Founding Partner Justin Groen Appears on ‘Mental Health Matters’ on WWDB Talk 860 Show
Justin Groen Talks about Client Communications, Expectations, and Grief
GSO Lawyers founding partner Justin Groen recently joined Dr. Joan Feinstein on Mental Health Matters, broadcast live on WWDB Talk 860 during their August 2026 episode. They enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation about medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, and what it actually takes to guide a client through one of the hardest chapters of their life.
Dr. Feinstein, a psychologist, and her co-host explored a topic that rarely gets discussed openly in the legal world – the emotional and psychological toll these cases take, and the responsibility attorneys carry to communicate with honesty and compassion.
Justin Groen has spent nearly two decades handling catastrophic injury and medical malpractice cases. His career started as an assistant district attorney under Lynne Abraham and continued through a “legal residency” at a medical malpractice boutique before he co-founded GSO Lawyers. That legal background of talking to victims with empathy, not just building cases around their troubles, came through the audio interview clearly in how he described his approach to clients.
Setting Expectations From Day One
Much of the interview and conversation centered on communication. Specifically, on how important it is to be upfront with clients from the very first phone call. Dr. Feinstein noted that communication breakdowns are one of the most common complaints she hears about attorneys.
Justin agreed that medical malpractice cases are especially prone to this problem because they move so slowly. Records requests take 30 days. The other side gets 20 days to respond to a complaint. Discovery adds another 30-day window. During those stretches, there’s often genuinely nothing new to report, and he explained that naming that reality upfront, rather than letting silence speak for itself, is what keeps clients from feeling abandoned during the inevitable quiet periods. Communication is key.
“We live in a microwave society. Everything is fast… Medical malpractice is not that. It is time consuming. It is thought consuming. It is resource consuming. So, when we bring a claim, I have to tell people from our initial conversation that there will be built-in times where you don’t hear from me. Not because we’re not working, but the system almost requires those dead zones.”
Justin also reframed what “success” means in his practice. Not every case gets taken, and he was candid that clients still deserve clarity even when the answer is no. Giving someone an honest, well-researched explanation for why a case doesn’t move forward is its own form of closure and often just as valuable to a family as a verdict.
“I don’t promise to take people’s cases. I promise to give them answers.”
Helping Clients Carry Loss
The most memorable part of the conversation was Justin’s framework for helping clients process grief. He makes a distinction between loss that is simply part of life and loss that was taken from someone unnecessarily. He illustrated it with a case involving a stroke survivor whose injury cost him the small, ordinary moments of his life. These small moments that shape his day-to-day are important.
“What was taken away from my client? Movie night. He had suffered a stroke. He couldn’t use his left arm. His ability to put his arm around his wife and watch movies – that was taken away. His ability to tie his own shoes, that was taken away. His ability to open a Coke bottle was taken away. And what is taken away, that is compensable.”
Dr. Feinstein connected this to her own clinical work, noting that families often face a second, harder wound after medical negligence, which is basically losing trust in the healthcare system itself.
Justin also talked candidly about survivor’s guilt, a pattern he sees constantly in delayed-diagnosis cases, and about how much of his role is simply making space for people to grieve honestly.
“That is a burden that no one should have to suffer. What I have to explain to them, and hopefully by the time we go through the entire process, is that I’ve lifted that burden off of them so that they no longer feel that they somehow contributed to the loss of their loved ones.”
He expressed that giving every client his personal cell phone number means that they never feel like they’re navigating a devastating loss alone.
Toward the end of the hour, the conversation turned to how an attorney absorbs this much grief case after case without burning out. Justin didn’t pretend it was easy, describing the emotional toll openly and crediting his law partners, his wife, and his faith for giving him the support to keep showing up for clients at their lowest moments. He’s also a firm believer that showing emotion isn’t a weakness for a trial lawyer. It’s all part of being a human who cares about his clients.
A Conversation Rooted in Community
What came through over the full hour wasn’t a sales pitch – it was a genuine picture of how GSO Lawyers approaches its work. Legal skill and courtroom results matter, but so does treating people with honesty and compassion while they wait for those results.
That same philosophy is what drives the firm’s presence in the communities it serves. As the firm of Groen Strokoff O’Neill has grown, with offices in Philadelphia, Conshohocken, Camp Hill, and Medford, the goal has never simply been to grow a caseload. It’s been to make sure more families across Pennsylvania and New Jersey have access to attorneys who will pick up the phone, tell them the truth, and walk with them through loss rather than around it.
Listen to the full episode of Mental Health Matters with Dr. Joan Feinstein on WWDB Talk 860.
If you or a loved one has questions about a potential medical malpractice or catastrophic injury case, GSO Lawyers offers free consultations at any of its four offices in Philadelphia, Conshohocken, Camp Hill, and Medford. Call (215) 297-6156 or visit gsolawyers.com.
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