Bethesda attorneys are named Trial Lawyers of the Year

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Bethesda attorneys are named Trial Lawyers of the Year

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Jon D. Pels and Lawrence J. Anderson of the Bethesda law firm Pels Anderson, LLC were selected by the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association as recipients of the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. This award is given to trial lawyers who have made the greatest contribution to the public interest by trying or settling a case of precedential value – precedential either because it changed the law in a way that is beneficial to Marylanders or has, for other reasons, ‘sent a message’ to those who might otherwise trample upon the rights of Maryland citizens.

Several years ago, Pels and Anderson learned that thousands of mobile homes in Maryland were not installed in a safe manner. It cost more money to install the homes properly and because the purchase price included installation, the retailer installers had huge incentives to do it the cheapest way possible. When Maryland residents began to discover that something was the matter with their mobile homes, they tried to get lawyers to take on their cases. Repeatedly, they were turned down, as various lawyers felt that the cases were too difficult. But Pels and Anderson became interested in the cases. They climbed under homes with experts and inspected the problems, investigated the practices in different parks and interviewed scores of residents and mobile home owners.

ASHA wins workplace award

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is among a select group of Maryland businesses to receive the second annual ‘‘Health and Wellness Trailblazer Award” from the Alliance for Workplace Excellence.

Award winners were honored June 14 at a ceremony at the Bethesda North Marriott Convention Center.

A Montgomery County-based coalition of public, private and nonprofit organizations, the Alliance promotes workplace excellence as a competitive advantage.

This is the second year for the ‘‘Health and Wellness Trailblazer Award,” which recognizes employers who demonstrate an exemplary commitment to the overall physical and mental health of their workforce.

Award criteria include depth of management commitment to employee health; on-site fitness centers and health screenings; ergonomic workstation evaluations; and flexible benefits plans. An independent review panel chose the winning employers.

ASHA will be profiled in the Alliance’s 2007 Health and Wellness Trailblazer Report, which will be sent to Maryland employers to inform them about best practices.

ASHA also receives the ‘‘Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval,” which it has won every year since the inception of the honor in 1999. According to the Alliance, the award recognizes ‘‘visionary employers that view workplace excellence as a strategic business imperative. These leaders are paving the way to building workplaces where employees are able to achieve success in all aspects of their professional and personal lives while enhancing the business bottom line.”

ASHA is the national professional, scientific and credentialing association for more than 127,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language and hearing scientists.