Fighting for ‘The Little Guy’
For nearly three decades, Gross & Kenny LLP has excelled at helping workers find resolution after life-changing injuries in the workplace.
The worst happens. You’re severely injured in an accident while at work. Maybe it’s your back or your neck. You definitely have a serious injury, no doubt about it. Maybe your injuries are so disabling that you are out of work for an indeterminate amount of time and leave you wondering how you’ll be able to provide for your family or afford to pay your mounting medical bills.
Compounding matters may be that your employer challenges your benefits claim. Suddenly, your undying loyalty and dedication to your company is forgotten. Worry turns into stress, and stress turns to panic. You realize you need the practiced representation of an experienced workers’ compensation attorney.
You find it with Gross & Kenny LLP, based in Philadelphia. And when Jeffrey S. Gross and his skilled and compassionate legal team win you the compensation you rightly deserve, as he has for clients for nearly three decades, you thank him. And as you do, you should reserve some measure of thanks for another member of his family: Robert Codell, his late maternal grandfather.
“He was my hero,” says Gross. “He instilled in me the values and morals of helping people. He was an assembly-line worker for the Bond Bread Company in Philadelphia, working midnight to 8 a.m. for 40 years. He eventually became foreman of the line and did all he could to help the injured workers. We were talking one day, and he said to me, ‘Look, do anything you want in life, but always stick up for the little guy.’ I never forgot that.”
Since 1991, Gross has dedicated his practice to obtaining, maintaining, and maximizing workers’ compensation benefits for clients in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. He has a long record of success representing clients in workers’ compensation litigation, including full and partial disability claims, lump sum settlements, occupational diseases, workplace fatalities, and subrogation matters.
“Our firm is not a workers’ compensation mill,” Gross adds. “Some firms have a different attorney handling your case every day; there’s no continuity. That’s not the case with us. I give clients my cell number and tell them to call me anytime, 24/7.”
Gross and his fellow attorneys consider it their duty to take the time to understand each client’s unique needs.
“They can rely on us to handle all the details of their case and return their phone calls the same day,” he says. “From filing the paperwork, helping schedule medical appointments, filling out forms, providing medical records to different physicians, strategically determining the full value of their claim and negotiating on their behalf, we will take care of it all. This leaves them free to concentrate on recovering from their injury while we execute a game plan for maximizing their benefits.”
Workers often see a much different side of their employer once they have been injured. During his long career representing injured workers, Gross has encountered cases in which an employer not only challenges a worker’s disability claim but also strategizes to lessen the disability payment by listing an inaccurate description of injury.
“What some companies do is try to minimize the injury because they want to keep costs to a minimum,” he adds. “If there’s an injury to a lower back, the company may try to say it’s only a strain, when, in reality, it’s a disc problem that requires surgery. We do what’s needed to make sure there’s a properly accepted diagnosis. We do everything possible to help our clients.”
‘Doing What’s Right’
Gross earned his undergraduate degree in business administration and accounting with honors from Muhlenberg College in 1988, and his Juris Doctor from the Dickinson School of Law in 1991. He has been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Pennsylvania. He was the chancellor and a founding member of the prestigious Louis D. Brandeis Law Society in Philadelphia. In addition, he is a board member of both the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ), and he was the chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the PAJ. He also chaired the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association (PBA) in 2001, and he has been a member of the PBA’s executive committee as fundraising chair since that time.
His client-first philosophy has garnered him widespread respect and acclaim. He’s been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers list every year from 2004 to 2020, and he has been named one of the top 100 attorneys in Pennsylvania by Philadelphia magazine. His professionalism and history of community service were honored by the Philadelphia Bar Association, which presented him the Martha J. Hampton Award for his record of support for injured workers, compassionate approach, and exemplary professionalism. In addition, he frequently teaches seminars on areas of workers’ compensation law in Pennsylvania, and he has written numerous articles in various publications on the topic.
“We work hard for our clients,” Gross says. “But we also don’t pull punches or sugarcoat things, like telling them they have a great case when there are problematic issues. We tell them what the problem is and what can be done to correct it. Also, throughout litigation we give them information and discuss the case. That way, when they leave, they don’t feel let down. We give them the option to continue to get benefits or the option to settle.”
Gross began his career in personal injury and malpractice. He represented a truck driver who, exhausted while driving for two days from Colorado to Philadelphia, fell asleep on the interstate, went off an embankment, and nearly died. The driver’s workers’ compensation benefits were administratively denied, as the driver “violated a work order” prohibiting employees from falling asleep on the job.
“The employer had told the driver he had to get to Philadelphia on time. That’s why he fell asleep,” Gross says. “Now, he was being denied. I knew that wasn’t right.”
He dug into his law books. And then recalled the words of his grandfather: “Always stick up for the little guy.” Through a combination of preparedness and sheer will, Gross eventually won the case for the worker.
“The family was so grateful,” he recalls. “Right then, I knew this is what I wanted to do: help injured workers. And when you do that, it feels amazing. Exacting justice. It feels like you’re moving a mountain for an injured person who can’t move it themselves. You’re just doing what’s right.”
Gross’ grandfather, Robert Codell, died in 1992, far too soon to see the full benefits of the words of wisdom he imparted to his grandson so many years ago.
“My whole practice is based on what he told me about helping the little guy,” Gross says. “He was the salt of the earth. My hero.”
For that, Gross gives thanks. And, of course, so do his clients.
Gross & Kenny LLP
1500 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 1450
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(267) 589-0090
Photograph courtesy of Gross & Kenny LLP
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, December 2020.
