ATTORNEYS
Mark J. Goldberg
Mark J. Goldberg obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Washington and Jefferson College and his Juris Doctorate Degree in 1966 from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1966, admitted to the United States Tax Court in 1969 and the United States Supreme Court in 1972.
Mr. Goldberg is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a past President of the Pennsylvania Chapter, and previously served on the National Board of Governors of the AAML.
Mr. Goldberg was elected a charter-member (Diplomate) of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers (ACFTL), and was elected an officer and member of the Executive Committee. The ACFTL is limited to 100 of the top Family Trial Lawyers in the United States.
Mr. Goldberg has been included in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America which recognizes only one percent (1%) of the lawyers in the United States. Mr. Goldberg has been listed in numerous editions of Who’s Who in Law and Who’s Who Among Outstanding Americans. He has also been recognized by Pittsburgh Magazine as one of the best divorce lawyers in the metropolitan Pittsburgh area. Mr. Goldberg has been named every year a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and one of the top 100 lawyers in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Goldberg is a former Chairperson of both the Allegheny County Bar Association Family Law Section and the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section and a member of the American Bar Association Family Law Section.
Mr. Goldberg was instrumental in the drafting and passage of the Pennsylvania Divorce Code of 1980 and the 1988 Amendments to the Divorce Code and was recognized by Governor Thornburgh for his efforts in the passage of the Divorce Code legislation. He has also been involved in the passage of other significant legislation dealing with Family Law in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Goldberg has frequently lectured and authored articles for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association.
Harry J. Gruener
Attorney Gruener has concentrated in family law since 1981 after 12 years of practice as a civil trial lawyer in both state and federal courts. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and was president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the academy in 2000 and 2001. Gruener is a member and former chairperson of both the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section and Allegheny County Bar Association.
He sat on the advisory committee of a Pennsylvania legislative task force along with more than 20 other lawyers and judges who drafted the latest amendments to the Pennsylvania Divorce Code, which became effective in January, 2005. He was recently appointed to the Legislative Subcommittee on Assisted Reproductive Technologies to study and make recommendations to the Pennsylvania Legislature regarding proposed legislation governing assisted reproductive laws, including laws governing surrogacy and other forms of alternative reproduction.
Mr. Gruener is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he teaches courses in family law and supervises a family law legal clinic. He is also the associate director of the family law curriculum at the law school.
Mr. Gruener has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1989. He is a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in Family Law for 2005, 2006 and 2007 and was named by Pittsburgh Magazine as one of the best family lawyers in Pittsburgh.
Education: B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, 1966. J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1969. Bar admissions: Pennsylvania, Federal District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, U.S. Supreme Court.
Gary G. Gentile
Gary G. Gentile obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1968 from Washington and Jefferson College and his Juris Doctorate Degree in 1971 from the University of Pittsburgh. He was admitted in 1971 to the Pennsylvania Bar and to the United States Supreme Court in 1978.
Attorney Gentile began his legal career in 1971 as Assistant Public Defender for Allegheny County and went on to serve as the Director of the Juvenile Division and later as Chief Counsel for the Homicide Division. While working in the Public Defender’s Office, he was a constitutional law and trial tactics instructor with the City of Pittsburgh Police Academy. He later served as Executive Director of the Allegheny County Housing Authority and was the youngest Executive Director of a major housing authority in the United States. He has continuously been listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in American Law, Best Lawyers in America, is a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and his peers selected him as one of the top 50 lawyers in Pittsburgh, top 50 in Allegheny County, and top 100 in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Business Times saluted him as the “toughest divorce attorney in town,” along with numerous other Granfalloons!
Mr. Gentile was Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Domestic Relations Rules Committee. He chaired a hearing committee for the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board and was elected to the Board of Governors of the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA). He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a member of the Pennsylvania Chapter Board of Examiners. He is a member of the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associa-tions. Mr. Gentile was appointed to the 12-member Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Disciplinary Board and served as Vice-Chairman and Chairman in the year 2006-2007.
Mr. Gentile is also a member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Family Law Section and the Family Law Council of the ACBA. He is a former Chairperson of the Program Committee of the Family Law Section and Chairperson of the Bench Bar Program Committee.
Kenneth J. Horoho, Jr.
Mr. Horoho was recently recognized by his peers for his divorce and family law practice by being named by Woodard-White to their 25th Anniversary Edition of The Best Lawyers In America. In addition to this distinction, Mr. Horoho has a long history as a leader in the area of child custody law and is active in state, local and national bar association activities. He is the Immediate Past President of the approximately 30,000 member Pennsylvania Bar Association. He has been a member of the PBA House of Delegates since 1990, has chaired the PBA Planning Committee and served as PBA Zone 12 (Allegheny County) governor on the PBA Board of Governors. He was chair of the PBA Young Lawyers Division in 1991 and a vice-chair of the PBA Children's Rights Committee, and the PBA Membership Development Committee. He served for six years on the Executive Council of the PBA Family Law Section, and for twelve years on the Allegheny County Bar Association's Board of Governors. He was chairperson of the ACBA's Family Law and Young Lawyer Sections. He served in the ABA House of Delegates in 1991 and 1992, and was a member of the executive counsel of the American Bar Association Young Lawyer Division, and vice-chairperson of the ABA/YLD Children and the Law Committee.
He is an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Family Law Section and a frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute on the topics of divorce, support, equitable distribution and custody. Mr. Horoho assisted in developing an education videotape "Children First: Custody, the Courts and Your Family" that explains the custody process for families experiencing a divorce.
In addition, in January 2005 Mr. Horoho was named as an adjunct professor on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He teaches a course on advanced family law trial advocacy.
A former member of the board of directors of Pennsylvania Special Olympics, he has been on the board of directors of the downtown YMCA since 1982, and served as its president from 1987-1989. He has also been chairman of the YMCA Scholar Athlete Banquet since 1986. He is a graduate of St. Francis University and the Duquesne University School of Law, where he was a staff member of Juris Magazine and served on the Appellate Moot Court Board. He also served on the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association Board of Directors in 1990 and 1991, and has been admitted to the U.S. Tax Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Charles J. Avalli
Charles J. Avalli received his Bachelor of Arts Degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh in 1978 and his Juris Doctorate Degree from its Law School in 1981. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1981 and the United States Tax Court in 1985.
For the first three years of his practice, Mr. Avalli worked in the tax department of the Pittsburgh office of Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). Thereafter, he became an associate and later a shareholder at a medium-sized Pittsburgh law firm where he was a managing shareholder for the last six years of his association with that firm. Also at that time, Avalli was in charge of all estate planning and estate administration matters for the firm.
Mr. Avalli has extensive experience in all aspects of estate litigation, estate planning and estate administration. He has represented and sued all the major banks of Pittsburgh in estate litigation matters and has created estate plans for some of the wealthiest families in Western Pennsylvania. He regularly lectures on estate and tax planning to civic and professional groups. Also, he has had articles published in Financial Advisor on estate and trust litigation matters.
Mr. Avalli’s practice also includes family law. He has litigated equitable distribution and support mattes throughout Western Pennsylvania, with emphasis in closely-held business valuation and related financial matters.
He is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association's Probate and Trust Law Section and Family Law Section. He is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Trusts and Estates. Mr. Avalli also serves as a hearing member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Mark R. Alberts (Principal)
Mr. Alberts earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1982 and has been admitted to practice before the state courts of Pennsylvania, the Federal District Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
He has practiced with the firm since 1998 and concentrates his practice in the areas of family law litigation as well as civil litigation. He also represents small and medium-sized businesses in a wide variety of legal matters including all forms of business transactional matters and commercial litigation.
He is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA), Westmoreland County Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Alberts also served as a member of the ACBA Family Law Section Council from 2000 to 2003 and is currently the Chair-Elect of the ACBA Family Law Section. He also serves as the Liaison of the Family Law Section Rules Committee, Co-Chair of the ACBA Family Law Section Social Committee, and as an Associate Opinion Editor for the Pittsburgh Legal Journal. Mr. Alberts also serves as Senior Hearing Committee Member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Mr. Alberts became a Fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation. Mr. Alberts was recognized by his peers in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as one of Pennsylvania’s Super Lawyers.
Kerri Lee Cappella (Principal)
Ms. Cappella is an active member of the American Bar Association Family Law Section. and the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section, and has served as a lecturer in that Section in a number of areas, including Technology and Family Law. Ms. Cappella is an active Member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, Family Law Section and served as a member on its Council. Ms. Cappella was a Charter Member of the Allegheny County Chapter of the Matrimonial American Inn of Court CCLXXII, in which she lectured relative to appellate practice in Matrimonial Law as well as Legal Ethics. Ms. Cappella is also a member of the Women’s Bar Association of Western Pennsylvania and is a Sustaining Member of the Junior League of Pittsburgh, formerly serving on its Public Affairs Committee.
Education: B.A. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University, 1986; J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1990. Bar Admissions: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Serena M. Newsom (Principal)
Serena M. Newsom obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1990. She has been admitted to practice before the state courts of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in November of 1990.
Following her graduation from law school, and prior to commencing her practice of law, Ms. Newsom served a one-year term as Law Clerk to former Indiana County judges, President Judge W. Parker Ruddock and Judge Robert Early. Ms. Newsom commenced the practice of law as an associate with a family law firm in the fall of 1991, following which she became associated with GGGHA in May of 1993. Since joining the firm, Ms. Newsom’s primary concentration has been family law. Ms. Newsom, now a principal with the firm, has had the honor of arguing several family law cases through the appellate court system, including a case before the highest Court in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where she was successful on her appeal.
Ms. Newsom is a member of the Allegheny and Pennsylvania Bar Associations and the Family Law Section of each of these organizations. Ms. Newsom was an elected member of the ACBA Young Lawyers Section Council for two (2) years, during which time she lectured on Family Law at the annual “Law Practicum” designed for new bar admittees. Ms Newsom has also served as Member of the Bench Bar Committee for two (2) years; Member of the Matrimonial Inns of Court; Member of the ACBA Public Service Committee, for whom she volunteered for several years as a presenter of the Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhymes “law” program sponsored by local elementary schools and the “Law Mini Course”, sponsored by the City of Pittsburgh high schools, in which she taught family law and discussed current family law issues with high school students.
Ms. Newsom has also served as a local, county and district coordinator for the Young Lawyers Section-sponsored Pennsylvania Statewide High School Mock Trial Competition, as well as serving as "judge" for Mock Trial and Appellate Moot Court competitions at both the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University Schools of Law.
Velma Bender Hirsch
Attorney Hirsch is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, American Bar Association and Women's Bar Association of Allegheny County. She is a member of the family law section of the local, state and national bar associations and a member of the real estate, probate and trust law section of the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar associations. Ms. Hirsch serves on a panel of attorneys appointed to hear partial custody cases in the Family Division of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
Prior to practicing law, she taught economics at the university level and edited and wrote for several economics publications. Additionally, she is a member of the Order of Artus, a national honorary society of economists. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Education: B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh, 1962. M.A. in economics from Columbia University, 1965. J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1985. Bar admissions: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
David A. Miller
Prior to joining Goldberg, Gruener, Gentile, Horoho & Avalli, P.C. in May, 2005, Attorney Miller practiced in Pittsburgh, Washington and Westmoreland Counties, primarily in the areas of family law and secondarily in the areas of criminal defense, personal injury, commercial and bankruptcy law.
Mr. Miller is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Allegheny, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland County Bar Associations. He is a past president of the Family Law Section of the Washington County Bar Association and a former member of the Pittsburgh Matrimonial Inns of Court.
In 1987, Mr. Miller completed a clerkship with the late Judge David L. Gilmore of the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County. Judge Gilmore was the domestic relations judge for the county at that time. Mr. Miller also served as the coordinator of the high school mock trial competition in Washington, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Miller is a founding member of the Collaborative Law Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania (“CLASP”). CLASP is an association of attorneys dedicated to resolving some family law matters using the methods of collaborative law without resorting to litigation in court.
Education: B.A. in Government, highest honors, from George Mason University, 1982; J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, 1985. Bar admissions: Virginia Bar, 1985; Pennsylvania Bar, 1987; Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; Third Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Rebecca A. Myers
Rebecca A. Myers has had a long standing interest in the area of family law and devoted much of her studies in law school to this area of practice. Upon graduation, she was awarded the American Association of Matrimonial Lawyers award for excellence in the area of family law. Since graduating from law school, Ms. Myers has focused her practice exclusively on family law, joining GGGH&A in 2005. She is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Ms. Myers is a member of the Family Law Section and the Young Lawyers Divisions of the local and state bar associations.
Education: B.S. in psychology, cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh, 2001. J.D., cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 2004. Bar admissions: Pennsylvania, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Lorraine W. Mervan
Ms. Mervan joined GGGH&A in September 2006. Attorney Mervan has practiced in the area of family law since 1992. After law school, Ms. Mervan practiced corporate law for three years. Previously, after receiving an M.B.A., Ms. Mervan was employed in internal auditing and employee benefits accounting at Alcoa from 1980 through 1986. During her employment at Alcoa, Ms. Mervan passed the CPA exam and was licensed as a CPA based on industry experience until she began law school in 1986.
While at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Attorney Mervan was an instructor of legal writing to first year students. She was on the staff of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. Attorney Mervan is a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Order of the Coif.
Attorney Mervan has been a lecturer from 2002 to 2006 on family law for the annual General Practioners’ Update sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Her written materials on custody have been included in the coursebook for the Fundamentals of Family Law seminar sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, most recently, in 2006. She is a past council member of the Family Law Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association and a past participant in the Matrimonial Inns of Court.
She is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
Education: Bachelor of Music from Bucknell University in 1977; M.B.A. from Lehigh University in 1980; J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989. Bar Admissions: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Heather Trostle
Prior to joining Goldberg, Gruener, Gentile, Horoho & Avalli, P.C. as an associate, where she practices family law and civil litigation, Ms. Trostle began her career with a large Pittsburgh law firm gaining extensive litigation and trial experience in a myriad of practice areas including family law.
Beyond her practice, Ms. Trostle is a member of the Magee Women’s Executive Council which raises awareness of the endeavors of Magee-Womens Hospital and Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession.
While earning her law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law, Ms. Trostle taught legal research and writing to first and second year students and worked in the legal department of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Upon her 2003 graduation, Ms. Trostle was awarded the National Association of Women Lawyers award, as well as the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers Most Outstanding Advocate award. Ms. Trostle graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and English Writing in 2000.
Ms. Trostle has presented numerous continuing legal education courses on topics ranging from electronic discovery to meeting client expectations.
Ms. Trostle is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
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