About our Attorneys

New Jersey Lawyers

Ed Rebenack, Craig Aronow, and Jay Mascolo are New Jersey lawyers who have a long history of representing people who have been victimized by others.  When the New Jersey legislature explored changing the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, they decided to team-up with lawyers from Washington state who have a significant amount of experience representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This page provides more information on this team of lawyers who are representing abuse survivors in New Jersey.

As noted below, if you ask this team to represent you, the legal fee is the same — there is no additional legal fee for the additional help.

Please know that this page provides information on the attorneys listed below, including examples of results they have obtained for other clients.  However, every case is different, so an attorney’s prior success is no guarantee of future success, and no aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Ed Rebenack

Ed Rebenack is a New Jersey attorney and co-founder of Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo, LLP.  He has spent his legal career helping people who have been hurt and injured through no fault of their own with “best of class” service.  While prior success does not guarantee future success, Ed has obtained multiple results for his clients that exceeded $1 million, including an $8,340,000 jury verdict.

As a Certified Civil Trial Attorney, Ed is among less than 2% of New Jersey practicing lawyers who have demonstrated sufficient levels of experience, education, knowledge, and skill in civil trial practice.  He is rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubble, which is a peer rating that is “a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.”  His peers have voted him as a “Super Lawyer” in New Jersey every year since 2009.  In 2012, Ed received the “Civil Practice Award” from the Middlesex County Bar Association.

Craig Aronow

Craig Aronow is a New Jersey attorney and co-founder of Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo, LLP.  He has a passion for fighting for his clients who have been hurt by the negligent or reckless acts of others, and he works tirelessly to obtain compensation on their behalf.  With nearly two decades of courtroom experience of fighting for his clients, Craig never forgets that he is working to improve his clients’ lives, many of whom have become like family. Clients have a voice and it is Craig’s job to make sure it is heard. That is why he fights for his clients every day.  His hard work is reflected in the many large verdicts and settlements he has obtained for his clients, including a $1,375,000 verdict.

Craig has been voted as a “Rising Star” or “Super Lawyer” by his peers in New Jersey every year since 2010, and has an “AV Preeminent” rating by Martindale Hubbell.  He has received multiple awards from the New Jersey State Bar Association, including the “Solo and Small Firm Lawyer of the Year” award in 2018.

Jay Mascolo

Jay Mascolo is a New Jersey attorney and co-founder of Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo, LLP.  He believes in providing each client with individualized attention and working closely to explain developments throughout their case. Jay devotes himself completely to his clients and promises prompt responses to any questions they may have.  He concentrates his practice on representing adults and children who have been injured as a result of the negligence of others.  Jay has obtained multiple large verdicts and settlements for his clients, including a recent $1,075,000 settlement.

Jay was a Trustee of the Middlesex County Bar Association from 2016-2018, and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.  He is certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and has been repeatedly voted as a “Super Lawyer” by his peers.

Tom Vertetis

Tom Vertetis is licensed as a lawyer in both New Jersey and Washington State.  After graduating law school, Tom clerked for the Honorable Jane B. Cantor of the New Jersey Superior Court.  He then began his law practice as a prosecutor in New Jersey, where he prosecuted claims on behalf of victims of crime, including claims against sex predators.  Tom then moved to Washington State and became a co-founder of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, where he is now the firm’s managing partner.

Tom is a trial lawyer with a passionate commitment to assisting those in need of help.  He has tried in excess of 50 cases to juries and obtained verdicts in diverse cases, including a $13.95 million medical malpractice jury verdict and a $3.075 million jury verdict for the wrongful termination and defamation of a 20-year decorated senior county prosecutor.  Tom has helped obtain million-dollar plus results for many of his clients, including multiple survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Tom has been consistently recognized as a “Super Lawyer” by Washington Law & Politics, a recognition bestowed upon only 5% of eligible attorneys each year in the state. Since 2014, he has been recognized as a “Top 100” lawyer in Washington by Washington Law and Politics. Tom has achieved an “AV” peer rating, the highest rating available for legal ability and ethical standards, by Martindale Hubbell. He has previously been awarded the “Local Hero Award” by the Washington State Bar Association, the coveted “Boss of the Year” award by the Pierce County National Association of Legal Professionals and the “Pro Bono Award” by the Pierce County Bar Association.

Tom’s eldest child has autism. He is a strong advocate and champion for disabled children. He currently serves on the Board of Ashley House, a South Sound care provider for medically fragile children, and has served on the Board of the Academy of Precision Learning, an inclusive Seattle K-12 school which provides educational services to both typical developing and students on the autism spectrum. He also supports Autism awareness and is a regular emcee for the University of Washington Experimental Education Unit’s annual auction.

Non-New Jersey Lawyers

If you or someone you love was sexually abused as a child, attorneys from Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo, LLP and/or Tom Vertetis may ask for permission to work together with one or more of the attorneys listed below. While not each of these lawyers is licensed to practice in New Jersey, the attorneys listed below have significant experience representing adults who were sexually abused as children. If these lawyers are part of your legal team, the legal fee remains the same, which means you receive the benefit of more than one law firm working for you for the same cost.

Michael T. Pfau

Attorney Michael T. Pfau

Seattle attorney Michael T. Pfau has practiced law for more than 25 years.  He has tried over 50 cases to juries, the bench, and arbitration panels.  Michael has obtained multiple verdicts in excess of $1 million, and he has recovered tens of millions of dollars in settlements for his clients.  In 2012, he obtained an $8 million jury verdict against a Catholic religious order, believed to be one of the largest of its kind.

Michael attended Boston College, graduated magna cum laude, and earned a number of other academic honors.  After Boston College, Michael attended Michigan law school and graduated in 1991.  He has been named a perpetual “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics magazine, receiving that honorable distinction every year since 2003.  He is peer rated AV Preeminent.

Michael has dedicated a large part of his practice to representing victims of childhood sexual abuse against sexual predators and the institutions that employ and protect them.  Michael has had tremendous success prosecuting claims of child sexual abuse in a number of different states and jurisdictions.  In this endeavor, Michael has been lead counsel for hundreds of victims of sexual abuse and has recovered in excess of $200 million for his clients over the past 15 years in lawsuits against the Catholic church, the Mormon church, the Boy Scouts of America, and other institutions responsible for child sex abuse.

Michael has been involved in a number of the nation’s large Catholic bankruptcy settlements, including the Dioceses of Spokane and Milwaukee and those involving the Jesuit order and the Irish Christian Brothers.

Michael was also recently involved in a lawsuit on behalf of three minor girls sexually trafficked on the website Backpage.com, the largest online marketer of prostitutes in the United States.  His clients obtained a landmark victory in the Washington State Supreme Court over whether federal immunity barred the case.  Michael now represents clients who were human trafficking victims on Backpage in cases in Washington, California, Texas, Hawaii, Illinois, Alabama, and California.

Jason P. Amala

Attorney Jason P. Amala

Jason P. Amala has represented hundreds of survivors of childhood sexual abuse.  He has recovered tens of millions of dollars for those clients, and was part of the trial team that obtained an $8 million verdict for a client who was abused at a parish run by a Catholic religious order.

Jason started representing abuse survivors more than ten years ago when he was asked to help a number of men who had been abused at a Catholic boarding school outside of Seattle.  The litigation eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Christian Brothers religious order.

Jason has successfully pursued claims against the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America, the Mormon Church, and numerous schools and state institutions.  He has also been closely involved with a number of Catholic bankruptcies, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Christian Brothers religious order, and has been the lead appellate lawyer on a number of watershed cases that have expanded the rights of abuse survivors and crime victims.  The prior results Jason has obtained for his clients do not guarantee or predict the future results of his work, but they do reflect his dedication to helping survivors of child abuse.

Jason graduated with distinction from the University of Washington Honors College, and then obtained his law degree from Seattle University School of Law, where he graduated second in his class and received a number of top honors.

Jason is licensed to practice law in Washington and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Vincent T. Nappo

Attorney Vincent T. Nappo

Vincent primarily represents survivors of childhood sexual abuse against the individuals and powerful organizations responsible for the abuse, such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church.

Vincent has a long history of advocating on behalf of underprivileged and underrepresented communities.   Today, he continues to fight for those who have been wronged by the greed, negligence, and careless acts of others.  He serves as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children, and he volunteers his spare time to help victims of domestic violence.

Vincent graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and then earned his law degree from the University of Washington School of Law.

Vincent is currently licensed to practice law in Washington and lives in the Seattle area.

Anelga Doumanian

Attorney Anelga Doumanian
Anelga has focused her work on helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse since before she became a lawyer.  During her second year of law school, she clerked for one of the few Missouri law firms that is dedicated to representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse.  After graduating from law school, Anelga continued to focus almost exclusively on representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse against the Catholic Church, including the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Archdiocese of Seattle, and the Diocese of Yakima.  Although Anelga lives and works in Seattle, she is licensed in both Washington and New York.