Medical Malpractice Update 2026

Presenters

Ernest P. Fronzuto, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Fronzuto Law Group

Christina Vassiliou Harvey, Esq.

Lomurro Munson, LLC, Freehold

is a Partner in Lomurro, Munson, Comer, Brown & Schottland, LLC (Lomurro Law) in Freehold, New Jersey. She focuses her practice in appellate matters, personal injury litigation, disability matters, attorney ethics and horseracing law, and has experience litigating personal injury case for both the plaintiff and defense sides, medical malpractice cases for plaintiffs, commercial disputes, and prosecuting and defending insurance brokers and attorneys in claims of professional negligence.

Ms. Harvey is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania at the trial and appellate levels, and before administrative agencies. A former Trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association, she has been a member of the New Jersey Law Journal’s Young Lawyer Advisory Board and is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Having served as President of the Mercer County Women Lawyers Caucus, she is a founding board member of the Community Justice Center, a non-profit organization that assists disabled veterans in obtaining disability benefits.

Ms. Harvey has authored articles for the New Jersey Lawyer newspaper, NJ Esq., The Affiliate, The Young Lawyer and the New Jersey State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Newsletter. She has lectured for ICLE on professional responsibility as part of the Skills and Methods course and for the NJSBA and other organizations on ethics, collections and client relations. She has received three "Star of the Quarter" awards and one “Star of the Year” award for her work in the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and was the recipient of the Service to the Bar Award in 2009 and the Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award in 2013 from the NJSBA-Young Lawyers Division.

Ms. Harvey received her B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University. She was a contract specialist for the United States Navy before attending Rutgers University School of Law and receiving her J.D. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dorothea O’C. Wefing, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

John M. Hockin, Jr., Esq.

Ronan, Tuzzio & Giannone, Tinton Falls

Joao F. Magalhaes, Esq.

Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, Lawrenceville

Joao F. Magalhães is Of Counsel to Connell Foley, LLP in Newark, New Jersey, where he concentrates his practice in corporate law and general counseling, commercial litigation, bankruptcy and regulatory affairs. As a restructuring professional, Mr. Magalhaes has assisted clients in both out-of-court workout negotiations and formal legal proceedings, representing entities ranging from national going concerns to local nonprofits. As a litigator, he has engaged in federal, state and multistate matters involving issues including contract disputes, debtor/creditor rights, partnership/shareholder disputes, insurance coverage, landlord/tenant disputes, employment/labor laws, tax litigation and legal ethics.

Admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a former member of the District V-B Ethics Committee and the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc., serves on the Portuguese-American Leadership Council of the United States, Inc., and is a member of the Portuguese American Bar Association.

A lecturer for ICLE, Mr. Magalhaes is a former Barrister of the Bankruptcy American Inn of Court in the District of New Jersey, where he presented and lectured on several topics of significance to bankruptcy and restructuring practitioners. He is a writer and Coordinating Editor for the nationally-published American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) Journal, and is the recipient of several honors.

Mr. Magalhaes received his B.S. from Villanova University, where he was a member of the National Honor Society of Collegiate Scholars, and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. As a law student, he served as Vice President of the Criminal Law Society and as Social Chair for the Corporate Law Society.

Diana C. Manning, Esq.

First Vice President, New Jersey State Bar Association
McCarter & English, LLP, Newark

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is a Principal of Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. in the firm’s Florham Park, New Jersey, office. She concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation and appellate advocacy, and has represented clients in those matters for more than 25 years.

Ms. Manning is admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern District of New York, the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States Bankruptcy Court and the United States Supreme Court. Past President of the Morris County Bar Association and Foundation, and Trial Attorneys of New Jersey (TANJ), she has served on TANJ’s Amicus Committee and is Secretary of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Ms. Manning has also been appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court as Chair of the District XA Ethics Committee and has been Vice Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Amicus Committee. Because of her depth of experience in the area of legal malpractice, she was also appointed to the NJSBA Blue Ribbon Panel Committee in Professional Malpractice.

Ms. Manning authored the “State of New Jersey” chapter of The Law of Lawyers’ Liability: Fifty-State Survey of Legal Malpractice (ABA/First Chair Press, 2012), which gives an overview of the laws governing attorney wrongdoing in each state, written by lawyers who practice in that state. She is a frequent lecturer for ICLE on legal malpractice and professional responsibility topics and the recipient of several honors.

Ms. Manning received her B.A. from Rutgers College and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
(8/23)

Michael R. Ricciardulli, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Ruprecht, Hart, Ricciardulli & Sherman, LLP

Francisco J. Rodriguez, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, PC

Lauren M. Strollo, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Ronan, Tuzzio & Giannone

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is a Partner in Vasios, Strollo & Duran, P.A. in Union, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in the defense of medical malpractice matters, including the representation of hospitals, physicians, nurses, other hospital employees and hospital administrators.

Ms. Strollo is admitted to practice in New Jersey, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and before the United States Supreme Court. She is an elected member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), has served as a Master of the American Inns of Court and has lectured on medical malpractice litigation topics to health care providers and lawyers.

Ms. Strollo received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she was a member of the University’s International Law Moot Court Team. After completing a summer course at the Notre Dame University School of Law, London campus, she served as a Legal Intern with the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization and with the Honorable Norman P. Ramsey of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. She also served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable John A. Marzulli, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court, Essex County.
(9/23)