No, I’m Not the Court Reporter: Seeking Justice Without Bias

The NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers is the largest statewide trial bar in the US with 5,700+ lawyer and judge members. We are committed to protecting, preserving and enhancing the civil justice system. Our highly acclaimed CLE programming features extraordinary presenters covering the most timely and important topics.

Judge Jordan was elected in 2021 to serve as a NYS Supreme Court Justice for the Third Judicial District and is seated in Rensselaer County. She currently serves as the Cochairperson of the Third Judicial District’s Committee on Equal Justice in the Court. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Jordan was a trial lawyer with the law firm Powers & Santola, LLP in Albany, New York, where she represented seriously injured individuals and families of wrongful death victims throughout New York State. In 2023, the NYSBA awarded Judge Jordan the Betty D. Friedlander Award for Trial Excellence. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Past President of the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association, and Past President of the Academy.

Since beginning her law career in 1992, Andrea Bonina has concentrated almost exclusively on significant plaintiffs' personal injury cases. Andrea is now the managing partner of the firm, which handles medical malpractice, product liability, and other complex personal injury litigation. Andrea is a frequent lecturer on litigation and practice management topics. She is the past president of the Brooklyn Bar Association and a current Foundation Trustee. She obtained an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating for skills and ethics. Andrea has earned the respect of her peers and has been featured in the New York Times Super Lawyers list since 2007 as one of the finest plaintiffs' product liability litigators in New York. She has been included in the New York Area’s Top-Rated Lawyers since 2012. Andrea has received numerous awards and honors, including the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Vivian H. Agress Trailblazer Award and Distinguished Service Award. Andrea’s decision to practice law is an outgrowth of her commitment to helping others. As Co-Chair of an annual fundraising drive for St. Jude Children’s Hospital from 1992 through 2006, Andrea raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for children stricken with catastrophic diseases. Andrea is also a founder and past co-chair of the annual Liz Padilla Memorial 5K race to benefit the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyer Project. The race raises money to provide pro bono legal services and programs to needy Brooklyn residents.

Carolyn is a partner at Salenger Sack Kimmel & Bavaro where her practice is primarily focused on medical malpractice cases involving individuals who have sustained serious injuries due to the negligence of medical professionals. She has received a number of noteworthy recognitions, including consecutive Best Lawyers in Medical Malpractice awards, and has been recognized as a New York Super Lawyer since 2016. Carolyn serves as the Vice President for the New York City Trial Lawyers Alliance, Vice President for the Long Island chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, serves on the Board of Directors at the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, and is a Past President of the Academy.

Hadley E. Lundback litigates cases involving medical device and pharmaceutical liability, consumer protection, toxic torts, medical malpractice, and catastrophic personal injury. She has extensive experience handling complex litigation, including serving in court-appointed leadership positions in multi-district litigation (MDL) in federal court and multi-county litigation (MCL) in New Jersey. Hadley oversees the firm’s defective drug and medical device and consumer protection practices. Since joining Faraci Lange in 2010, Hadley has handled all types of cases. She is Co-Lead counsel in the Excellus Data Breach class action litigation and serves on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Bard IVC Filter MDL. Most recently, Hadley was appointed to represent plaintiffs as Co-Lead Interim Class Counsel in the Hoosick Falls water-contamination lawsuit. Hadley and Faraci Lange, LLP have been appointed as Liaison Counsel in a shareholder derivative suit filed against Eastman Kodak Company here in the Western District of New York. Hadley was recently appointed to the Plaintiff Steering Committee in the Exactech Polyethylene Orthopedic Products Liability Litigation MDL (MDL 3044) and is the Chair of the Science Committee. Hadley has litigated claims related to metal-on-metal hip implants, including DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, Biomet M2a Magnum, and Stryker Rejuvenate/ABG II. Hadley had the lead trial case in the DePuy ASR MDL in which a global settlement was announced in the fall of 2013 and was appointed by the court to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Biomet hip implant MDL pending in a federal court in Indiana and to the Science Committee in the Stryker Rejuvenate/ABGII hip implant MCL pending in state court in New Jersey. She is also investigating and litigating claims related to several other medical devices and pharmaceutical drugs. Hadley has also settled claims related to the ingestion of Yaz/Yasmin/Ocella. Hadley is also actively involved in litigation involving serious injuries caused by internal surgical staplers. Hadley was awarded The Daily Record’s Up & Coming Attorney Award in 2011, The Daily Record’s Top Women in Law in 2014, and the 2014 President’s award by the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers. She was listed as an Upstate New York Rising Star from 2013-2015 and has been selected as an Upstate New York Super Lawyer from 2016-2022. In 2019, she was chosen to their prestigious Top 25 Women Upstate New York List. Hadley has also been listed in Best Lawyers from 2018-2023. She was named Best Lawyers’ Lawyer of the Year for Product Liability litigation in their 2020 edition and for Medical Malpractice in the 2019 edition. Hadley was named 2023 Lawyer of the Year in Rochester in the areas of Product Liability and Medical Malpractice. Hadley was named Best Lawyers 2025 Lawyer of the Year in the categories of medical malpractice law and product liability litigation. Hadley has been appointed to the Board of Public Justice, as well as to the Board of Directors of the Finger Lakes Land Trust. She also served as the Chair of the American Association for Justice’s Consumer Privacy/Data Breach Litigation Group. She is a member of the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys, Women En Mass, and is a past president and member of the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers‘ Board. Prior to joining Faraci Lange in 2010, Hadley practiced for four years as an associate in the Environmental Toxic Tort Unit of Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. in New York City. At Weitz & Luxenberg, she represented individuals and businesses harmed by environmental toxins. Hadley was the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in Franco, et al. v. Coronet Industries, Inc. where she obtained a settlement for more than 1,000 individuals in Plant City, Florida harmed by heavy metals in their drinking water and air. She also represented the County of Suffolk in the lead case in the MTBE MDL as well as several Connecticut companies, a Connecticut water provider, and a town in Connecticut, which resulted in a settlement. Hadley graduated from Rutgers School of Law Newark where she was the co-chair of the Public Interest Law Foundation and a Legal Services of New Jersey Fellow. While interning at Legal Services of New Jersey during law school, she co-founded the Prisoner Re-entry Project, which removed civil legal barriers to successful re-entry of incarcerated individuals into society. In her free time, Hadley likes to explore Rochester and the Finger Lakes region with her two kids and enjoys all kinds of outdoor activities.

Angélicque Moreno has been principal and partner at Avanzino & Moreno since 2008 in Brooklyn, NY. She focuses her practice on labor law and construction accidents, product liability, premises liability, negligent security, civil rights violation and automotive cases. She has honed her trial skills at several firms throughout New York and has successfully overseen hundreds of cases from their inception up to and including trial throughout her career. Her understanding of the profound impact that accidents have upon individuals and their families, and her ability to translate legal concepts of fault and damages to a jury in “everyday” terms have allowed her to achieve substantial results for victims suffering from life altering injuries. To her credit, she has numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. Ms. Moreno received a B.A. from Binghamton University in 1990 and a J.D. and from Northeastern University School of Law in 1993. She is very active in the legal community, most recently as President of the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers (2019-2020) and sits on the Academy’s Judicial Screening Committee since 2014. She is also active in the leadership of the New York State Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, and the New York City Trial Lawyers’ Alliance. She has lectured frequently on a variety of topics for the NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers, and has contributed to the Annual Update series for over ten years as a presenter and in recent years as co-author of the Labor Law section.