Jeremy A. Tor, Esq

Jeremy Tor represents ordinary individuals severely injured or killed by the wrongful conduct of others. When someone in our community acts irresponsibly and causes serious harm, they must make it right. Jeremy believes civil justice is among the best ways to help right a wrong.

Jeremy handles a variety of cases, including civil rights, wrongful death, professional malpractice (including medical malpractice), motor vehicle crashes, and premises liability. He has significant litigation experience, from discovery to trial to the court of appeals. Jeremy has argued cases in state and federal appellate courts, including the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A sample of Jeremy’s cases include:

• $28 million wrongful death jury verdict in Cincinnati, the highest wrongful death verdict in Ohio history.
• $400,000 jury verdict on behalf of a temp worker whose thumb was amputated while working on an unguarded machine at a plastics manufacturer. The case settled before starting the punitive damages phase of trial.
• Six-figure settlements on behalf of:
  • A bicyclist who broke her leg after being struck by a car whose driver fled the scene.
  • A wife and husband who were rear-ended at a violent rate of speed by a careless driver.
  • A bicyclist who struck a practically invisible wire that a construction company had strung across a road. After striking the wire, he flew over the handlebars and landed headfirst, fracturing multiple vertebrae.
  • A mall patron who slipped and fell on ice on the sidewalk outside a large mall, breaking her kneecap. Thirty minutes prior, another patron slipped and fell on the same patch of ice, yet the mall cops did nothing to fix, or even warn patrons about the hidden danger. The lawsuit included a claim for punitive damages.
  • A worker who suffered debilitating lead poisoning after months of removing layers of paint because the general contractor violated multiple OSHA regulations, including the requirement to supply lead-safety protective gear.
• $300,000 settlement in a civil rights case involving three individuals who were wrongfully arrested for obstruction of justice.
• Race discrimination case on behalf of a large, extended African-American family that was evicted from a hotel in Florida the first morning of their weeklong trip, which was their annual family reunion.
• Podiatric malpractice case on behalf of a patient who underwent unnecessary and excessive surgery, resulting in a permanent, disabling injury. The case settled on the fifth day of trial, right before the defendant-podiatrist was about to testify.
• Medical malpractice case on behalf of a surrogate mother whose out-of-state doctor failed to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy, resulting in life-threatening hemorrhaging.
• Medical malpractice case on behalf of a woman who was wrongly diagnosed with terminal, metastatic cancer because the radiologist mixed up her records with another patient.

His excessive force cases include:

• Fatal police shooting. A man was shot twice by a police officer in the back while running away and pulling up his pants, which were below his bare buttocks. The man died at the scene.
• In-custody death. A jail inmate experiencing a medical episode was handcuffed in a prone (face down) position while 8 corrections officers surrounded him and several applied pressure to his legs, back, shoulders, and neck until he suffocated to death.
• Fatal police shooting. A young man called 911 because his apartment was being burglarized but was shot dead by the very police he had called for help.

Jeremy is privileged to represent U.S. soldiers and Gold Star families in a lawsuit against some of the world’s most powerful banks. The lawsuit, brought by a team of top-flight trial lawyers and firms, seeks to hold the banks accountable under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act for providing material support (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars) to Iran and its de facto terrorism arm, Hezbollah, who collectively waged a campaign of terrorism in Iraq against Coalition forces beginning in 2003.

Jeremy is part of the team litigating claims against the companies who manufacture and distribute opiates-and who helped spawn the opioid epidemic-in the nationwide opiate Multidistrict Litigation (MDL), which is pending in federal court in the Northern District of Ohio.

Before joining the Spangenberg firm, Jeremy served as a federal law clerk. He received his law degree in 2011 from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Eppa Hunton IV Memorial Book Award, which is given by the faculty to one graduating student “who has demonstrated unusual aptitude in litigation courses and shown a keen awareness and understanding of the lawyer’s ethical and professional responsibility.”

Before law school, Jeremy was a Teach For America corps member in Baltimore, where he taught Spanish to high school students at a public school in West Baltimore and earned a Master’s in teaching from Johns Hopkins University.

Jeremy went to college on a full-ride at the University of Arizona, obtaining a dual Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish, graduating with Honors, summa cum laude, and receiving the Outstanding Senior Award as the top Political Science graduate. Jeremy was President and Captain of his college mock trial team, participating in numerous tournaments across the country and earning nearly a dozen Outstanding Attorney awards.

• 2014-Present: Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP, Associate
• 2013-2014: Baker & McKenzie LLP, Litigation Associate
• 2011-2013: Honorable Dan Aaron Polster, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Law Clerk
• 2010: Baker & McKenzie LLP, Summer Associate
• 2009: Honorable Mary H. Murguia, U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, Extern
• 2006-2008: Teach For America, Corps Member, and High School Teacher

• 2011: University of Virginia School of Law J.D.
  • Virginia Journal of International Law, Senior Editor
  • Eppa Hunton IV Memorial Book Award (awarded by faculty to one graduating student “who has demonstrated unusual aptitude in litigation courses and shown a keen awareness and understanding of the lawyer’s ethical and professional responsibility”)
  • Housing Law Clinic (representing low-income tenants in court)
• 2010: Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law
  • Study Abroad
• 2008: Johns Hopkins University, Graduate School of Education, M.A.
  • Major: Teaching
• 2006: University of Arizona, B.A.
  • Major: Political Science & Spanish
  • Honors: Summa Cum Laude
  • Full-ride Scholarship
  • Outstanding Senior Award (chosen by Political Science faculty as top graduate)
  • President and Captain of Mock Trial; awarded nearly a dozen “Outstanding Attorney” awards

• Ohio
• New York
• Northern District of Ohio
• Southern District of Ohio
• Southern District of New York
• Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

• 2015: Mass Torts Made Perfect Conference, “Benicar Litigation,” Panelist.
• 2015: Cleveland-Marshall Experiential Learning Department – “How to Become the Best Judicial Extern,” Panelist.
• 2015: Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Judicial Clerks Workshop, Panelist.
• 2014: Alpha Omega Society, Guest Speaker.

• 2016: “Ohio’s Workplace Intentional Tort Statute – A Recent Trial Victory,” with Nicholas DiCello, CATA News.
• 2014: U.S. Chapter (Chapter 41) in Interim Measures in International Arbitration, with Grant Hanessian 849–72 (Lawrence W. Newman & Colin Ong eds.)
• 2014: “Considerations in the Use of Pre-Judgment Asset Freezes,” with John Basinger, NYSBA Inside, Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 7.

• 2023, Recognized by Best Lawyers
• Top 40 Under 40 – National Trial Lawyers

• $290,000 personal injury settlement on behalf of a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle in a church parking lot.

Jeremy is a “trailing spouse,” brought to Cleveland courtesy of his wife, Shira, who grew up in Beachwood and is now an orthodontist and co-owner of Weiss & Tor Orthodontics. Jeremy and Shira are proud and happy parents of two young girls.

Jeremy grew up in Tucson, Arizona. After finishing college, he began the journey that took him to Baltimore (to teach), Virginia (to law school), New York (to work), Israel (to study abroad), and to Latin America, including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Paraguay, where he directed a development program focused on community-based environmental and health projects. Jeremy is glad the journey has come to an end and that he and his family can finally plant their roots in Cleveland.

In his free time, Jeremy enjoys playing the piano and racquetball and spending time with family.

Beyond work and family, Jeremy stays involved in the community through the Jewish Community Center and Fairmount Temple, where Jeremy and his family are congregants, as well as through the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In 2017, he was selected to participate in the ADL Glass Leadership Institute, and in 2018, he was appointed Co-Chair of the Civil Rights Committee for the local region of the ADL.