By Teresa Killeen
Washtenaw County Bar Association
Jennifer and Chad Engelhardt are partners in life and in the practice of law. Along with their senior partner, Stephen Goethel, Jennifer and Chad are the principal members of Ann Arbor based Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC. They focus their practice on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, most often after an adverse medical event. Both are also certified mediators, helping to resolve civil disputes in multiple practice areas. They have a growing consulting practice, conducting focus groups, mock trials, and other litigation consulting.
Their professional mission is to give a voice to those that have been injured or lost a loved one. They seek to bring healing, obtain needed resources and ultimately to help prevent future tragedies. Jennifer and Chad are committed to ethical advocacy and have training and skills in helping those who have suffered physical and emotional trauma. They also recognize that some cases are better handled in a less invasive, collaborative approach. Although they are skilled litigators and trial lawyers, they see the courtroom as the tool of last resort and attempt early resolution of disputes for the mutual benefit of their clients, the involved health professionals, and the healthcare system. They also teach medicolegal and patient safety seminars to medical and nursing programs across the country.
Both are strongly committed to bettering both the legal profession and the Washtenaw County community. They are actively involved with the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, where Chad serves on the Executive Committee, with both contributing multiple book chapters, editing the Torts treatise, and speaking at live and video CLE events. Both are also repeat guest lecturers at the University of Michigan Law School’s trial practice and litigation skills courses. For over a decade, they have collaboratively designed and taught the medical malpractice class at Cooley Law School, as well as mentoring law students in a clinical training program.
Both are Fellows of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, and have distinguished themselves through service to the Bar. Between them, Jennifer and Chad have held positions with the Representative Assembly, Negligence Law Section, and Committees on Character and Fitness, Professionalism and Civility, and Civil Procedure and Courts. Chad spends much of his extra-circular time in his role as education chair for the SBM Negligence Law Section, coordinating the extensive CLE partnership of the Section and the American Board of Trial Advocates- Michigan Chapter. An accomplished appellate lawyer, Jennifer chairs the Medical Malpractice division of the MAJ Amicus Committee.
Both are members of the Washtenaw County Bar Association, Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, and the Michigan Association for Justice and Washtenaw Association of Justice, of which Chad is the immediate past president.
Both have been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers in the field of medical malpractice, among other professional honors. Most notably, Chad was honored with the prestigious Respected Advocate Award (2023) by the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel and Lawyer of the Year (Ann Arbor) by Best Lawyers. Jennifer was a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Women in the Law 2021 Honoree and holds a Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating.
Recognizing a critical need in our community, Jennifer and Chad were among the founding members of the Michigan Foundation for Judicial Refugees. This non-profit foundation provides assistance to displaced judges and their families, with their current efforts focused on judges displaced from Afghanistan.
What jobs did you have before you became an attorney?
Chad spent 12 years in law enforcement, working through college and law school as a deputy sheriff. This experience taught him valuable lessons in dealing with people in crisis. It also provided valuable investigative training. Jennifer’s most interesting pre-law job was as a production intern for Geraldo Rivera’s day-time talk show. She also worked at the University of Michigan in a laboratory, and as a technical writer for an insurance company.
What area of the law do you like the best and why?
We focus our practice on medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. We have a shared interest in a collaborative approach (communication and resolution process) to help patients and families find answers and compensation, while improving the quality of care in our community. Using this approach, we try to help patients rebuild trust in the healthcare system. We also attempt to help the healthcare system identify and correct root causes and systemic factors that lead to adverse events and patient harm. This approach is a significant departure from traditional litigation models.
What would your second career choice have been if you had not become a lawyer?
Chad: I went to law school as a terminal degree for a teaching career, but found I enjoyed practice. I still love being in the classroom, so teaching law fulltime would be my next career choice.
Jen: While my original other choice would have been a medical professional, now I would want to own a cat café.
Any words of wisdom to pass on to new lawyers?
Find good mentors, become an active member of the legal community, and always remember that your reputation is your most valuable asset. Treat every person with respect and be the voice of calm reason.
What is your favorite movie or book?
Jen and Chad share a favorite movie: Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack. They disagree however on the best scene, and the best song on the soundtrack. Because Chad subscribes to a “happy spouse happy house” philosophy, he defers to Jen’s picks.
What are some of your favorite places that you have visited?
London, Vancouver, and Hawaii together. Australia and New Zealand for Jen.
What are your favorite local hangouts?
Restaurants: Zingerman’s Roadhouse and Seva. TeaHaus is awesome for a special sit down.
What’s the greatest gift we can give ourselves?
Forgiveness. Lawyers are human, and humans are imperfect. We will make mistakes. We will learn from them. But we also need to forgive ourselves and others.
Why do you choose to be a member of the WCBA? What is the greatest benefit you have enjoyed as a member?
Being a part of the local legal community is an invaluable professional and social experience. We are blessed with a close-knit legal community and a wonderful bench. The WCBA promotes diversity, inclusion and professionalism - all of which are important.
Who has been your greatest mentor?
For both of us, Jennifer’s parents David and Leslie Christensen are incredible role models, personally and professionally. They are wonderful, caring, generous people, have built a thriving law practice, and travel the world seeking new adventures.
Favorite part of your job?
Without a doubt, the incredible impact we can make in helping a catastrophically injured person and their family obtain the resources they need to obtain optimal treatment and live a better quality of life. At the same time, by working collaboratively with the healthcare system, instead of against it, we are often able to influence positive changes and drive patient safety initiatives.
What is your favorite productivity hack?
Chad: Asking Jennifer to do the hard work, so long as I keep her adequately caffeinated.
Jennifer: He’s joking, of course. Mine is caffeine.
What skill would you like to improve on?
Chad: active listening.
Jen: Same.
What are you listening to (music, podcast, audio book …)?
Much to our teenager’s chagrin, NPR is always playing in the background at our home and cars.
What causes are you passionate about?
Along with some wonderful friends and colleagues, we are part of the Foundation for Refugee Judges. When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, hundreds of women judges were left in dire, life-threatening circumstances. The Foundation is dedicated to raising resources and providing assistance to help these displaced judges as well as others who find themselves in this position. We are in the process of setting up a website and will follow-up with the legal community in the near future.
What’s an essential part of your daily routine?
Regular exercise. Chad is a solid member of the cult of Peloton, bike, rower, strength training. Jennifer enjoys Pilates and caffeine. Both enjoy walks through the west-side of Ann Arbor, the townships, parks, and trails.
Reprinted with permission from the Washtenaw Bar Association newsletter Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Washtenaw County Bar Association
Jennifer and Chad Engelhardt are partners in life and in the practice of law. Along with their senior partner, Stephen Goethel, Jennifer and Chad are the principal members of Ann Arbor based Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC. They focus their practice on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, most often after an adverse medical event. Both are also certified mediators, helping to resolve civil disputes in multiple practice areas. They have a growing consulting practice, conducting focus groups, mock trials, and other litigation consulting.
Their professional mission is to give a voice to those that have been injured or lost a loved one. They seek to bring healing, obtain needed resources and ultimately to help prevent future tragedies. Jennifer and Chad are committed to ethical advocacy and have training and skills in helping those who have suffered physical and emotional trauma. They also recognize that some cases are better handled in a less invasive, collaborative approach. Although they are skilled litigators and trial lawyers, they see the courtroom as the tool of last resort and attempt early resolution of disputes for the mutual benefit of their clients, the involved health professionals, and the healthcare system. They also teach medicolegal and patient safety seminars to medical and nursing programs across the country.
Both are strongly committed to bettering both the legal profession and the Washtenaw County community. They are actively involved with the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, where Chad serves on the Executive Committee, with both contributing multiple book chapters, editing the Torts treatise, and speaking at live and video CLE events. Both are also repeat guest lecturers at the University of Michigan Law School’s trial practice and litigation skills courses. For over a decade, they have collaboratively designed and taught the medical malpractice class at Cooley Law School, as well as mentoring law students in a clinical training program.
Both are Fellows of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, and have distinguished themselves through service to the Bar. Between them, Jennifer and Chad have held positions with the Representative Assembly, Negligence Law Section, and Committees on Character and Fitness, Professionalism and Civility, and Civil Procedure and Courts. Chad spends much of his extra-circular time in his role as education chair for the SBM Negligence Law Section, coordinating the extensive CLE partnership of the Section and the American Board of Trial Advocates- Michigan Chapter. An accomplished appellate lawyer, Jennifer chairs the Medical Malpractice division of the MAJ Amicus Committee.
Both are members of the Washtenaw County Bar Association, Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, and the Michigan Association for Justice and Washtenaw Association of Justice, of which Chad is the immediate past president.
Both have been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers in the field of medical malpractice, among other professional honors. Most notably, Chad was honored with the prestigious Respected Advocate Award (2023) by the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel and Lawyer of the Year (Ann Arbor) by Best Lawyers. Jennifer was a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Women in the Law 2021 Honoree and holds a Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating.
Recognizing a critical need in our community, Jennifer and Chad were among the founding members of the Michigan Foundation for Judicial Refugees. This non-profit foundation provides assistance to displaced judges and their families, with their current efforts focused on judges displaced from Afghanistan.
What jobs did you have before you became an attorney?
Chad spent 12 years in law enforcement, working through college and law school as a deputy sheriff. This experience taught him valuable lessons in dealing with people in crisis. It also provided valuable investigative training. Jennifer’s most interesting pre-law job was as a production intern for Geraldo Rivera’s day-time talk show. She also worked at the University of Michigan in a laboratory, and as a technical writer for an insurance company.
What area of the law do you like the best and why?
We focus our practice on medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. We have a shared interest in a collaborative approach (communication and resolution process) to help patients and families find answers and compensation, while improving the quality of care in our community. Using this approach, we try to help patients rebuild trust in the healthcare system. We also attempt to help the healthcare system identify and correct root causes and systemic factors that lead to adverse events and patient harm. This approach is a significant departure from traditional litigation models.
What would your second career choice have been if you had not become a lawyer?
Chad: I went to law school as a terminal degree for a teaching career, but found I enjoyed practice. I still love being in the classroom, so teaching law fulltime would be my next career choice.
Jen: While my original other choice would have been a medical professional, now I would want to own a cat café.
Any words of wisdom to pass on to new lawyers?
Find good mentors, become an active member of the legal community, and always remember that your reputation is your most valuable asset. Treat every person with respect and be the voice of calm reason.
What is your favorite movie or book?
Jen and Chad share a favorite movie: Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack. They disagree however on the best scene, and the best song on the soundtrack. Because Chad subscribes to a “happy spouse happy house” philosophy, he defers to Jen’s picks.
What are some of your favorite places that you have visited?
London, Vancouver, and Hawaii together. Australia and New Zealand for Jen.
What are your favorite local hangouts?
Restaurants: Zingerman’s Roadhouse and Seva. TeaHaus is awesome for a special sit down.
What’s the greatest gift we can give ourselves?
Forgiveness. Lawyers are human, and humans are imperfect. We will make mistakes. We will learn from them. But we also need to forgive ourselves and others.
Why do you choose to be a member of the WCBA? What is the greatest benefit you have enjoyed as a member?
Being a part of the local legal community is an invaluable professional and social experience. We are blessed with a close-knit legal community and a wonderful bench. The WCBA promotes diversity, inclusion and professionalism - all of which are important.
Who has been your greatest mentor?
For both of us, Jennifer’s parents David and Leslie Christensen are incredible role models, personally and professionally. They are wonderful, caring, generous people, have built a thriving law practice, and travel the world seeking new adventures.
Favorite part of your job?
Without a doubt, the incredible impact we can make in helping a catastrophically injured person and their family obtain the resources they need to obtain optimal treatment and live a better quality of life. At the same time, by working collaboratively with the healthcare system, instead of against it, we are often able to influence positive changes and drive patient safety initiatives.
What is your favorite productivity hack?
Chad: Asking Jennifer to do the hard work, so long as I keep her adequately caffeinated.
Jennifer: He’s joking, of course. Mine is caffeine.
What skill would you like to improve on?
Chad: active listening.
Jen: Same.
What are you listening to (music, podcast, audio book …)?
Much to our teenager’s chagrin, NPR is always playing in the background at our home and cars.
What causes are you passionate about?
Along with some wonderful friends and colleagues, we are part of the Foundation for Refugee Judges. When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, hundreds of women judges were left in dire, life-threatening circumstances. The Foundation is dedicated to raising resources and providing assistance to help these displaced judges as well as others who find themselves in this position. We are in the process of setting up a website and will follow-up with the legal community in the near future.
What’s an essential part of your daily routine?
Regular exercise. Chad is a solid member of the cult of Peloton, bike, rower, strength training. Jennifer enjoys Pilates and caffeine. Both enjoy walks through the west-side of Ann Arbor, the townships, parks, and trails.
Reprinted with permission from the Washtenaw Bar Association newsletter Res Ipsa Loquitur.
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