa-
tion settlement in the country.
On Oct. 28, more than seven years
after a Philadelphia judge reduced
the $75 million jury verdict in the
underlying dram shop case to about
$38 million and following three
years of negotiations, workers’ com-
pensation Judge Thomas J. hines
approved a $3 million settlement
between plaintiff Joseph Tuski and
workers’ compensation carrier erie
insurance Co.
according to court papers in the
underlying dram shop case, Tuski
v. Ivyland Café, Tuski was working
NEWS
HIGHLIGHTS
i n T h e u n i T e d
VOL 244 • NO. 100
n e w s
as a flagman for liberty
Construction at a road-pav-
ing project in warminster,
Pa.
One lane of the road was
closed to traffic, and Tuski
and another flagman were
directing traffic, according PonD
to court papers. at the time
of the accident, Tuski had several
cars stopped in order to allow the
oncoming traffic to proceed, court
papers said.
according to court papers, Michael
Petaccio, a manager at defendant
ivyland Café who had served him-
self drinks, passed the stopped cars
on the shoulder and struck Tuski at
more than 40 mph, throwing him
more than 108 feet and causing inju-
ries that left him paralyzed from the
neck down.
after the accident, according to
court papers, Petaccio fled the scene
and drove to his nearby home where
he smashed into pillars near his
driveway.
Petaccio then persuaded his girl-
friend to take him to his mother’s
house in Philadelphia. when they
discovered that his mother was not
at home, they went to the home of
Petaccio’s sister, who immediately
s T a T e s 1 8 4 3 - 2 0 1 1
called the police and in-
formed them that her brother
“was drunk and had been in
an accident,” court papers
said.
Police arrested Petaccio
several hours after the ac-
cident and noted that he ap-
peared intoxicated, accord-
ing to court papers.
But Petaccio at first denied drink-
ing any alcohol in the six hours be-
fore his arrest and refused to submit
to a blood test, court papers said.
after police obtained a search
warrant, Petaccio’s blood was tested
at about 8 p.m. it indicated a blood-
alcohol level of 0.17 percent, ac-
cording to court papers.
after a six-day trial in January
2004 before Philadelphia Common
Pleas Judge John Milton Younge, a
jury awarded Tuski $75 million, in-
cluding $5 million in punitive dam-
ages for the owners of the ivyland
Café and $20 million in punitive
damages for Petaccio.
The award also included more
than $1.6 million for his past medi-
cal expenses, $18 million for future
medical expenses and $2 million for
lost earnings.
in addition, the verdict included
See $3 Mil Settlement page 8 7
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$3 Mil Settlement, continued from page 7
four awards of $7.25 million each But Pond told The Legal in early But, according to Pond, erie
— or $29 million — for pain and november that, after the settle- insurance was instead “very anx-
suffering, loss of life’s pleasures, ment with Princeton insurance was ious” to close the case.
embarrassment and disfigurement. reached, Tuski had been forced to “what erie insurance was able to
at the time, plaintiffs attor- put more than $200,000 per year do was close their file and free up
ney robert Mongeluzzi of saltz from those settlement proceeds to- their reserves,” he said. “My client
Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky ward his medical bills, which total was able to stop bleeding money
told The Legal he believed the award about $300,000 annually. out of his third-party settlement pro-
may have been the second-largest according to Pond, prior to settle- ceeds to the tune of a quarter-million
verdict ever in Philadelphia in a non- ment, erie insurance had a lien dollars a year.”
death personal injury case. against Tuski that had reduced his erie insurance’s attorney, neil T.
But in May 2004, Younge issued an workers’ compensation benefits by dombrowski of the dombrowski
order that cut the punitives in half — about 60 percent and that was paid Group in Paoli, Pa., said Tuski’s was
to $2.5 million against the bar and to back. “a complex case involving an indi-
$10 million against Petaccio — and Pond said workers’ compensation vidual who had a profound spinal
reduced the compensatory awards settlement negotiations began in cord injury and we resolved it by
to $25.34 million — with the award 2008, with erie insurance originally a lawful compromise and release”
against Petaccio reduced to $19 mil- offering $750,000 before the parties agreement under the state’s workers’
lion and the award against ivyland eventually agreed on $3 million. Compensation act.
Café reduced to $6.34 million. Zack Needles can be contacted
Younge’s reductions brought the at 215-557-2493 or zneedles@
total award down to $37.84 mil- It was the largest settlement alm.com. Follow him on Twitter @
lion. a unanimous state superior to date in a Pennsylvania ZNeedlesTLI.  •
Court panel upheld the judgment in
september 2005. insurance bad-faith case.
But Mongeluzzi told The Legal
at the time that when pre- and post-
judgment interest were added, the according to Pond, about $1.5
judgment had swelled to more than million of the settlement was a
$48 million. Medicare set-aside. Previously, Pond
in June 2007, ivyland Café’s in- said, Tuski had only been receiving
surer, Princeton insurance Co., about $13,000 from Medicare annu-
agreed to pay $20 million to Tuski ally. Ten percent of the $3 million
to settle a bad-faith claim that it had settlement — $300,000 — also went
refused to settle the case for the tav- toward attorney fees.
ern’s policy limit of $1 million. Pond called the settlement “ex-
it was the largest settlement to tremely satisfying,” particularly
date in a Pennsylvania insurance since there was some concern
bad-faith case. that the workers’ compensation
On top of the $1.4 million the carrier would begin conduct-
plaintiffs had already collected from ing utilization reviews to chal- Reprinted with permission from the November 21,
2011 edition of The LegaL INTeLLIgeNceR ©
the bond ivyland Café had previ- lenge the necessity of some 2011 aLM Media Properties, LLc. all rights reserved.
Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For
ously posted, the total recovery for of the medical care Tuski had been information, contact 347-227-3382, reprints@alm.com or
Tuski was about $21.4 million. receiving. visit www.almreprints.com. # 201-11-11-04

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Q&A
WORKERS’COMPENSATION
WITH SAMUEL H. POND, ESQ.
When it comes to
protecting workers’ rights
in Pennsylvania, one
Workers’ Compensation
Law Firm stands out from
the rest.
As the largest Firm of its
kind in the region, Pond
Lehocky Stern Giordano is
a force in the industry. Its
founders helped write the
1st pro-workers piece of
legislation in PA in over 30
years, and they have
negotiated Workers’
Compensation settlements
among the highest
in the state’s history.
But at the heart of Pond
Lehocky’s success is founding
partner Sam Pond’s true
passion for defending the
rights of injured workers.
In the following interview,
he sheds light on what
drives his lifelong
commitment to standing
up for workers’ rights.
NEWS
HIGHLIGHTS
Q: Why do you do what you do? What Giordano the choice for
motivates you to represent
injured workers?
A: My father worked as a union machinist but go
for 35 years only to have his pension denied
on a technicality while on his deathbed. His
kids (my sister and I) would have missed out
on his hard-earned benefits just because
he didn’t live another nine days until the
start of the following month.
Why do I do what I do? Because
I’ve been there. Because I’ve seen
my father get burned and my mom
break her hip on the job. These are
experiences that deeply affected
me and have driven me all my life
to go to battle for folks fighting
big businesses and insurance
companies for their hard-earned
rights.
Q: People that come to you for
representation typically have a
lot on the line.
A: When you’re hurt and can’t
work, your bills start piling up.
You don’t know if you’re going to
be able to put food on the table
or stay in your home. You can’t
afford to lose out on your benefits,
and you need a proven law firm
with the resources, expertise, and
drive to fight tirelessly until you get the
compensation that you deserve.
That was our vision when we founded
Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano—to be
the best Workers’ Compensation Law
Firm. To make sure that our clients get
the best experience possible, from being
fully informed and prepared for the legal
process, to being comfortable with their
attorney, to being warmly greeted every
time they come to our office—that’s the
personalized experience we offer to
every one of our clients. Because we care
about them, to the core.
THE WORKERS COMPENSATION LAW FIRM
Workers’ Compensation?
A: We have the resources, the expertise,
also the passion that drives us to
the extra mile and do whatever it
takes to get our clients the benefits they
deserve. We are the largest Workers’
Compensation Firm in the region, and
we leverage our resources to bring the
firepower needed to go to battle for our
clients and succeed.
Our clients lives are basically shattered
when they come to us and we help them
put their lives back together again. We
negotiate multiple $100,000+ settlements
on a weekly basis, including a $3 million
settlement that is among the highest in
Workers’ Compensation ever awarded in
Pennsylvania’s history. At this point we’re
carrying a heavy stick when we walk into
a courtroom. And all this while never
charging a client unless we win the case.
Workers’ Compensation law is very
technical and complex, and injured
workers need outstanding, proven
representation if they’re going to be
successful with a claim. That’s what we
deliver.
Q: But even with your size and
success, you stay true to the
individual worker.
A: At Pond Lehocky we’re not
representing an insurance company or
a bottom line. We’re representing real
people, folks who have put their body
on the line every day to earn a living
and are now in need of much-deserved
compensation earned with blood, sweat,
and tears. That’s what motivates me. My
“
client’s fight is my fight, and that’s the
passion and drive my Partners and I have
instilled in every member of our Firm. It
is an honor to fight for our clients and our
duty to help make them whole again.
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HIGHLIGHTS

Torn Apart:
When the Medium is the Message
Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano commissioned British artist/illustrator Ian Wright to create three large-scale portraits using his innovative
torn paper technique. Three clients who suffered serious workplace injuries were asked to participate. Each was interviewed by Wright
and photographed in order to capture the essence of their stories. Working with the innumerable pieces of paper that filled their over-
stuffed case files, Wright constructed multi-dimensional pieces of art that reflect how a life torn to pieces can be put back together again.

Mr. George “Moose” Beerley

Heavy machine operator
Mr. George “Moose” Beerley was injured by a malfunctioning piece of construction
equipment that lifted him into the air. He is a client of Managing Partner Samuel H. Pond.

bit.ly/george-video

Ms. Barbara Daquilante

Food service worker
Ms. Barbara Daquilante was struck by a trash truck that injured both of her legs while she
was on her way to work. She is a client of Partner Jerry M. Lehocky.
bit.ly/barbara-video

Mr. Francis Elliot

Parking Authority attendant
Mr. Francis Elliot developed a herniated disc in his neck from years of carrying heavy
equipment. He is a client of Partner David F. Stern.

bit.ly/francis-video

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