James R,  Galla

Mr. Galla is a second-generation Latino lawyer who specializes in personal injury. He earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

During that time, he served as an indirect fire infantryman with the 1-112th Infantry Regiment of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. In that role, he also took on the responsibility of instructing a course for Stryker armored fighting vehicles. Later, he would participate in Operation Iron Angel as part of the security detail for the Pope’s visit to the 2015 World Meeting of Families alongside the Philadelphia Police Department, FBI, DEA, Pennsylvania State Police, and Secret Service.

Mr. Galla started at Scanlon & Company in 2018 as a law clerk. He graduated with honors from the University of Akron School of Law and accomplished more than 330 hours of pro bono volunteer work. In 2019, he joined Scanlon & Company as an attorney where he has since participated in all levels of trial work. He is licensed in Ohio and all federal courts in Ohio.

Mr. Galla is part of the Ohio Association of Justice, the Scanlon-Bell Inn of Courts, the Akron Bar Association, and the Ohio State Bar Association. In 2024, he joined the National Trial Lawyers as a Top 40 under 40 Civil Plaintiff’s Lawyer.

Alongside his legal career, Mr. Galla serves as Vice President of Grade A Math, LLC, an Akron-area math education provider, where he focuses on connecting students with qualified math educators. Additionally, he serves as Vice President of Cleanco, LLC, a commercial janitorial service provider located in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he works to develop, support, and maintain client relationships along with a variety of other functions. Mr. Galla also dedicates his time to improving, maintaining, and managing a rental real estate portfolio.

Outside of his professional career, Mr. Galla volunteers on Zooniverse, a platform that promotes citizen science by connecting volunteers with researchers. He is proud to have participated in the Kilonova Seekers citizen science project, which was built to find transient phenomena captured from the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer telescopes over the course of the LIGO-Virgo KAGRA O4a observing run.

Mr. Galla’s background and professional experiences bring real world solutions to his clients and allow for an accelerated application of skills benefiting his practice areas, which include:

Personal injury

• Car accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Trucking accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Boat accidents
• Premises liability (slip and falls)
• Nursing home errors, mistakes, neglect, mistreatment, or elder abuse
• Product liability
  • Machine errors
  • Design defects
  • Failure to warn of hazards associated of machines
  • Machine alterations
• Intentional tort workplace injuries involving removal of machine guarding
• Wrongful death

Trust and estate litigation

• Breaches of fiduciary duties and responsibilities
• Undue influence
• Beneficiary disputes
• Trustee disputes
• Administrator or executor disputes
• Trustee removal
• Administrator or executor removal
• Accounting disputes
• Concealment of asset actions

Business litigation

• Shareholder or partnership disputes
• Contract disputes
• Valuation disputes
• Intentional interference

Education

• University of Akron School of Law
  • J.D. – 2019
• Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
  • B.A. – Criminal Justice 2015

Bar Admission

• State of Ohio, 2019
• U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio, 2020
• U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio, 2021

Affiliations

• Akron Bar Association
• Ohio State Bar Association
• Scanlon-Bell Inn of Court
• Ohio Association of Justice
• The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40

Honors, Achievements, and Recognitions

• Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice 15 Hour Course; 2016
• Title Research Certification Program at the University of Akron School of Law; 2019
• Certificate of Achievement – Exceptional Pro Bono Service at the University of Akron School of Law: 339.2 hours by the Supreme Court of Ohio and Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation; 2019
• Senatorial Citation by Senator Kristina D. Roegner; 2019
• Top 40 Under 40 – The National Trial Lawyers; 2024

Speaking

• Information Technology at Trial, March 23, 2022
• Ethics and Professionalism post-judgment, March 20, 2024

Other Recognitions

• Volunteer: Killestein, T. L., & Kelsey, L. (2024). Kilonova Seekers: The GOTO project for real-time citizen science in time-domain astrophysics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 533(2), 2113–2132. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1817
• Volunteer: Iau Designation AT2021nbr; https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2021nbr; Discovery Certificate: https://www.wis-tns.org/object/2021nbr/discovery-cert