All of us at Terrell Hogan Yegelwel are pleased to congratulate our partner, Evan Yegelwel, on the anniversary of his 40th year with our firm. Starting in 1984, Evan focused his professional career on representing victims in personal injury, products liability, toxic exposure, and mass tort claims. A Florida Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, Evan has been at the forefront of complex litigation and has lectured nationally and internationally on many toxic tort issues, and Evan has been a leader in some of the most significant litigation in the United States.
In the 1980s and ’90s, he obtained some of the largest verdicts against multiple companies for compensatory and punitive damages for victims of asbestos diseases, and, in the 2000s, he tried several cases against tobacco corporations.
Since 2002 he has been a member of a team of lawyers for hundreds of family members who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His team was the first to obtain a judgment against Iran for giving material support to the terrorists. After reviewing evidence from experts and witnesses around the world uncovered by his team, the federal judge then entered a judgment for billions of dollars. After two decades, Evan’s team is persevering – focused on identifying, locating, and recovering the court awarded damages for the benefit of grieving families of the terrorism victims.
Evan’s extensive involvement in legal associations includes chairing the Jacksonville Bar Association trial advocacy seminars for numerous years, service on the Florida Bar Grievance Committees (1992-1995; 2011-2014) and serving as Chair of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Grievance Committee in 2014. Evan is a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association, the Florida Bar, the D.C. Bar, the American Bar Association, the Florida Justice Association, and the American Association for Justice. He is past president (2003) of the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and received the ABOTA Presidents’ Award in 2013 and served on the Executive Committee and as Counselor for the Chester Bedell Inn of Court (Emeritus).
Evan has been featured in editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Mass Tort Litigation, in Florida Super Lawyers in the field of Class Action/Mass Torts and in Jacksonville Magazine’s Top 904 Lawyers. He has been awarded the highest peer review rating (AV Preeminent) bestowed by Martindale-Hubble signifying “preeminent legal ability” and having “the highest ethical standards.”
Evan founded The Evan J. Yegelwel Fellowship Fund in 2000, supporting legal internships for University of Florida law students in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League which concentrates on the prevention of all forms of racism, bigotry, and antisemitism. He served on the Florida Regional Board and as an Associate National Commissioner for the Anti-Defamation League. In addition, he was AIPAC’s Northeast Florida Chair for over 25 years and on AIPAC’s National Executive Committee. In 2009, Evan received the prestigious Anti-Defamation League Jurisprudence Award.
Evan served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Jacksonville Jewish Center (JJC) from 1996-2000 and served on the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the JJC for more than two decades. In 2020, Evan and his wife Arlene received the JJC’s Rabbi David Gaffney Leadership in Education Award. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Jacksonville Jewish Federation’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, and the Jacksonville Jewish Center Men’s Club “Man of the Year” Award. He also served as the first President (1992-1995) of the Foundation for River Garden Hebrew Home for the Aged, a 77-year-old not-for-profit, non-sectarian nursing home, and initiated the Foundation’s successful endowment campaign.
In 2014, the Yegelwel Family Foundation established the Evan and Arlene Yegelwel Endowed Fund for Primary Lateral Sclerosis Research and Care to support primary lateral sclerosis research and care at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2017, Evan and Arlene, partner Wayne Hogan, and friend Steve Sherman, created the Evan’s Hope endowment at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for ALS research. Evan was the recipient of the 2020 Ambassador of Hope Award presented by the Florida ALS Association at their annual symposium and has served as a Regional Council Member of the ALS Association Florida Chapter (2011-present).
He has served as Finance Chair for the North Florida Council of Boy Scouts’ Mohawk District, which provides scouting in public housing communities, and, in 2001, was the recipient of the Boy Scouts of America Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award. He also served on the Board of Directors of Edward Waters College (currently Edward Waters University), the oldest African American higher education institution in the State of Florida.
Evan graduated from Rutgers University in 1977 (B.A. with Highest Honors) and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the University of Florida, Holland Law Center, in 1980 (J.D. with Honors), received the Book Award in Law and Medicine, and was elected into the Order of the Coif. Evan also serves as a Trustee Emeritus of the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Since 1979, Evan has been happily married to Arlene. They are the proud parents of Esther Raffol (Mike) and Tania Moser (Jordan), and grandparents to twins Jack and Eliana Raffol.
We, his partners at Terrell Hogan Yegelwel, thank Evan Yegelwel for his decades of invaluable service to the cause of justice, his legal expertise and his contributions to our firm the personal injury and wrongful death clients we serve.
