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Alan H. Perer’s career has seen a long series of successes in a wide range of cases involving wrongful death, medical malpractice, product liability and harmful pharmaceuticals.
Many of these are cases have gone to trial, where Mr. Perer has consistently advocated not only for the rights of his clients, but also for the public’s right to be free of dangers created by the neglect or recklessness of corporations and other powerful institutions.
Thanks to Alan Perer’s advocacy, juries have time and time again awarded his clients millions of dollars in justified compensation. Mr. Perer has represented parents who have lost their children to defective products, patients who have suffered from misdiagnosis and harmful medical procedures and hundreds of other victims whose rights, health and life were needlessly harmed or taken away.
Mr. Perer has also settled numerous catastrophic injury cases in his clients’ interests, including the PPA pharmaceutical death case, the USAir Flight 427 wrongful death cases, and a number of important failures-to-diagnose wrongful death cases. These cases all resulted in multi-million dollar settlements.
Many of Mr. Perer's cases begin as referrals from other attorneys, which reflects his reputation within the legal profession as an accomplished trial lawyer.
Alan Perer is an elected member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, Best Lawyers in America, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and a member of American Association for Justice and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. He has served on the Alumni Board for the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is also Pittsburgh Chapter President of the INBLF, which is an international organization of premiere boutique law firms.
Alan Perer attended Washington & Jefferson College and the University of Pittsburgh, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English in 1973. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he earned his J.D. Degree in 1976.
In 1976, Mr. Perer joined the firm of Scott, Swensen & Scott, which maintained an active civil litigation practice. In 1980, Alan Perer and Jan Swensen formed Swensen & Perer, and in 1999 George Kontos joined the firm as a partner. The firm has evolved to become one of the premier plaintiff medical malpractice, wrongful death and personal injury firms in Pennsylvania.
As senior partner at SPK, Mr. Perer has been dedicated in to improving the quality and scope of the firm's litigation skills, implementing the latest techniques in its trial practice, including the use of focus groups, mock trials and jury consultants.
Alan Perer is also involved in a wide range of community and charitable activities. For several years, he was on the board of Pittsburgh Hearing and Deaf Services and a long-time member of the board of WYEP Community Broadcasting Network, a Pittsburgh public radio station. He is currently on the board of the Pittsburgh Film Office. And together with his wife, Diane, Mr. Perer has created a fund, through the Pittsburgh Foundation, which supports scholarships for underprivileged students, along with numerous other charitable organizations.
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*Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
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George Kontos is a partner at SPK. He received
his B.A., Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988
and his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1991.
Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate with LaBrum and Doak,
in Philadelphia , where his practice included a variety of civil
and commercial litigation matters.
In 1993, Mr. Kontos joined the
then firm of Swensen & Perer,
as an associate. His practice, while still concentrating on litigation,
expanded to include civil rights litigation, stockbroker liability,
bad faith litigation, product liability and medical malpractice.
Mr. Kontos was recently selected as a Fellow in
the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, an invitation-only
group of the Bar's most experienced and proficient litigators. He
also serves on the Board of Governors for the Western Pennsylvania
Trial Lawyer's Association, and is an active member of both the Pennsylvania
and Allegheny County Bar Associations.
He has guest lectured at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, covering a range of
issues including the impact of managed care on the physician patient
relationship, and issues concerning medical malpractice. He has also
taught various classes as part of the Pennsylvania Bar's continuing
legal education program, and has served as moderator for Allegheny
County 's "judicial roundtable" -
- an educational forum comprised of several prominent judges from
the Western Pennsylvania area.
Mr. Kontos is a member of the adjunct faculty of
the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, as lecturer in Advanced
Trial Evidence.
Mr. Kontos is active
in a variety of community and charitable organizations, including
the Lupus Foundation of America.
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Ms. Perer is a 1968 graduate of Vassar College, magna cum laude, and earned her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1976. Ms. Perer concentrates her practice in mass tort litigation and personal injury law for SPK. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and serves on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Civil Procedural Rules Committee.
Ms. Perer's board affiliations have included the Board of Visitors for the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, University of Pittsburgh Law Alumni Association, Board of Directors of Pittsburgh Hearing, Speech and Deaf Services, the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board and the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.Return to top
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Brian W. DelVecchio is an associate with SPK – The Law Firm of Swensen, Perer & Kontos and has represented numerous clients at jury trials, arbitrations and mediations in cases ranging from personal injury claims to contract disputes.
Mr. DelVecchio earned his law degree in 1996 from the University of Tulsa School of Law, where he was a member of Law Review and Phi Delta Phi Legal Honor Fraternity. He served as a Production Editor for the University of Tulsa Law Journal and earned the distinction of being published in the Journal.
Following graduation, he joined the U.S. Army J.A.G. Corps in 1997 where he served as an international and operational law attorney for 1st Armored Division in Germany through October 1999. During his tour with 1st Armored Division, Mr. DelVecchio deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as the legal advisor to the Joint Military Commission for the U.S. Sector, a NATO entity overseeing implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords. Mr. DelVecchio served his second tour of duty from 1999 through 2001 as a trial defense attorney for the
Army, representing soldiers at courts-martial throughout Europe. After returning to Pittsburgh in 2001, he completed his military service as a Major in the Active and Individual Ready Reserves. Between 2001 and 2004, Mr. DelVecchio worked in the field of civil litigation in defense of dental and medical malpractice cases. During this period in 2003, he was mobilized to active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as the legal advisor to a Military Police detachment based out of Long Island, NY.
Mr. DelVecchio received his A.B. from Duke University in 1992 where he majored in English. Duke also recruited him out of North Allegheny High School to be a member of their varsity wrestling team. During law school, Mr. DelVecchio remained involved in wrestling as a volunteer assistant high school wrestling coach in Coweta, Oklahoma. Mr. DelVecchio was a captain of the 1988 North Allegheny High School National Championship wrestling team, recently selected for induction into the 2010 WPIAL Hall of Fame.
Brian DelVecchio belongs to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Pennsylvania Association of Trial Lawyers, and the Western Pennsylvania Association of Trial Lawyers. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations. Mr. DelVecchio is a Legal Leader Honoree for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and is an active fundraiser for the MDA. He serves as a North Park Steward for the Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group (PTAG) and as the founder and leader of his neighborhood association’s Adopt-a-Park team, organizations responsible for volunteer environmental stewardship and clean-up of Allegheny County’s largest park. Mr. DelVecchio serves on the board of Allegheny CleanWays and has also worked with the Allegheny Land Trust on a major land conservation project that will help restore North Park’s lake. Mr. DelVecchio is an amateur mountain bike racer and sponsors several local riders and racing events.
Mr. DelVecchio currently resides in McCandless Township with his wife, Wendy, a market researcher for Heinz, N.A., and his son, Salvador.
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CJ Engel is an associate with SPK and focuses on personal injury litigation. CJ argues and tries the firm's cases before the courts of Western Pennsylvania.
CJ earned his J.D. in 2004 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he was a three-time recipient of the Dean's Merit Scholarship. Throughout law school, CJ served as a law clerk with SPK. As a clerk with the firm, CJ was involved in all aspects of civil litigation, from the initiation of lawsuits through the trial and appellate stages, and the posturing of the firm's cases for settlement.
CJ received his B.A., with distinction, from Penn State. He majored in anthropology and journalism, and was a beat reporter for the Penn State student newspaper, the Daily Collegian. During his time at Penn State, C J was also selected as a repeat recipient of the school's Renaissance Scholarship.
CJ belongs to the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and the Western Pennsylvania Association of Trial Lawyers. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations.
CJ resides in the North Hills with his wife, Amy, a film and video editor, and four children.
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Elizabeth Farina Collura is an associate with SPK and represents clients in personal injury litigation throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Ms. Collura is a 2007 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she served as the Executive Editor of the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law, and was active in trial and appellate moot court. Throughout law school, Ms. Collura interned in the office of the District Attorney of Allegheny County, was a law clerk to the Hon. John A. Zottola of the Court of Common
Pleas of Allegheny County.
Ms. Collura received her Bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004, with a major in German. During college, Ms. Collura studied abroad at the University of Augsburg.
Ms. Collura serves as an associate headnotes editor of the Pittsburgh Legal Journal, and was a member of the 2008-2009 Allegheny County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Bar Leadership Initiative Class, and is a member of the ACBA Young Lawyers Division Council. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Trial Lawyers, the Western Pennsylvania Association of Trial Lawyers, and the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations.
Ms. Collura serves on the Board of Directors of the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, and is an active member of the Opera Theater’s Salon Series Committee.
Ms. Collura and her husband Michael, an IT/systems administrator in the financial industry, reside in the Greenfield neighborhood.
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OF COUNSEL. Jan Swensen was born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, July 16, 1937; admitted to bar, 1963, Pennsylvania,
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit and U.S. District Court, Eastern,
Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania; 1965-1982, U.S. Court
of Customs and Patent Appeals; 1974, U.S. Supreme Court; 1984, U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; 1997, U.S. Court of Appeals,
Fourth Circuit; 2000, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Education: University
of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1959); Dickinson School of Law and University
of Pittsburgh (J.D., 1962). President, Edgewood School District,
Pennsylvania, 1980-1981. Vice President, Woodland Hills School District
, 1981—; Solicitor Edgewood Borough, 1988—. Member, Board
of Trustees, Ohio Valley College . Adjunct Professor, University
of Pittsburgh .
Member: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
and American Bar Associations; Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny
County ; University of Pittsburgh Law Alumni Association (Former
Member, Board of Directors); American Board of Trial Advocates.
Practice
Areas: Personal Injury; Wrongful Death; Professional Liability;
Products Liability; Civil Rights; Professional Malpractice; Commercial
Litigation. .
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