2026 Mass Torts Puerto Rico Speakers

Juan Acevedo

Partner
Milberg

Mr. Juan Acevedo is a Partner with Milberg practicing out of its San Juan, Puerto Rico office. With over 25 years of experience, his practice has focused on representing clients in a variety of civil, corporate and real estate law litigation. Mr. Acevedo’s primary focus areas involve property insurance claims, construction and real estate matters, as well as inheritance and estate law. He has vast experience in all aspects of the litigation process, from the extrajudicial claim through final trial resolution. After receiving his J.D. from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Mr. Acevedo began his legal career as an Attorney for Oficina Legal de la Comunidad, providing free legal services to the most needed sectors of society. Since the inception of his career, he has been drawn to assisting marginalized clients who lack the resources required to stand up to powerful interests. Mr. Acevedo held his own private practice for 12 years before joining Garcia Rullán & Franceschi Law Office as Lead Counsel in the Construction and Residential Development Division. He went on to serve as Lead Counsel for Jiménez Seda & Alsina PSC, where his duties included filing and negotiating mortgage title insurance claims. Prior to joining Milberg, he practiced with Williams Harts Boundas. There, he served as Lead Counsel and office manager for the Puerto Rico office, handling over 1,300 Hurricane Maria property insurance claims; over 700 of these claims were court litigation cases. Outside the office, Mr. Acevedo enjoys transforming old, cut-down trees and giving them new life with his woodturning lathe and at-home shop. Mr. Acevedo is admitted to practice in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Federal District Court.

Thomas R. Anapol

Director and Managing Shareholder
Anapol Weiss

Leader in National Medical Device Litigation Tom Anapol is the Director and Managing Shareholder of Anapol Weiss. He joined the firm as an Associate in 1991, in or about when his father retired. Tom became non-equity partner in 1998 and an equity partner in 2003. He has been the firm's Managing Shareholder since 2019 and is now its director.   Mass Torts Litigation Mass tort litigation has been Tom's main practice area throughout his career. He has served in various coordinated leadership capacities in state and multidistrict (MDL) medical device litigations including multiple heart device, metal-on-metal hip and transvaginal mesh litigations.     Firm Management As Managing Shareholder, he has led the firm through a transformation from a traditional personal injury and mass torts firm to one that is majority-owned by female attorneys. As of September of 2024, more than half of the firm's shareholders and partners are women.  The firm concurrently expanded its historical mass tort medical device and drug litigation practice and now focuses upon representing victims of institutional sex abuse practices.   Leadership and Education Leadership in the legal industry has been a constant in Tom's career. He has served on the Board of Governors for the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ) for over 25 years culminating in his service as President in 2016. Tom also served for many years on the Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Within AAJ, Tom served as Chair or Co-Chair of multiple Litigation Groups and has also served on the AAJ Sections and Litigation Group Coordination Committee (SLGCC).   Tom earned his law degree from Widener University School of Law in 1991. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and various federal courts across the country. Tom routinely lectures about Mass Torts at AAJ, PAJ and other legal seminars across the country.

Richard Arsenault

Attorney
Neblett, Beard & Arsenault

Richard has been recognized as one of America’s 50 Most Influential Trial Lawyers by Trial Lawyer Magazine. He was nominated for the 2015 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by the Public Justice Foundation and selected as a 2015 member of the Nation’s Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. In 2014, he was selected by the National Trial Lawyers as the Trial Lawyer of the Year Civil Plaintiff Finalist. He currently serves as Lead Counsel in the Actos MDL where a jury rendered a historic $9 Billion Punitive Damage verdict against Eli Lilly and Takeda. This has been reported as one of the nation’s largest personal injury verdicts. He subsequently served on the team that negotiated a $2.4 Billion settlement which is the largest single mass tort settlement for a drug still on the market. He is also on the Pinnacle MDL Trial Team where a jury rendered a $502 Million verdict against J&J and DePuy. The National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys selected Richard to receive their Top 10 Attorney Award for the State of Louisiana. The Wall Street Journal has described Richard as having “national notoriety” and as a “big gun” amongst attorneys in competition for leadership roles. BusinessWeek described him as “a Dean of the Louisiana Tort Bar.” The NYTimes has described him as one of the “big players” in the legal community. USA Today featured him as a member of the “Legal Elite,” – a diverse grouping of America’s leading attorneys and the New Orleans Times Picayune has referred to him as “an authority on class actions.” Richard’s commitment to legal excellence is reflected in the years of serving as a faculty member for LSU’s Trial Advocacy program, lecturing at judicial colleges and assuming leadership roles in local as well as national bar associations. Recently, the LA Supreme Court appointed him to serve on the Rules of Professional Conduct Class Action Committee. For over 25 years, Richard has held Martindale Hubbell’s highest rating.

Salvatore C. Badala

Partner and General Counsel
Napoli Shkolnik

Salvatore C. Badala is a Partner and General Counsel at Napoli Shkolnik, where he leads the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation and Consumer Class Actions department. A strategic and tenacious advocate, Sal plays a central role in high-stakes mass tort and public entity litigation nationwide.   He is at the forefront of landmark opioid litigation, having been a member of the trial team who secured a $650 million ruling in the National Pharmacy Chain Opioid Trial, and a $1.1 billion settlement with major drug distributors in New York’s first opioid jury trial. His work has contributed to more than $2 billion in settlements and judgments for communities devastated by the opioid crisis.   Badala also has extensive experience representing corporations and individuals in complex regulatory and enforcement matters before the SEC, CFTC, and DOJ, including investigations involving the FCPA, foreign exchange markets, and mortgage-backed securities.   Sal is consistently named to New York Metro Super Lawyers® and was recently named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers list.

Carlos R. Baralt-Suárez

Attorney
Baralt Law LLC

Carlos R. Baralt-Suárez is Of Counsel at Delgado & Fernández, LLC, where he focuses on securities litigation, litigation related to real estate, complex commercial litigation, appeals, and constitutional law controversies. The synergy between Baralt Law LLC and Delgado & Fernández, LLC allows for collaboration that amplifies our shared commitment to providing exceptional legal results and enables us to pool intellectual capital, technological assets, and industry experience. With over a decade of experience in the legal industry, Mr. Baralt-Suárez has successfully represented clients before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and regulatory bodies.

Tim Becker

Partner
Johnson/Becker, PLLC

For nearly two decades, Tim Becker has protected the rights of clients injured by defective drugs, medical devices and products. As a partner at Johnson//Becker, PLLC, Tim plays a pivotal role in the firm’s commitment to successfully representing clients by exclusively dedicating his practice to representing the rights of those injured by dangerous and defective drugs or medical devices. He is actively involved in prosecuting claims on behalf of his clients who suffered injuries ranging from defective knee and hip implants, to catastrophic organ failure stemming from the use of over the counter herbal supplements.   During the course of his career, Tim has developed an extensive background as a trial lawyer willing to vigorously prosecute claims on his client’s behalf. Most recently, in May 2010, Tim and his team tried a complex product’s liability claim in the Northern District of Ohio for over a month on behalf of a welder who suffered permanent brain damage as a result of his use of welding products. Not limited to his court room trial experience, Tim successfully led the science team in MDL 2096: In re: Zicam Cold Remedy Marketing Sales Practice Litigation, (D. Az. 2011) fending off a vigorous Daubert challenge. Additionally, he has been admitted to practice before the First, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits of the United States Court of Appeals where he acted as the primary author of several appellate briefs. This combination of court room trial experience and appellate advocacy provides unique perspective in effectively representing his clients’ interests.

Paul E. Boehm

Partner
Sidley Austin LLP

Paul Boehm is a nationally recognized strategy and trial lawyer, national coordination counsel, and co-leader of Sidley’s global Product Liability and Mass Torts practice. He represents life sciences, pharmaceutical, and other highly regulated companies in complex product liability, mass tort, multi-district litigation (MDL), and other high-stakes matters. With two decades of experience as a litigation strategist, trial counsel, and settlement counsel, Paul has a record of successfully defending major multinational corporations in some of the country’s most consequential coordinated proceedings. According to clients and peers, Paul “see[s] how things are going to end up even before he begins” (Chambers USA 2019) and is “an excellent trial lawyer [who] finds a way to tell our story before a jury in a way that few others can do,” (Chambers USA 2025), “one of the best brief writers [they] have encountered” (Legal 500 United States 2024), and “a real pleasure to work with” (Chambers USA 2025). Paul advises clients at each stage of product liability litigation, from early case assessment through trial. He is known for designing litigation strategy from the outset with an eye toward outcomes, mastering and communicating complex scientific issues, and his credibility with judges, juries, and corporate leaders.

Kevin Boyle

Attorney/Owner
Boyle Law

Kevin Boyle specializes in resolving large, high-profile plaintiffs’ cases by trial or settlement. As an experienced Los Angeles trial lawyer, he represents a number of clients in a wide range of matters — from wrongful death to catastrophic personal injuries to victims of sexual assault and abuse to serious fraud.  The common thread of all of Mr. Boyle’s cases is that he represents people who have been severely wronged by powerful entities, and he seeks to not only hold those entities financially responsible, but to force them to change their ways.   Among his notable cases, Mr. Boyle served as co-lead counsel and member of the 1 October Litigation Leadership Group, representing the survivors and families of the victims of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. A sole gunman fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort, a horrendous act resulting in the deaths of 60 people and injuries to 411 others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. On the eve of the third anniversary of the shooting, Eighth Judicial District Court Chief Judge Linda Bell approved an $800 million settlement for the 4,000 victims and their families. Mr. Boyle was honored to later be recognized by Daily Journal as a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his work on behalf of these clients.   In the highly publicized Dominguez v. City and County of San Francisco, Mr. Boyle served as co-trial counsel in the case which resulted in a record jury verdict for the wrongful death of a 4-year-old girl.  The city and county of San Francisco completely denied responsibility, but the jury found it to be 100% responsible. The case was recognized by numerous publications as one of the Top 10 Verdicts in America.   Mr. Boyle also represented two U.S. soldiers who were severely injured in a helicopter crash in Iraq in a case against the helicopter manufacturer who asserted that it was immune from liability because it was a government contractor — obtaining the largest known settlement in a case of this kind.   In another groundbreaking case, Mr. Boyle represented journalists whose personal phone records were improperly examined in an illegal investigation ordered directly by the Board of Directors of the Hewlett Packard corporation.  The case resolved in a confidential settlement that included monetary and non-monetary components.   He also represented numerous victims of the San Bruno gas explosion and fire, caused by faulty gas pipes that were the responsibility of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and was involved in spearheading the effort that resulted in the court’s decision that the issue of punitive damages against PG&E would go to the jury.  The resolution of the case involved both monetary and non-monetary components to prevent such a disaster from happening again.   Mr. Boyle served as co-trial counsel in Yoon v. United States, a case involving a U.S. military fighter jet that crashed into a family home after the pilot had safely ejected. The jet had been maintained improperly, and the case resulted in the jury delivering the largest known wrongful death verdict against the U.S. military.   Additionally, Mr. Boyle served as Plaintiffs’ Liaison counsel and Co-Lead Counsel in complex litigation stemming from a train collision and derailment.  Representing 9 of the approximate 30 plaintiffs, Mr. Boyle steered the Plaintiffs team along with Matthew Stumpf and others in navigating complex litigation involving many defendants and many types of liability.  After years of litigation, numerous resolutions were reached bringing the total global settlements for the plaintiffs to $61 million.   Over his career, Mr. Boyle has represented hundreds of clients in hundreds of cases that involve many different types of claims, injuries, and damages.  Through his diligent work, he has worked to numerous results that span from amounts in the millions to hundreds of millions.  In total, he has brought about billions of dollars in monetary verdicts and settlements.   Mr. Boyle holds an A-V ranking from the prestigious Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest ranking a lawyer can attain in terms of ability and ethics. He has been recognized by the Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California, named among Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Attorneys, and he has been profiled as one of The Best Lawyers in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Times.   Mr. Boyle has been named 2017 ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for Plaintiffs’ Product Liability Litigation by Best Lawyers and is annually recognized as a Super Lawyer by the Super Lawyers publication as well as a Best Lawyer in various practice areas by the Best Lawyers publication. He has also been honored as a Finalist for the Consumer Attorneys of California’s Trial Lawyer of the Year award and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America, Marquis Who’s Who in American Law, and Marquis Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders.   In 2018, Mr. Boyle was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America, composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada with fellowship limited to one percent of the total population of any state or province.   Mr. Boyle was the 2023 President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers Los Angeles. Mr. Boyle is also a member of the Amicus Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) and serves on the Board of the Law College Association of the University of Arizona.   Prior to successful career as an elite plaintiff’s trial lawyer, Mr. Boyle served the country as law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court and, before that, to Judge Melvin T. Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He started practicing law on the defense side with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis before dedicating his career to helping plaintiffs.   Following graduation from Vanderbilt University, Mr. Boyle studied law at the University of Arizona. He finished law school first in his class, served as the Business Editor of the Arizona Law Review, and published an article concerning manufacturers’ duties to retrofit defective products before they cause further injury.

Justin Brass

Co-CEO and Senior Managing Director
JBSL

Justin Brass is the Co-CEO and Senior Managing Director of JBSL, a Legal Finance Company.  Over the last half decade, Justin and his team have syndicated and managed billions of dollars in litigation investments with partners ranging from hedge funds, alternative asset managers, private equity, insurance companies, large family offices, and traditional litigation funders. The group’s unique and structured approach has helped institutionalize the asset class in a way that provides borrowers with facilities more akin to traditional commercial lending and provides investors the flexibility to put more money to work and fit varying investment needs.  JBSL is also the only desk on Wall Street that regularly facilitates secondary market trading of other financiers’ and plaintiffs’ litigation risk. JBSL frequently advises other litigation funders, hedge funds and their LPs concerning the secondary market and the structuring of investments.

John Campbell

Trial Scientist
Campbell Law LLC

John Campbell is trial scientist who also has extensive experience as a trial attorney and appellate advocate.  He is a member of Campbell Law LLC, co-founder of Focus with Fred, and co-founded the Justice through Empirical Data Institute (JEDI), which focuses on jury behavior to promote fair trials and access to justice. John pioneered the use of empirical studies and big data in litigation and trial. Together with his wife and business partner, Alicia Campbell, John conducts empirical studies that have become a cornerstone for many of the U.S.'s leading plaintiff attorneys, state attorney generals, MDL committees, and federal agencies.  The work has been a critical part of over $5.6 billion in verdicts, over $15 billion in settlements, and record setting recoveries in states all over the country.  John and Alicia have studied more jurors and cases than anyone on earth, with over 1,400 civil cases studied, multiple peer reviewed academic articles published, and over 400,000 jurors sampled. Their database is often used to fuel academic research, including recent publications by Cornell’s Jury Institute.   As a co-author of Juryball, John has distilled his extensive experience into a book, helping other attorneys harness data to optimize their litigation and trial strategies.  Fluent in Spanish and based in Madrid, when John isn’t studying cases, he is hanging out with Alicia and cheering on his sons, Wyatt and Jack, as they play water polo and basketball. 

Vince Carnevale

Partner
Milberg

Vince Carnevale is a Partner at Milberg involved with the assessment and implementation of legal technology applications to improve firm operations. Mr. Carnevale graduated from Robert Morris University in 1995 with a B.S.B.A. degree in Finance/Economics. He attended The University of Pittsburgh School of Law and graduated in 2001. After law school, Mr. Carnevale joined an AMLaw 200 defense firm, working on electronic discovery projects related to multiple global mass tort pharmaceutical litigation matters. He went on to work as an Investigative Analyst/Legal Project Manager for Crivella West Incorporated, an advanced analytics and investigational research company. With over twenty years of experience managing all aspects of electronic discovery including collection, search, review and production, Mr. Carnevale has drafted various discovery pleadings including Document Preservation Orders, Legal Hold Notices, and Electronically Stored Information (ESI) Document Production Protocols. He has been the lead ESI project manager for some of the largest Mass Tort Class Action Pharmaceutical litigations in the country and has additional experience with Bankruptcy, Antitrust, Securities, Commercial, and Employment Law matters. Mr. Carnevale has attended numerous Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) Meet and Confer sessions to assist in the negotiation of ESI protocols and search criteria. He has also drafted declarations and affidavits regarding the quality and sufficiency of document productions and has attended status conferences in State and Federal court to support the related motions. Mr. Carnevale was selected to become a member of The Sedona Conference WG1 Brainstorming Group on Multidistrict Litigation and also on Possession, Custody, or Control. He is also a member of the EDRM State Rules project team with a mission to organize and publish a cross reference of State eDiscovery Rules with the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Mr. Carnevale attained his Project Management Professional PMP® certification in March 2015. He is admitted to practice law in the State of Pennsylvania as well as the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and is also a Registered Foreign Lawyer.

Eric Citron

Partner
Zimmer, Citron & Clarke

Eric Citron co-founded Zimmer, Citron & Clarke in 2025 after spending a decade at two leading Washington appellate litigation boutiques representing plaintiffs in high stakes litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. He teaches the Supreme Court Litigation clinic at Harvard Law School and has briefed and argued numerous cases across the state and federal appellate courts. Early in his career, Eric served as Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a result, he has become a particularly sought-after advocate for enforcement-side antitrust and competition appeals. His experience includes representing plaintiffs in several billion-dollar cases, including the Visa/Mastercard interchange fee litigation, appeals arising from the LIBOR-fixing and other financial-market manipulation scandals, and the opioid, Roundup, PFAS, and talcum-powder multidistrict litigations. He designed and executed the groundup litigation that resulted in the Supreme Court overturning Quill v. North Dakota. (South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018)). And although he was in private practice, the U.S. government asked him to share its time and argue for the country’s leading antitrust scholars in the D.C. Circuit appeal over its effort to stop the AT&T/TimeWarner merger. (United States v. AT&T, 916 F.3d 1029 (2019)). In addition to his active legal practice, Eric serves as a managing director at TRGP Capital, a leading litigation finance fund. Through his work in private practice and at TRGP, Eric has extensive experience evaluating potential cases, advising on litigation-related investment strategy and case design, and handicapping potential legal outcomes in ongoing matters.

Edwina Clarke

Partner
Zimmer, Citron & Clarke

Edwina Clarke co-founded Zimmer, Citron & Clarke in 2025. Edwina previously spent seven years at Goodwin Procter in Boston, where she was a partner in Goodwin’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice and focused on appeals and complex civil litigation. Her past work spans a range of areas, including patent litigation, administrative law, civil rights, and ERISA. She has litigated cases in federal and state trial courts, federal and state courts of appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Edwina also has extensive experience analyzing and handicapping cases in the Supreme Court and elsewhere for investment firms and litigation funders. Edwina was named to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List” for 2023 and 2024. In 2024, Edwina was recognized by Best Lawyers in America for her work in appellate litigation.

Tony Clayton

Lawyer
Clayton Frugé Ward Injury Attorneys

Tony Clayton represents families and individuals in a variety of personal injury cases. He graduated from Southern University’s Law Center and was admitted to the Louisiana State Bar in 1991. Clayton represents clients in a wide variety of legal matters, securing hundreds of millions for his clients in some of the largest verdicts in the state. He continues to help the people of New Orleans. Tony Clayton has had the privilege of serving the courts in other areas of the law, including District Court Judge for Louisiana Supreme Court and Special Prosecutor for East Baton Rouge Parish. Tony Clayton has also been featured in the 2023 Louisiana Super Lawyers Magazine! Tony is an avid hunter and fisherman who is deeply committed to preserving and protecting the wetlands that are so critical to the Louisianan way of life. It is his deep love of his state, as well as his calling to public service, that has led Tony to represent the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in cases involving pipeline companies endangering our precious wetlands. For decades, Tony has protected communities throughout the greater Baton Rouge area, and he is now committed to doing the same for the natural beauty of our state. He will do everything possible to hold pipeline companies accountable for the damage they have caused—while also ensuring they clean up the mess they have left behind.

Chris Coffin

Partner
Coffin Law, LLC

Chris Coffin is founder and partner of Coffin Law, LLC., located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has over 20 years of experience litigating complex cases involving defective pharmaceuticals and medical devices, environmental contamination, product liability, toxic torts and consumer fraud claims.   Before becoming an attorney over 25 years ago, Chris worked as a registered nurse. His combined background in nursing and law has provided him with a unique perspective when litigating pharmaceutical and medical device cases.   Drawing on this specialized knowledge and experience, he has successfully litigated thousands of cases addressing drug and device manufacturing defects, design defects, inadequate warnings, and fraudulent misrepresentations made by manufacturers. He has  taken on some of the world's largest pharmaceutical and medical device companies and has led national pharmaceutical cases involving clients from nearly every state in the country.  

Lori Cohen

Vice Chair
Greenberg Traurig

Lori G. Cohen is Vice Chair of Greenberg Traurig (GT) and serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Litigation Practice, leading a group of over 800 attorneys nationally and internationally. Lori is Co-Chair of the Trial Practice Group, her “brain child” which she created at GT. She also built the firm’s Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Health Care Litigation Practice. Under Lori’s leadership, this practice rose through the ranks and grew to include over 100 attorneys across more than 30 offices in the United States and globally and focuses on complex litigation of all types including product liability and pharmaceutical, medical device, and health care litigation. She has served as national, regional, and trial counsel for numerous medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, handling all types of litigation, including class actions, multidistrict litigation, and trials nationally. Recently named “Attorney of the Year” by The American Lawyer, Lori is referred to by her clients in Chambers USA as a “Trial Wizard,” and she is nationally recognized for her extraordinary trial record of 58 defense verdicts. Recognized eight consecutive times by Benchmark Litigation as “Top 10 Women in Litigation” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers,” and recently honored with their "Hall of Fame Award", Lori is a high-energy, high-profile leader among trial attorneys, and an effective, passionate mentor, Lori stands out as a female leader and a champion of developing the next generation of attorneys, particularly diverse attorneys.

Amy Collins

Attorney
Amy L. Collins, PC

Amy Collins is the founder and owner of Amy L. Collins, PC, a firm that provides independent third-party services for common benefit consulting and auditing in multidistrict litigation and state court coordinated proceedings nationwide. Amy is an attorney with more than a decade of litigation experience, the vast majority of which was spent as a litigator focused solely on mass tort litigation.

Jayne Conroy

Shareholder
Simmons Hanly Conroy LLP

Jayne Conroy is a named shareholder at Simmons Hanly Conroy and oversees practice areas in the Complex Litigation Department. Under her leadership, the firm has become one of the country’s largest plaintiff law firms dedicated to helping those injured by corporate wrongdoing. With a legal career spanning more than three decades, Jayne has earned a superb national reputation as an elite trial lawyer, skilled strategist and decisive negotiator. She has consistently helped secure billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for thousands of individuals, families and communities in numerous courtrooms nationwide.

Mildred Conroy

Associate
Simmons Hanly Conroy LLP

Mildred Conroy joined the Lanier Law Firm’s New York office as an associate in 2018 and practices in the areas of toxic torts, pharmaceutical litigation, mass torts and product liability. Ms. Conroy proudly fights for injured clients and their families who have been harmed by defective products and corporate negligence. Prior to joining the Lanier Law Firm, Ms. Conroy was a legal assistant with the Madison County District Attorney’s Office, where she worked primarily in the felony division. Ms. Conroy is from Massachusetts and received her Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington College in Chestertown, MD. She then went on to attend Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol Rhode Island, where she focused on Maritime law. Ms. Conroy is a member of the American Association for Justice, American Bar Association and the Missouri Bar Association. When she is not passionately advocating for her clients, Ms. Conroy enjoys competitive sailboat racing, skiing and spending time with her family.

Erin Copeland

Partner
Fibich Leebron Copeland & Briggs

Mass tort litigator licensed in Texas and Missouri. Represents injured individuals nationwide. Largely focused on issues involving women's healthcare and litigation involving drugs and devices specifically for women. Appointed Co-Lead of the Paragard (birth control product) MDL pending in Atlanta, GA. Previously served on Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the Essure (birth control product) JCCP pending in Alameda County, California. Helped to facilitate a 1.6B settlement on behalf of nearly 30k Plaintiffs who claimed injury by the Essure device. Other appointments include: Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the Hair Relaxer MDL pending in Illinois; Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the Uloric consolidated action pending in Illinois; Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the Onglyza MDL pending in Kentucky; Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in all Transvaginal Mesh MDLs pending in West Virginia and Plaintiffs' Steering Committee/State-Federal Liaison in Pradaxa MDL in Illinois

Katherine Cornell

Owner
Cornell Law

Katherine Cornell is the owner of Cornell Law where she focuses on pharmaceutical and medical device cases nationwide. Since obtaining her Juris Doctor from Michigan State University in 2012, Katherine has worked exclusively on the front line of mass pharmaceutical and product liability litigation, representing tens of thousands of victims who have been harmed.

Katherine worked extensively on the transvaginal mesh litigation and served on the trial team against Mentor Worldwide and its parent company Johnson & Johnson, obtaining a $4.4 million dollar verdict for her client. She handled thousands of hernia mesh claims and was appointed to leadership by Judge Porto in the Proceed Mesh MCL in the Superior Court of New Jersey – Atlantic County. In addition, Katherine was appointed by Honorable Judge Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the 3M Combat Arms Earplug multi-district litigation where she served on multiple trial teams.  Katherine was also appointed to leadership by Judge Rowland in the Hair Relaxer Product Liability Litigation in the Northern District of Illinois.

In her spare time, Katherine is an active member of the legal community. She has been named a Top 40 Under 40 by The National Trial Lawyers. She serves on the Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Revitalization Board and is a member of the Voter Protection Action Committee and the National Finance Council.

Diandra “Fu” Debrosse

Partner
DiCello Levitt LLP

Diandra “Fu” Debrosse is a fearless plaintiffs’ attorney who fights unapologetically for individuals and public entities injured by wrongful conduct, whether by defective medical devices, drugs, or cosmetics, environmental contamination, corporate misconduct, or civil rights abuse. Nationally recognized as a powerhouse in mass torts, class actions, products liability, discrimination, and sexual assault claims, Fu has recovered nearly $1 billion in damages for her clients. Blending her exceptional talents in multidistrict and mass tort litigation with state-of-the-art tools, Fu uses sophisticated modeling to identify technology-based and other forms of discrimination, including environmental injustice, defective devices, and unfair insurance practices.   As the managing partner of DiCello Levitt’s Birmingham office, co-chair of the firm’s Mass Torts division, and co-chair of its Civil and Human Rights Litigation Practice Group, she holds prominent leadership positions in numerous multidistrict litigations. She is Co-Lead Counsel in the massive products liability multidistrict litigation against two of the world’s largest infant formula manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson, and in the MDL against L’Oréal and other makers of disease-causing hair relaxer products marketed primarily to Black and Latina women. Fu also holds leadership positions in several other significant MDLs, including the litigation against Chevron and Syngenta for their marketing and sale of the disease-causing herbicide paraquat, as well as the social media MDL in which the plaintiffs are seeking damages against Meta Platforms, TikTok, YouTube, and others for creating defective products that encourage addictive behavior, resulting in various emotional and physical harms, including death.   Fu also leads many systematic civil rights and sexual assault cases; represents the City of Baltimore in legal actions addressing the catastrophic of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse; and represents dozens of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland, and North Dakota counties and a number of cities and counties in Maryland, Delaware, and other jurisdictions in two separate prescription opiate MDLs.   Fu was recognized by Forbes as one of the top 200 attorneys in the United States in 2024, and The National Law Journal named her to its 2023 list of Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, Lawdragon recognized Fu as one of the 500 Leading Consumer Lawyers. Chambers USA 2022 ranked the firm’s Litigation: Mainly Plaintiffs team among the top five in Alabama, and the Birmingham Business Journal honored Fu with a Best of the Bar Award and Who’s Who in Law recognitions in 2021, 2022, and 2023.   Fu is a founding member of Shades of Mass, an organization dedicated to encouraging the appointment of Black and brown attorneys in national mass tort actions. She is a board member of Public Justice and the Southern Trial Lawyers Association. Fu previously served as a hearing officer for the Alabama State Bar, held leadership roles in the American Association for Justice and the Alabama Access to Justice Commission, and acted as Alabama State Bar vice president and commissioner.   Fu is fluent in French and Haitian Creole and functional in Spanish. Her steadfast pursuit of justice is motivated in large part by her experience as a mother of two extraordinary young girls.

Sharon Desh

Partner
Winston & Strawn LLP

Sharon is a courtroom-proven trial lawyer who specializes in the jurisdictional complexities of high-profile cases involving parallel proceedings in state and federal courts. Known for her ability to collaborate across the aisle, Sharon’s proactive viewpoint and unique ability to navigate the uncertain waters of mass torts has enabled her to deliver excellent results for her clients, and has earned her the respect of judges, opposing counsel, and joint defense groups in some of the most contentious litigation of this decade. Over the course of just the last year, Sharon helped secure a defense jury verdict on behalf of a multinational healthcare company in the NEC litigation in state court after the Plaintiff requested over US$6.2B in damages and later went on to obtain a complete summary judgment ruling in her client’s favor in the first three NEC MDL bellwether trials.

Seth Deutsch

Founder
Samson Partners Group

Seth founded Samson Partners Group and Samson Partners Capital to assist other founders and CEOs in achieving their goals. He is a proven growth leader, acting as an operating partner, board member and CEO with a successful track record delivering profitable growth for private equity-backed, founder/family-owned and public companies. In particular, Seth has had numerous successful exits and has architected nine buy-and-build platforms, executing over 80 platform and add-on acquisitions.   Seth is also the author of The Owner’s Manual: Why, When, and How to Sell Your Business to Private Equity, an Amazon Top 10 bestseller for business owners seeking to maximize value when selling to or partnering with private equity funds. The book outlines a structured framework to help founders evaluate readiness, strengthen their companies and navigate the transaction process with clarity and confidence.   He is one of the foremost leaders in helping lawyer-entrepreneurs and private equity investors form partnerships in North America. He has served as an Operating Partner at one of the first MSO-ABS roll-ups in the US. His firm has advised founders and private equity groups across 10 submarkets within the legal industry in the US. Prior to founding Samson, Seth held executive leadership positions at AECOM, one of the world’s largest professional technical services firms, where he was President and CEO of two multi-billion-dollar divisions. He also served as CEO of a national, private equity-backed HVAC and refrigeration services company. Previously, he was a board member and Chief Growth Officer at a leading provider of finance and accounting services to the private equity industry. In a two-year span, he scaled the business from 50 to over 400 employees and successfully recapitalized the company, resulting in a 6.5X MOIC. He holds an undergraduate degree from Rice University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.   seth@samsonpartnersgroup.com samsonpartnersgroup.com

Chris Dore

Chief Strategy Officer
Bridge Legal

Gary Douglas

Partner
Douglas & London, P.C.

Mr. Douglas is a nationally renowned trial attorney & member of the Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame recognized around the country as a trailblazer in the field of Products Liability and Environmental Law. He has tried hundreds of cases and obtained billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements. Most recently, Mr. Douglas was the lead trial counsel in the first ever AFFF/PFAS trial pending in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, which resulted in an eve-of-trial settlement of $12.5 billion with the 3M Company on behalf of hundreds of water providers/utilities whose water has been contaminated or is threatened by the forever chemicals PFAS – the largest water contamination settlement in American jurisprudence history. There are few lawyers in the world who are as well-versed and or as experienced in PFAS litigation as Mr. Douglas. Mr. Douglas and his team‘s efforts in this case are the subject of the documentary film featuring Mark Ruffalo, How to Poison a Planet, to be released in 2025.  How to Poison a Planet Trailer Mr. Douglas has been litigating PFAS contamination cases for a decade now and is the first lawyer ever to successfully try a PFAS contamination case, hitting the trifecta with three consecutive wins against DuPont in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, resulting in a $690 million settlement on behalf of thousands of residents of Ohio and West Virginia. His achievements against DuPont were the subject of the blockbuster Hollywood movie Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, as well as of the bestselling book Exposure by Rob Bilott. Mr. Douglas’ career has been a series of “firsts,” taking on industry giants on behalf of “the little guy,” including the first win in the nation against the automobile industry for a defective airbag that killed a six-year-old boy. He followed that with the first victory in the history of the State of New York against the tobacco industry, securing a verdict of $20 million for the death of a 58-year-old smoker. Mr. Douglas achieved notoriety when in the span of just a few weeks he obtained back-to-back $8 million dollar verdicts against two different pharmaceutical industry giants: Johnson & Johnson in a medical device case and Merck in a case involving the drug Fosamax.

Soon after that Mr. Douglas scored the first-ever win in the Xarelto litigation with a $28 million verdict against the drug manufacturer Bayer in state court in Pennsylvania on behalf of a woman who suffered internal bleeding as a result of taking the blood thinner Xarelto.

Mr. Douglas has appeared on local and national television including ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and others, and his verdicts have been reported on in major national news journals, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

In his spare time he tours the world in a rock ‘n roll band, sharing the stage with the likes of the legendary Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, among others. Their music can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming services or visit them at www.garydouglasband.com.

Nicholas J. Drakulich

Founding Partner
The Drakulich Firm

Nicholas J. Drakulich (Nick) is the founder of THE DRAKULICH FIRM, A Professional Law Corporation, with offices in California and Nevada. Mr. Drakulich has been uniquely honored to have been appointed by several Federal Courts across the nation to serve as a member of Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee or Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in nationally prominent Multi-District Litigations (MDL’s) against the world’s largest pharmaceutical and medical device corporations, recovering several billions of dollars on behalf of injured plaintiffs. Mr. Drakulich was also selected to be the lead trial counsel in several of these cases and a member of the trial team in others. Mr. Drakulich was one of the core members on the trial team together with Mark Lanier, Richard Arsenault, Paul Pennock, and Neil Overholtz in the Actos MDL that secured a historic verdict of over $9 Billion Dollars, which was reported to be the seventh largest punitive damages verdict in U.S. history. The Actos MDL ultimately ended in a $2.4 Billion Dollar settlement. As the court noted following the successful resolution of the Actos MDL:  

Mr. Drakulich provided much oversight and input to the trial team throughout the trial. He was instrumental in the development of the case against Eli Lilly & Co. He attended the trial and was heavily relied upon for his advice and counsel through settlement due to his extensive experience in complex litigation. Mr. Drakulich maintained a day to day overview of most MDL activities and was literally consumed with the litigation  

In addition to his MDL work, Mr. Drakulich also successfully represented along with co-counsel in state court nearly two thousand individuals against the manufacturers of spinal implants that were alleged to have caused serious injuries. These cases ultimately resulted in a confidential settlement following several years of protracted and intensive litigation. Following a jury verdict against one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers, the trial counsel for this giant corporation, opined that Mr. Drakulich is an “exceptionally able, senior, seasoned litigator who was extremely well prepared and clearly spent considerable time and effort to ensure the best possible representation of his client.” Mr. Drakulich has also been honored to be selected as a Super Lawyer, a member of the National Trial Lawyers, The Million Dollar Advocates Forum, The Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. For many years, Mr. Drakulich has been consistently rated (“AV”) by Martindale Hubbell, America’s preeminent peer-reviewed lawyer rating service. He has been an invited speaker at several dozen legal seminars across the United States, including the prestigious MDL Judicial Summit, the Class Action Law Forum, Mass Torts Puerto Rico, and others sponsored by the AAJ, HarrisMartin, Mealey’s and numerous State Bar Associations. Mr. Drakulich focuses his practice in catastrophic personal injury, products liability, and mass torts. He has enjoyed a diverse and rewarding trial practice for more than thirty-five years having recovered several hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of his injured clients. Mr. Drakulich is proud to be a trial lawyer and humbled to champion his clients’ quest for justice.

Robert J. Drakulich

Partner
The Drakulich Firm

Robert J. Drakulich (Bob) is a trial lawyer and partner at THE DRAKULICH FIRM, A Professional Law Corporation, with offices in California and Nevada. Mr. Drakulich’s primary practice is in the areas of product liability, medical device/ pharmaceutical drug mass torts, and catastrophic personal injury, including wrongful death. Mr. Drakulich is licensed to practice law in California, Nevada, Minnesota, and Washington D.C. and is admitted to practice before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Drakulich has actively participated as a member of the trial team on several multi-million-dollar cases. Mr. Drakulich has helped attain hundreds of millions of dollars for the firm’s mass tort clients. In addition to his work on the firm’s mass tort practice, Mr. Drakulich has also helped secure substantial verdicts and settlements on behalf of the firm’s single event cases.

Mr. Drakulich was honored to be appointed to the Plaintiff Steering Committee (PSC) in In re: Elmiron (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2973, by the Hon. Brian R. Martinotti of the United States District Court, District of New Jersey and has been a key team member re: the depositions in the case as well as the science and efficacy of the drug.

Mr. Drakulich has extensively worked in Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) settings in nationally prominent Multi-District Litigations (MDL’s) against the world’s largest pharmaceutical and medical device corporations. In addition to In re: Elmiron, Mr. Drakulich has worked at the direction and request of lead counsel in other MDL cases, including In Re: Actos (Pioglitazone) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 11- 2299 (United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana) and In Re: Incretin Mimetics Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2452, (United States District Court, Southern District of California). Mr. Drakulich has also worked on various state court coordinated proceedings, including cases in St. Louis, Missouri and the California Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP).

Mr. Drakulich is thankful to be an invited speaker at over thirty legal seminars across the country, including the prestigious Texas Tech MDL Judicial Summit, Western Alliance Bank's annual Class Action Law Forum (CALF) held in collaboration with University of San Diego School of Law, Mass Torts Puerto Rico, and numerous HarrisMartin MDL Conferences across the country.

Mr. Drakulich is grateful for the awards and distinctions that he has received throughout his career, including: San Diego Super Lawyers, the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Lawyers in California, AVVO’s highest rating of “Superb” (10.0 out of 10), and the Top 100 Attorneys in the State of Nevada by America’s Top 100 Attorneys.

Mr. Drakulich graduated (cum laude) from the University of San Diego School of Law. Before entering law school, Mr. Drakulich was a high school teacher and working artist. He graduated (cum laude) with a B.A. degree from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mr. Drakulich endeavors to employ his creative skills and teaching background in law. Much like art, when handling a client’s case, Mr. Drakulich looks at it from every angle, reduces it to the simplest form and tries to think of the most compelling method to convey it to an audience.

John Driscoll

Attorney
The Driscoll Firm, LLC

John J. Driscoll founded The Driscoll Firm, LLC, in October 2008. John is licensed to practice law in Illinois, Missouri, and Minnesota. In addition, he is admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Eastern District of Missouri, the Southern District of Illinois, the District of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. John has offices in St. Louis, Mo.; Chicago, Il.; Raleigh, NC and San Juan, Puerto Rico.  In 2020, during the pandemic, John moved to Puerto Rico. When in Puerto Rico, he enjoys long walks on the beach, and is becoming pickle ball curious.

Marcella Ducca

Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Marcella Ducca is a trial attorney, Co-Chair of the Atlanta Products Liability Litigation Group, and a shareholder at the firm. Marcella focuses her practice on the representation and defense of manufacturers in products liability litigation, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical, medical device, and health care litigation. She litigates a variety of complex matters in both state and federal courts, including multidistrict litigations ("MDLs") and mass torts. In addition, Marcella regularly defends major hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers in alleged medical malpractice cases. Marcella is a senior leader on GT’s mass tort litigation teams, managing largescale national litigation as well as individual catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. Marcella’s practice has been focused on medical devices, particularly women’s health devices and women’s health consumer products. In what has been called by some the most complicated mass tort in history, Marcella selected, retained, and managed dozens of trial experts and also helped build strategy for depositions of thousands of plaintiffs and physicians across the country, deposing many of them. She has also been a key member of several trial teams, including taking on responsibility for day-to-day case management, development of case strategy, and all aspects of fact and expert discovery. In one successful trial—a complete defense verdict when the plaintiff was seeking $28 million in damages—Marcella was instrumental in steering the causation defense and handling the parties’ medical expert witnesses. Marcella currently oversees all aspects of a nationwide litigation involving inferior vena cava (IVC) filters, including strategy, motion practice, fact discovery, expert discovery, and trial workup. Marcella was part of the multi-office GT team that won a full defense verdict on July 22, 2021 in an IVC filter trial, Couturier v. C. R. Bard, Inc., in the Eastern District of Louisiana. After nine days of trial, including the testimony of 21 witnesses, the jury in the matter deliberated for just 90 minutes before reaching a total defense verdict. Marcella has defended other mass torts, including transvaginal mesh, talcum powder, hernia mesh, and testosterone replacement therapy. Beyond her mass tort work, Marcella is involved in the defense of claims against one of the nation's largest medical device sterilization providers. Marcella recently secured unique dismissals of medical device manufacturers on preemption grounds in Alabama and Oregon. Marcella is listed in The Legal 500 United States, “Dispute Resolution – Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action – Defense: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices” (2020). She has been selected by Super Lawyers magazine as a Georgia Super Lawyers “Rising Star” from 2013 to the present, was selected as a “Rising Star” by Law360 in 2018, was featured in American Lawyer Media’s Daily Report “On the Rise” section in 2015, and was selected by the American Bar Association (ABA) as one of its “On the Rise: Top 40 Young Lawyers” in the country for 2017. Marcella is a leader on the team that was named The American Lawyer’s “Product Liability Litigation Department of the Year” and “Georgia Regional Litigation Department of the Year” for 2018. Marcella is a frequent speaker on emerging issues in complex litigation and product liability law. She recently presented at the Atlanta Bar Association, “All About the Experts;” at Emory Law School, “Remedies;” at ACI’s Drug & Medical Device Litigation Conference, “Keys to Effectively Defending MDLs and Navigating the Remand Process from Transfer to Trial;” at ACI’s Women Leaders in Life Sciences; at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, “Proactive Post-Market Surveillance, 510(k) Update, and Real-World Evidence;” at DeviceTalks Minnesota, “M&A, IP, and Product Liability Trends Impacting MedTech;” at Defense Research Institute’s Asbestos Medicine Seminar; and at the Minnesota Women Lawyers’ Annual Conference. Marcella is a member of the Emerging Leaders Board of Advisors at The Institute for Complex Litigation and Mass Claims at Emory University School of Law.

Paul Farrell Jr.

Principal
Farrell & Fuller Law

Paul Farrell leads the vanguard of the next generation of mass tort lawyers. A West Virginia native, he filed the first transvaginal mesh (TVM) cases in the country resulting in the formation of MDL2807 styled In re Pelvic Repairs System Product Liability Litigation in Charleston, West Virginia. Paul served as Plaintiffs’ Liaison for some 80,000 cases from across the country and trial counsel for the bellwethers. Since 2016, his practice has focused on the opioid litigation after filing some of the first public nuisance cases on behalf of political subdivisions from the Ohio River Valley. Paul was appointed Co-Lead Counsel of MDL 2804 styled In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation which has been described as the most complex mass tort in American jurisprudence. Paul is considered one of the architects of the case against the distributors of prescription opioids and served as lead trial counsel in the first bellwether trial brought on behalf of his hometown in Huntington, Cabell County, West Virginia. Paul is a co-founder of Farrell & Fuller, LLC, formed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and recently designed and filed the first anti-trust cases against Google and Facebook on behalf of newspapers from across the country. Paul is married to his law school sweetheart, Jacqueline Farrell, and they are the proud parents of Connor, Cahley and Casey.

Yvonne Flaherty

Partner
Lockridge Grindal Nauen

Yvonne M. Flaherty focuses her practice on the representation of injured parties in complex litigation against pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, as well as class actions involving a variety of consumer and product defect claims. She has been appointed to serve as Lead Counsel in consolidated claims against national medical device manufacturers and serves on several Plaintiff Steering Committees on behalf of thousands of claimants in Multi District Litigation throughout the United States. Ms. Flaherty has also served on trial teams in two national class actions, both of which were tried to verdict. In Peterson v. BASF Corp., Ms. Flaherty was a member of the trial team who secured a substantial jury verdict for a nation-wide class of farmers seeking redress for violation of consumer protection statutes. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences concerning medical device and pharmaceutical litigation, including topics concerning mass tort litigation, preemption, electronic discovery, and the Learned Intermediary Doctrine. Yvonne M. Flaherty is a member of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”) formerly ATLA, numerous AAJ committees, co-chairs the Electronic Discovery Committee, and is the past Chair of the Women’s Trial Lawyers Caucus. She also serves on the Minnesota Association for Justice Board of Governors and Executive Committee and is a member of the Minnesota State, Hennepin County and Federal Bar Associations.

Lee Floyd

Of Counsel
Meadow Law

Lee is a distinguished trial attorney with a reputation for fierce, client-centered advocacy. Lee focuses her practice on representing the most vulnerable populations in consolidated actions, with an emphasis on those who have been sexually abused. In 2024, Lee became the first female trial lawyer in the country to secure a nine-figure verdict on behalf of children who were sexually abused. As trial counsel in the groundbreaking case against Cumberland Hospital, Lee obtained a $360 million jury verdict on behalf of three female clients.

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In addition to her national sex abuse practice, Lee focuses on high-stakes mass tort litigation. She is routinely appointed by judges across the country to serve in leadership roles in mass tort and class action litigations, and currently holds leadership positions in the Paragard MDL, Hair Relaxer MDL, Suboxone MDL, and numerous data breach class actions.

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Before dedicating her career to protecting the most vulnerable, Lee spent a decade defending global corporations and was elected the youngest equity partner in the history of her former national law firm. Lee brings a unique perspective to every case she handles because she’s worked on both sides at the highest levels.

Michael Fuller

Principal
Farrell & Fuller Law

Mr. Fuller is one of the founding member of Farrell & Fuller. Mr. Fuller spent decades holding the nursing home industry responsible for the abuse and neglect of the elderly. Now he has turned his attention to other corporate giants in the pharmaceutical industry by taking a key leadership role in the nationwide opioid litigation. Mr. Fuller along with Mr. Farrell have most recently began anti-trust litigation against Google and Facebook on behalf of our Country’s Newspaper Industry.

Matt Garretson

Founder
Garretson

Matthew Garretson received a BA from Yale University, a law degree at Kentucky’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law and a Masters in Theology from Chicago Theological Seminary. Garretson has served as the special master or administrator of settlement funds and crisis response programs through the country in environmental disaster, product liability, civil rights, sexual abuse and other cases. In this capacity, Garretson has substantial firsthand experience with the design, administration and/or oversight of hundreds of class action and mass tort resolution programs. Further, he has extensive experience adjudicating and allocating claims as a court-appointed neutral and has modernized the approach to such claims adjudication using the power of clinical linguistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Katie Gommel

Vice President
RebuttalPR

With a robust background in public affairs and strategic communications, Katie brings over 15 years of experience in crafting impactful narratives and navigating complex media landscapes.

Katie oversees our law firm accounts to elevate their brand awareness through online marketing, thought leadership development, and proactive press outreach. She has experience supporting firms of all sizes across a variety of litigation matters including antitrust, appellate, mass torts, medical malpractice, sexual assault, product liability, environmental, premises liability, securities, and more. Her experience includes developing and executing comprehensive PR campaigns for cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and navigating the public rollout of multi-billion-dollar settlements.

Katie began her career at the America Association of Justice (AAJ) where she found her passion for fighting for justice and accountability. While at AAJ, she crafted communications campaigns across a number of issues including forced arbitration, medical device and drug safety, and trucking and auto regulation. She also supported the development of the association’s digital presence.

Prior to joining RebuttalPR, Katie was a vice president at Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis on the social impact and advocacy team where she honed her skills in media relations, crisis management, issue advocacy, and content creation. She represented Fortune 500 companies, major nonprofits, and individuals across a variety of sectors including tech, healthcare, education, and policy. Previously, she served as a media strategist at the ACLU.

Katie is a graduate of Stony Brook University and lives in Chicago.

Thomas Goodhead

British Barrister

Benji Grossman

Founder & CEO
Commonwealth Island Capital

Benji is the founder of Commonwealth Island Services, a Puerto Rico–based management services organization (MSO) focused on building scaled, shared infrastructure for plaintiff law firms across personal injury. The platform centralizes operations, technology, and vendor management in Puerto Rico, enabling firms to improve efficiency, lower cost structures, and focus on legal execution. He works closely with firm owners to design customized transaction structures, including full exits, growth partnerships, and succession solutions, that allow attorneys to access liquidity, bring on capital partners, and reduce administrative burden while maintaining control of their practices.   Prior to founding Commonwealth Island Services, Benji worked at Evercore, where he advised on over $15 billion in completed M&A transactions. He holds a degree in Mathematics from MIT, where he graduated at the top of his class and was an All-American tennis player. Earlier in his career, he founded Voltic, a Y Combinator–backed solar shipping company, and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for his work there.

Marc D. Grossman

Senior Partner
Milberg

Marc D. Grossman is a Senior Partner at Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, LLC with decades of experience representing large groups of plaintiffs against major corporate defendants, including in the areas of environmental torts, medical claims, class actions and mass torts, both domestically and globally. Mr. Grossman has also produced five Broadway shows, and is co-owner of the Puerto Rican professional basketball team Mets de Guaynabo.

Stacy Hauer

Attorney
Johnson Becker PLLC

CURRICULUM VITAE Stacy Hauer represents clients who have been injured as a result of defective drugs or faulty medical devices. Since she began practicing law, she has focused much of her practice in this area on large national cases including: Baycol, Medtronic Defibrillators, Guidant Defibrillators, Medtronic Sprint Fidelis leads, and Transvaginal Mesh. Ms. Hauer’s extensive background in science and medicine make her uniquely qualified for drug and device litigation. Ms. Hauer graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School. She also received a Masters Degree from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. Stacy also received her Bachelor degrees in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Finally, Stacy has a background working in the health care industry and caring for patients which has given her a compassionate perspective in advocating for clients who have been injured by defective drugs and medical devices. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AND CASE RESUME MDL 1535: In re:  Welding Rods Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio. (Trial Team -Mann v. Lincoln Elec.) MDL 1708: In re Guidant Implantable Defibrillators Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, District of Minnesota (Co-Chair of Claim Review Committee) MDL 1726: In re Medtronic Implantable Defibrillators Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, District of Minnesota (Claim Review Committee) MDL 1968: In re: Digitek Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Plaintiff Steering Committee) MDL 2187: In re C.R. Bard, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Plaintiff Steering Committee) MDL 2325: In re American Medical Systems, Inc. Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Plaintiff Steering Committee) MDL 2326: In re Boston Scientific Corp. Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Plaintiff Steering Committee) MDL 2327: In re Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of West Virginia (Plaintiff Steering Committee) In re American Medical Systems, Inc. Litigation, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, 27-CV-11-3933 (Co-Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs) MDL 2606: In re Benicar (Olmesartan) Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, District of New Jersey (Plaintiff Steering Committee) In re Uloric Products Liability Litigation, Northern District of Illinois, 20-CV-00623 (Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs) MDL 2973: In re Elmiron (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, District of New Jersey (Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee) MDL 3026: In re Abbott Laboratories, et al. Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Co-Chair Bellwether Committee) MDL 3037: In re Recalled Abbott Infant Formula Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Co-Lead Counsel) MDL 3060: In re Hair Relaxer Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee) MDL 3094: In re Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee)   BAR ADMISSIONS Minnesota, 2002 Wisconsin, 2009 U.S. District Court, Minnesota, 2003 U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, 2013 U.S. District Court, Colorado, 2021 U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2022 U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, 2023 U.S. Court of Appeals 8^th Circuit, 2009 U.S. Court of Appeals 6^th Circuit, 2010 U.S. Court of Appeals 7^th Circuit, 2023   EDUCATION  UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LAW SCHOOL, Minneapolis, Minnesota COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota (M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry) UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH, Duluth, Minnesota (B.A. Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

Aaron Heckaman

Partner
Bailey, Cowan, Heckaman PLLC

Aaron graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information and Operation Management. He then attended South Texas College of Law, where he represented the school in the mock trial program, and served as an associate editor for the Corporate Counsel Review. Prior to joining the firm, Aaron worked for two nationally recognized trial law firms. Aaron has been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers (2021), in addition to being named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers (2010, 2019-2020), a Thomson Reuters publication and was selected to Rue Ratings’ Best Attorneys of America (2016). He is a member of the National Association of Distinguished Counsel, the American Academy of Trial Attorneys, and the Texas Bar College.

Eric D. Holland

Owner/ Partner
Holland Law Firm

Taking on American and international corporate giants, Eric Holland’s litigation results are measured in the billions and billions of dollars recovered for his clients and in measurable societal good like getting unsafe firearms off the streets, triggering governmental investigations, and fighting against court secrecy. His work has been featured in Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, NPR, CBS, the L.A. Times, and CNBC, to name just a few. In just the last three years, he has been described to the media as a “legal mastermind” by his corporate opponents. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award and was also inducted into the Verdict Hall of Fame by the National Law Journal. Based in St. Louis, Eric has handled cases across the United States and obtained many record-setting jury verdicts and settlements. He obtained over 25 multi-million-dollar results in single injury cases in the first 20 years of his law practice involving railroad, product liability, and trucking matters. Over the last fifteen years, Eric has developed his firm’s complex litigation practice into one of the country’s leaders and has been instrumental in obtaining several eight-, nine-, and ten-figure verdicts and settlements, many of which have been litigated in courts in and around St. Louis. He has been appointed to leadership positions in mass tort and class action litigations, including lead counsel, steering committee, and executive committee posts in various state and federal courts. He is an active speaker and a member of several trial attorney associations, including the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys (ARLA), AAJ, NTL, and many others. He has been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” since 2006, holds the “A.V. Preeminent” rating of Martindale-Hubbell, is a “Top Rated Lawyer” (Mass Torts, Product Liability, and Class Action litigation), and has been a “Top 100 Trial Lawyer” and a “Top 25 Mass Tort Lawyer” for several years. Eric currently serves on the Executive Committee for The National Trial Lawyers and the Lawyers Cabinet for the George Washington University Law School’s Complex Litigation Center.

Bradley D. Honnold

Founding Partner
Goza & Honnold, LLC

Brad Honnold has more than 30 years of experience trying lawsuits and managing high stake litigation throughout the country. Brad has been recognized by his peers and clients for his outstanding work ethic and everlasting advocacy on behalf of his clients. When he takes on a case, Brad’s clients acquire the benefit of his seasoned legal experience, and extensive knowledge of the law, as well as his ready sense of humor. After graduating from the University of Iowa – College of Law, and before starting his own law firm, Brad was a partner at a large nationally known firm. He was a defense attorney from 1989 to 2004, representing hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and physicians in product liability and medical negligence litigation. In 2005 Brad made the switch to representing plaintiffs. He, along with his friend and law partner Kirk Goza, started Goza & Honnold, LLC. After working as a defense lawyer, Brad wanted to use his expertise to represent clients who had experienced an injury caused by medical malpractice. Because of his experience as a defense lawyer, Brad brings a different perspective to cases, and he felt a calling to do something different – something that would help people in their time of need. “I really just felt a calling to do something different,” he said. “There’s something very different about dealing with a person who has been injured or harmed in some way.” As a partner of Goza & Honnold, LLC, Brad focuses on medical negligence, pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, medical devices, and general personal injury cases. Since partnering and working on national litigations, Kirk and Brad have represented thousands of clients, including Vioxx, Bextra/Celebrex, Fleets Phospho Soda, Trans Vaginal Mesh, DePuy ASR, Zimmer Durom, Pradaxa, Fosamax, Actos, and Power Morcellator. Brad is a member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, The Kansas Bar, The Missouri Bar, the U.S. District Court – District of Kansas, the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, and The Missouri Association of Trial Lawyers. He is also a member of the plaintiff’s steering committee in the federal multidistrict litigations (MDL) for Xarelto, Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI), JUUL Inc., and 3M Military Ear Plugs, as well as a co-chair of the discovery committee for the PPI and JUUL MDLs. As a frequent speaker addressing medical malpractice, trial practice, and product liability, he is dedicated to teaching how to get the best possible outcome. While practicing, Brad has been acknowledged by Super Lawyers in Kansas and Missouri, Best Lawyers in America, and has earned the Martindale-Hubbell AV rating for 20-plus years. He was named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers for Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs, Kansas City-KS and Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs, Kansas City-KS. He has also received awards from The Best Lawyers in America for work in Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs and Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs. Brad is recognized by his peers as hardworking and committed to his clients. He is endorsed by his colleagues, previous and past, on his work on mass torts, trials, and class action lawsuits. As a Kansas City resident for over 20 years, Brad spends his free time volunteering in his community. Currently, Brad is a member of and volunteers with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, where he is a Vestry member, on the Rector Search Committee, on the Stewardship committee, and is a Sunday School teacher. For nine years, Brad served as a volunteer attorney at CASA of Jackson County, Missouri. He represented court-appointed special advocate guardians for children in Jackson County, Missouri Family Court abuse and neglect cases. He was also a board member focused on fundraising and volunteer recruitment training. Brad and his staff volunteer at Project 1020 – a cold-weather shelter in Olathe, Kansas. The team gathers meals and provides on-site staffing for the shelter. As Brad’s four sons were growing up, he also volunteered as a youth sports coach for Leawood Parks & Recreation, YMCA, 3&2 Baseball of Johnson County, Great American Basketball League, and Nall Hills Baseball. In his free time, Brad enjoys spending time with his wife, Colleen, and their four sons – Grant, William, Walter, and John Patrick.

Joey Jackson

Principal & Founder
Joey Jackson Law, PLLC

Joey Jackson is a nationally recognized Attorney who has for more than two decades represented individuals and Labor Unions in State and Federal Court. Mr. Jackson and his Associates have represented a diverse group of clients under the glare of cameras as well as those who have never attracted public attention. He has built an outstanding career as a defense lawyer representing clients who have fallen into high-stakes personal and professional crises, as well as those who are average citizens in need of his fierce and benevolent counsel. Prior to Law School, he earned his MPA from SUNY Albany's Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. While earning his Master's Degree, he worked for the N.Y.S. Assembly Speaker as a Legislative Analyst. He also holds a B.A. from SUNY Brockport, where he participated in the honors program, directed the student-run Legal Information Service, served as student body president, and interned with the N.Y.S. Education Department as well as Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) in Washington, D.C. He also worked for the N.Y.C. Mayor's Office in the Division of Special Projects. In 2020, Mr. Jackson was beyond honored when Brockport constructed an InterCultural Center (ICC) bearing his name: The JOEY JACKSON ICC. While in law school, he served as editor for the Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal. He was also a member of the National Moot Court and National Trial teams where he represented Hofstra Law school by competing with other Moot Court & Trial teams throughout the country. Mr. Jackson also served as the Graduation Speaker for his Law School Class. In 2022, Mr. Jackson was inducted into the Hofstra Law School Hall of Fame, an honor afforded to one Alumni per Graduating Class. He currently sponsors an annual Scholarship for Law Students at Hofstra each and every year. He is the Principal & Founder of JOEY JACKSON LAW, PLLC., located in Mid-Town Manhattan. The Firm’s Attorneys, who are highly skilled advocates, are talented problem solvers— available to assist clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week: 1-833-JOEYJACKSON (563-9522). In addition to a plethora of other clients, The Firm has the privilege of defending and protecting the Members of the 2nd largest Law Enforcement Union in the Country, the New York City Correction Officers Benevolent Association (COBA), achieving historic victories and having unprecedented success. Mr. Jackson has been a member of the New York Bar since 1995. After graduating from Hofstra Law School, he was appointed Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan under Robert M. Morgenthau. Following a successful career as a prosecutor where he received the Distinguished Public Service Award, Mr. Jackson joined a Manhattan Law Firm where he serves as Senior Trial Counsel specializing in Criminal Defense and Labor & Employment. Mr. Jackson has tried cases and received favorable verdicts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, as well as Nassau, Suffolk and Rockland Counties. He also handles federal cases in both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. Mr. Jackson is also a former adjunct professor at Monroe College where he taught Business & Civil Rights Law. His straight-talking legal expertise has always been held in high regard by media outlets as evidenced by his commentary over the years on the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, MSNBC, ABC, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and Court TV. He currently serves as a Legal Analyst for CNN.  

Evan M. Janush

Managing Attorney
The Lanier Law Firm

Evan M. Janush is the Managing Attorney of the New York office. Evan oversees the firm’s pharmaceutical and product liability mass tort litigation practice. He also oversees business litigation matters for The Lanier Law Firm’s New York office, and he is the practice group leader of the firm’s employment litigation practice. Recently, Evan has been in charge of third party discovery on behalf of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the Opioid Litigation (MDL 2804), and he has been one of the lead MDL attorneys overseeing the liability case against Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Noramco. Evan has significant experience representing clients in complex business litigation, pharmaceutical mass tort litigation, antitrust and class-action litigation, and representing employees in discrimination and whistleblower actions. Prior to joining The Lanier Law Firm, Mr. Janush practiced law at the firms of Weitz & Luxenberg and Jenkens & Gilchrist Parker Chapin. Evan is the proud father of three daughters and he lives in Westchester County with his wife, Debra. In his spare time, Evan enjoys his role as a stage actor with Westchester Collaborative Theater, as well as boating and snowboarding.

Rhon Jones

Principal
Beasley Allen Law Firm

Rhon heads up the firm’s Toxic Torts Section and oversees nursing home abuse and neglect cases. He is one of the top environmental attorneys for plaintiffs in the country. His verdicts and settlements while at Beasley Allen are estimated at $3 billion, and total recovery for all cases he has worked on exceeds $30 billion. He is on the cutting edge for representing governments and water systems for various forms of environmental harm and has handled environmental or toxic exposure cases in at least 15 different states. Most recently, Rhon has taken on the issue of seeking justice for those harmed by the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Robbert-Jan Kamstra

Managing Partner
Milberg

Robbert-Jan, "RJ",  specializes in resolving complex commercial international disputes and collective actions. Before joining Milberg, he worked as a clerk in the commercial law section of the Amsterdam District Court, he joined the legal team of ASICS’ European headquarters and was part of the litigation department of Baker McKenzie. Robbert-Jan has registered general civil law (algemene praktijk, burgerlijk recht) as principal legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister). RJ is the Managing Partner of Milberg Amsterdam where he focuses on environmental, PFAS and vehicle emissions cases.

Rayna Kessler

Partner
Robins Kaplan LLP

Rayna E. Kessler is a partner in the New York office of Robins Kaplan LLP. Her practice focuses on complex civil and multivenue litigation in a range ofmatters that span products liability, mass tort, medical malpractice, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and child sex abuse involving large institutions.She is admitted to practice in federal and state courts in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ThirdCircuit.After earning her J.D. from Temple University School of Law, Rayna clerked for the Honorable Carol E. Higbee, J.A.D. and worked on several high-profilepharmaceutical and medical device matters, including In re: Pelvic Mesh Litigation, In re: Accutane Litigation, and In re: Vioxx Litigation. Since herclerkship, Rayna has dedicated her career to holding corporations and institutions accountable for the harm that they have caused her clients.Rayna is known for trailblazing new litigation, often being among the first to file in emerging mass tort litigations. Underpinning her work with cutting-edgeinvestigations, Rayna collaborates with a wide network of well-established experts across the country, as well as other plaintiffs’ lawyers, to developcreative and successful litigation strategies for her clients.An experienced complex civil litigator, Rayna has served in court-appointed lead liaison counsel roles in several New Jersey Multicounty Litigations,including In re: Benicar (Olmesartan Medoxomil) New Jersey Multicounty Litigation, Case No. 299; In re: Abilify, Case No. 626; and In re: TaxotereLitigation, Case No. 628. On the MDL front, Rayna served as the State/Federal Coordination Chairperson for the Plaintiff Steering Committee in the In re:Benicar (Olmesartan) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2606. In addition, Rayna served as the State/Federal Coordination Chairperson for the PlaintiffSteering Committee in the In re: Benicar (Olmesartan) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2606.When the law changed in New Jersey and New York to allow survivors to bring claims that were previously time barred, Rayna was honored to begin representing survivors of child sex abuse against large institutions, including the Catholic Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Boy Scouts of America.Rayna is no stranger to how powerful interests have dissuaded those who are most injured from coming forward, and how courageous our clients are tos eek to protect others. Rayna is trained in trauma-informed advocacy to ensure that her representation provides transparency, predictability, client empowerment, reliability, and proactive support for all her clients.For her achievements in representing individuals, Rayna has been recognized both as a New Leader of the Bar and as a Top Woman in Law by the NewJersey Law Journal, and she was named a New York Metro Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2021 and 2022.Rayna is also committed to preserving access to justice through active involvement with nonprofit advocacy organizations. Currently, Rayna serves as anExecutive Committee Board Member and Chair of the Case Development/Special Projects Committee for Public Justice, the country’s leading nationalnonprofit consumer legal advocacy organization. Rayna is also actively involved with American Association for Justice (AAJ) as a Section & LitigationGroup Coordination Committee and Membership Oversight Committee Member. Rayna also volunteers her time as a Founding Board and ExecutiveCommittee Member for the anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Collective Liberty.Understanding the importance of collaboration and collegiality among our bar, Rayna hosts plaintiff attorney networking events in New York City that invite plaintiff lawyers to learn about each other’s practices and foster a referral network.

Robert Kinsman

Co-Founder, Attorney
Krause and Kinsman

Robert L. Kinsman serves to bring large-scale results to a wide arrange of clients. Robert has been at the forefront of some of the most unique cases in the country. He plays a significant leadership role in each of his cases, whether it be case investigation and development, science and expert development, bellwether selection, settlement negotiation and coordination, trial and trial preparation, or briefing case-defining motions and case management orders. His peers often see him as a multi-purpose, versatile advocate that is always ready to jump in and help on any task so his clients are able to find a just and fair result. Robert’s recent appointments have been to the Executive Committee in the Camp Lejeune Water Litigation – EDNC 7:23-cv-00897; Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee as the Co-Chair of the Law & Briefing Committee in MDL 2846: In Re: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation; and, Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in MDL 2974: In Re: Paragard IUD Products Liability Litigation.

Dedication to Client Success

Robert practices throughout the country litigating mass tort and complex litigation cases involving environmental disasters, defective products, and pharmaceuticals. His trial experience encompasses civil cases as well as felony criminal prosecutions. Along with developing and executing winning litigation strategies, Robert has managed some of the largest dockets of cases in the country from client sign-up thru settlement. Tens of thousands of clients have entrusted Krause & Kinsman with their stories. Scores of co-counsel and referral law firms have called Krause & Kinsman their partners.

Client-First Approach

The clients that choose Krause & Kinsman come from near and far. Robert, and his firm as a whole, take extreme pride in representing the people that choose Krause & Kinsman as their advocates. Robert’s firm has a strong belief in the motto “No Client Left Behind.” Krause & Kinsman has developed some of the most innovative client relations systems in the legal space. Krause & Kinsman consistently looks for ways to improve the client relationship to better tell their individual stories. Robert’s knack for knowing and understanding his individual client’s stories has paved the way for his clients to routinely be selected as lead bellwether plaintiffs in major, national litigations. He finds the most joy advocating for the people that put their faith and trust in him.

Life Beyond the Law

Outside of law, Robert enjoys traveling and cooking with his beautiful wife (Ali) and daughters (Leighton and Scarlett). In college, Robert was close to transferring to culinary school. His favorite recipes center around flavorful pastas and perfectly grilled meats. Robert and his family call Puerto Rico home. They love all of the natural beauty, vibrant culture, delicious cuisine, and friendly community that Puerto Rico offers. Sunscreen is a must!

Dallas Knight

Director of Business Development
Reciprocity Industries

Ari Kresch

Founder & Chief Visionary Officer
1-800-LAW-FIRM

Ari Kresch is the founder of 1-800-LAW-FIRM and has been on the national radar during most of his 45 years practicing law. His visionary approach to the business of law has set him apart by being the first national advertiser, the first intake center run by trained paralegals, the first law firm to use artificial intelligence to qualify prospective clients, the first law firm to brand itself using a toll-free vanity number, the first transplanted law firm from the mainland to choreograph class action lawsuits in Puerto Rico and the second mass-tort law firm to move to Puerto Rico. His progressive approach to legal partnerships has allowed him and his partner firms to aggregate the highest quality dockets in the industry, in addition to designing unique and creative causes of action to protect our sacred environment and go after those who contaminate and destroy it in the name of profits.

Sarah Lanier

Attorney
The Lanier Law Firm

Sarah Lanier is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and is now an attorney at the Lanier Law Firm. Sarah’s practice areas include personal injury, toxic torts, mass torts, products liability, and pharmaceutical liability. She worked on Ingham v. Johnson & Johnson et al in Missouri State Court, where the Lanier Law Firm represented 22 women who suffered from and/or died from ovarian cancer caused by talcum powder exposure and played a role in obtaining the unanimous $4.6 billion verdict on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Rachel Lanier

Managing Attorney
The Lanier Law Firm

Rachel Lanier is the Managing Attorney of the Los Angeles Office and member of The Lanier Law Firm Trial Team. She practices in the areas of personal injury, toxic torts, pharmaceutical litigation, mass torts, and product liability. When she is not passionately advocating for her clients, Mrs. Lanier enjoys spending time with her family and exploring the Los Angeles restaurant scene.

Mark Lanier

Attorney & Founder
The Lanier Law Firm

Mark Lanier is consistently recognized as one of the top civil trial lawyers in America. Best known as a zealous advocate for individuals in personal injury and product liability claims against major corporations, Mark brings passion, creativity and an unparalleled ability to connect with juries in courtrooms across the nation. During the past 30 years, Mark has taken on some of the biggest challenges in the legal field. In doing so, he has achieved some of the largest verdicts in history, accomplishments that have changed business practices to protect the public and have gained justice for the victims of dangerous drugs, medical devices, and other consumer products. In addition, he has successfully represented a select number of clients in claims involving fraud, breach of contract and other forms of business litigation.

Tom Lenfestey

Founder & CEO
The Law Practice Exchange

Tom is the Founder & CEO of The Law Practice Exchange, the leading marketplace for law firm buying, selling, and exit planning. A seasoned attorney and CPA, he launched LPE in 2013 to help lawyers successfully transition their practices and secure their futures. Tom is a frequent speaker, podcast host, and contributor to legal publications on law firm valuation and private equity in the legal space. He has facilitated more than $400M in deal volume through LPE.

Adam Levitt

Partner
DiCello Levitt LLP

Adam Levitt is one of the nation’s leading advocates for plaintiffs in complex, multidistrict, class action, public client, mass tort, and commercial litigation. Drawing on his extensive experience pursuing and obtaining justice for those who have been wronged by powerful defendants, he co-founded DiCello Levitt to create a top complex issues and trial firm, built on excellence, trust, and respect—where every team member’s voice and talents are valued.     In his decades-long career, Adam has scored numerous significant and precedent-setting victories, delivering more than $25 billion in recoveries to clients in biotechnology, financial services, securities, insurance coverage, consumer protection, automotive defects, agricultural products, and antitrust disputes. His reputation for innovatively taking on tough cases has led to his appointment to leadership positions in many historic and headline-grabbing litigations.     Adam served as co-lead counsel in three of the largest biotechnology class actions in U.S. history, helping recover more than $1.7 billion on behalf of plaintiffs and creating a game- changing economic model to measure crop contamination damages that set the modern industry standard. He was also retained by multiple State Attorneys General to hold some of the world’s largest chemical companies accountable for widespread environmental contamination from their “forever chemicals” known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Additionally, the City of Baltimore retained Adam to address the catastrophic impact of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, one of the largest maritime disasters in U.S. history.     He also has demonstrative expertise in the automotive sector. As part of a leadership group characterized as a “class action dream team,” Adam helped secure a $16 billion settlement in litigation arising from Volkswagen’s emissions scandal. In a rare class action trial, he and his fellow co-lead counsel secured a milestone $102.6 million jury verdict against General Motors for hiding engine defects from consumers.     Adam is a leader in the legal profession and a frequent speaker on multidistrict litigation, consumer protection, automotive litigation, biotechnology, corporate governance, securities litigation, and internet privacy. Nationally recognized as an authority on class action litigation, Adam writes a monthly class action column in The National Law Journal, has testified before the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee on class action practice, and chairs an annual class action litigation conference in Chicago.     As a founding partner of DiCello Levitt, Adam has cultivated a diverse roster of skilled litigators to advance the cause of justice for individuals, businesses, and public clients. The firm’s attorneys are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases and have secured billions of dollars in recoveries for their clients through class action, business-to-business, whistleblower, personal injury, civil rights, and mass tort litigation. They have worked on some of the highest-profile securities actions ever filed, developed game-changing legal theories to secure landmark wins against tech giants that misused and exposed massive troves of personal data, and held some of the world’s largest corporations accountable for endangering and harming American consumers.     With a long history of working with public clients, Adam and his partners understand the wants and needs of government officials and their teams, and, as experts in trial practice and jury persuasion, they consistently achieve best-in-class results for their clients.     Adam’s groundbreaking work on behalf of plaintiffs has been recognized nationally and locally in prestigious ranking directories, including Chambers USA, where he has received a Band 1 ranking for Mainly Plaintiffs Litigation in Illinois for four consecutive years. Chambers USA also ranked Adam in Illinois for General Commercial Litigation and nationwide for Product Liability Litigation, where the editors describe him as the “go-to plaintiffs’ attorney in the class actions space.”     Described as a “pioneer” in technology litigation by The National Law Journal, Adam’s litigation prowess has been recognized by several industry authorities. Benchmark Litigation named Adam a National Litigation Star and Securities and Litigation Star in Illinois. Crain’s Chicago Business recognized Adam among its Notable Leaders in Accounting, Consulting, and Law; Notable Litigators & Trial Attorneys; and Notable Gen X Leaders in Accounting, Consulting, and Law. Lawdragon has named him among the 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers and the 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers in the United States.     An elected member of the American Law Institute and the Economic Club of Chicago, Adam considers the formation of DiCello Levitt in 2017 to be a pivotal moment in his distinguished legal career. With a shared vision and commitment to helping people and businesses use the legal system to have their voices heard, he and his partners intend to maintain their industry- wide influence for years to come with a steadfast resolve for justice in all its dimensions.  

Linda Lipsen

Chief Executive Officer
American Association for Justice (AAJ)

Ms. Lipsen was named Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), in April 2010. She joined the organization in 1993 to direct AAJ’s Public Affairs department. Ms. Lipsen has led the trial lawyers’ highly regarded Washington lobby team and successfully fought back efforts that would limit access to America’s courts and make it impossible for the victims of negligence or willful wrongdoing to be fairly compensated for harm. She has directed countless legislative campaigns on behalf of a host of issues including patient, worker, and investor protections. Ms. Lipsen has received prominent recognition and numerous awards for her advocacy on behalf of injured Americans, including, among others, the “Senator Paul Wellstone Award” from U.S. Action, the “Esther S. Weissman Eternal Optimism Award” from Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), and the Marie Lambert Award. She is regularly recognized in leading Capitol Hill and legal publications such as The National Law Journal as one of Washington’s most influential women lawyers, The Hill as a top lobbyist in recognition of her outstanding professional achievement, and Roll Call as one of Washington’s most effective lobbyists. Following the tragedy of September 11th, she led the fight for enactment of a compensation program for the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The September 11th Victims Compensation Fund established by Congress allowed thousands of families to recover compensation for the loss of their loved ones. Following enactment of the Fund, Ms. Lipsen’s leadership helped ATLA establish, Trial Lawyers Care, the nation’s largest-ever pro-bono legal representation program. Prior to joining AAJ, Ms. Lipsen directed the legislative advocacy program for Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. In that capacity, she represented consumers on Capitol Hill on a host of issues including antitrust, insurance reform and health care. Ms. Lipsen earned her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and her J.D. from the Antioch School of Law.

Brooke Lively

CEO & Founder
CathCap Catlyst for Accelerating Profits

Brooke Lively helps law firm leaders get more of what they want from their businesses – clarity, traction, and healthy, profitable growth. With more than 20 years in the legal industry and a lifelong connection to the profession, she understands attorneys on a level few can. Brooke’s natural ability to challenge, guide, and inspire helps law firms cut through noise, simplify the complex, and build legal practices that run smoothly and profitably.   As a serial entrepreneur and founder of law-firm focused companies Cathcap and Scaling Law, Brooke brings a rare blend of financial acumen and strategic insight to each engagement. She has worked with hundreds of law firms across the country, combining an MBA, the elite CFA designation, and hands-on leadership with a smart, direct, and refreshingly human approach to make scaling a legal practice feel like hitting the easy button (and more fulfilling).   An international bestselling author and industry thought leader, Brooke has published seven books – four written for law firms. Her latest work, Scaling Law, is the first and only EOS Worldwide-published book written exclusively to help lawyers successfully implement EOS in their legal practices within the unique nuances of the business of law. Her From Panic to Profit series remains a go-to resource for attorneys and business owners ready to scale sustainably. Her Exit on Top is a roadmap for selling your law firm to the right person at the right time.   Brooke’s insights have been featured by CNBC, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report, she is a regular contributor to Attorney at Work.

Aliza Malouf

Partner, Regulatory Compliance
Greenspoon Marder LLP

Aliza Malouf is a partner in the Regulatory Compliance practice group at Greenspoon Marder LLP, specializing in complex litigation and compliance matters. She has extensive experience with TCPA and state telemarketing laws, CAN-SPAM regulations, and call recording statutes. Ms. Malouf is skilled in drafting B2B and B2C terms and conditions, including SMS/texting terms and rewards program terms. She also assists clients in developing consent flows and document retention policies. Ms. Malouf provides strategic counsel to financial institutions and fintech firms, helping them navigate regulatory challenges in the financial services industry. She also regularly advises clients in all sectors on compliance with state and federal marketing laws and regulations.  In addition to her regulatory compliance practice, Ms. Malouf’s practice also includes representing clients in state and federal courts and arbitration, handling business-related claims, and defending against borrower complaints involving consumer protection laws such as RESPA, TILA, FCRA, FDCPA, and TCPA.

Victoria Maniatis

Senior Partner
Milberg

Vicki's plan to become a lawyer started in third grade when she decided to confront the class bully. That tenacity for taking on big dogs for underdogs never stopped. It was only natural that her practice led to focusing on plaintiffs' pharma and environmental litigation. One of the original founders of Mass Tort Med School, Vicki is proud to see the program mature and grow into one of the "go to" events of the year, even better teamed with Trial Lawyers of Puerto Rico. Vicki spends her free time triathlon training and watching her son Alex, now a junior in high school, play baseball. Her dream is to one day own a brewery.

D. Todd Mathews

Partner
Bailey Glasser LLP

During the past two decades, Todd Mathews has secured numerous multimillion-dollar trial verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients, successfully representing plaintiffs nationwide across product liability, personal injury, employment, sexual abuse, class action, mass tort, and whistleblower cases. Todd served as co-lead trial counsel to the Official Committee of Talc Claimants in the Johnson & Johnson bankruptcy of its special purpose subsidiary LTL Management. His courtroom efforts have not gone unnoticed. Todd is a member of the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, an invitation-only organization composed of premier trial lawyers from each state or region, and is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in America. A partner in Bailey Glasser’s St. Louis, MO and Maryville IL offices, Todd joined the firm in September 2021. Todd serves on the plaintiff’s executive committee of both the Atrium Hernia Mesh Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) in New Hampshire and the Smith and Nephew Hips MDL in Maryland. He also holds leadership committee positions on the Bard Hernia Mesh Coordinated Cases, Mirena PTC MDL, and Taxotere MDL. He serves the Missouri Association of Trial Lawyers as a representative to the American Association of Justice’s board of governors. A regular organizer of and speaker at legal symposiums worldwide, Todd designs events that facilitate leadership roles, reflect organizational structure, and encourage coordinated litigation efforts. His conferences have featured hundreds of U.S. law firms. Todd holds a J.D. from Nova Southeastern University School of Law, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University.

David Miceli

Partner
Milberg

Mr. David Miceli began his litigation career over thirty year ago litigating medical malpractice and other complex cases. For the past twenty years, Mr. Miceli has devoted himself to litigating Mass Tort and Class Action, primarily representing persons injured by pharmaceutical and medical device products. Mr. Miceli has helped recover billions of dollars on behalf of thousands of consumers injured by drugs, devices, and dietary supplements marketed as safe but proven harmful or fatal to their users.   Currently, Mr. Miceli serves on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for the Taxotere multidistrict litigation. His experience includes leadership positions in various litigations and multidistrict litigations including Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex, PPA, Ephedra, Baycol, Trasylol, Rezulin, Reglan, and Chantix.   Mr. Miceli filed one of the first Vioxx cases in the country and led the early discovery efforts against Merck & Co., Inc. He took many of the early and foundational depositions of critical Merck witnesses that were ultimately used in the bellwether trials and included in the MDL’s trial package. He also pioneered theories of discovery and trial presentation that ultimately led to a greater than $4 billion resolution plan. Mr. Miceli has traveled the world to conduct necessary discovery and to locate experts to build cases against some of the world’s largest and most powerful pharmaceutical companies.   With this experience, Mr. Miceli is often sought out to develop theories of liability and the expert knowledge and opinions to support successful litigation and resolution. He believes in the need to advocate for consumers harmed by defectively produced and marketed products. Without legal accountability for the harm caused by defectively produced and marketed products, consumers are at the mercy of those that produce and market the products we use every day.   Mr. Miceli has been invited to speak before state and national groups including The American Association for Justice (formerly The Association of Trial Lawyers of America), state and bar trial lawyer associations, law schools, among others.   Outside the office, Miceli loves spending time with his family and enjoying all things outdoors: hiking, hunting, fishing, and even yard work. He enjoys staying plugged in with his local community while cheering on his beloved, but often frustrating, Auburn Tigers.  

Tobi Millrood

Partner
Kline & Specter, PC

Tobi L. Millrood, a partner, joined the firm to chair its Mass Tort Department. Millrood is a national leader in the trial bar and has 25 years of complex litigation experience, including in court-appointed leadership positions, and has won a number of major jury verdicts in complex litigation. His focus is on pharmaceutical, medical device and complex personal injury litigation. Most recently, in October 2023, Millrood was co-counsel in a case that resulted in a $175 million verdict against Monsanto Co. for an elderly Philadelphia man who was diagnosed with cancer after years of using the company's herbicide Roundup. The verdict in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court was the bellwether case among hundreds awaiting trial in the Philadelphia mass tort program over Roundup. The verdict included $150 million in punitive damages. (Read article) Millrood is past president of the world’s largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), where he completed his term in July 2021 and currently serves as Immediate Past President. As a result of his leadership within AAJ, Millrood has received numerous awards including Distinguished Service, Heavy Lifting and the prestigious President’s Award in 2015. In addition, Millrood has won many accolades and enjoys a national reputation in the field of mass torts. He has been named among the best attorneys in Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers* every year since 2009, including for 2024. Among his numerous highlights in the field of prescription drug and medical device litigation is his perseverance and success against Wyeth, Pfizer and numerous other Fortune 100 companies in the landmark Hormone Therapy litigation. In 2002, Millrood was the first in the nation to file a Hormone Therapy lawsuit and he dedicated the next twelve years to the litigation, serving as Plaintiffs’ Lead Liaison Counsel for the matter in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, presiding over thousands of cases. He also served on the plaintiffs’ executive committee In Re Prempro Products Liability, and was chair of the AAJ Hormone Therapy Litigation Group. Millrood tried four hormone therapy cases, winning jury verdicts in all four, including those of $72.6 million and $34.3 million. He also played a major contributing role in critical appellate victories in the litigation, ranging from the state courts of Pennsylvania and Minnesota, to the U.S. Eighth Circuit. He also served in numerous court-appointed leadership positions in other pharmaceutical and medical device cases, including co-Lead counsel in In re Zofran (Ondansetron) Products Liability Litigation MDL 2657, and as co-lead counsel in In re Zimmer Nexgen Knee Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2272. Millrood was named a co-lead counsel in Pennsylvania opioid litigation, Del. Cty. vs Purdue Pharma, et al. Working in combination with leaders both locally and nationwide, Millrood served on a leadership team that produced a settlement that can bring more than $1 billion to Pennsylvania municipalities and communities devastated by the opioid epidemic. In addition, he has served in other court-appointed leadership positions, including the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees of In re Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Stem and ABG Modular Hip Litigation, Bergen County, N.J., and In re Consolidated Fresenius Cases in Superior Court in Massachusetts, where in both he was also appointed as Discovery Chair. Millrood is often called upon within mass tort litigation for his strategic planning and discovery architecture. He is a frequent speaker at various seminars on the topics of Mass Tort Litigation, Expert Witnesses, Direct and Cross-Examination, Closing and Rebuttal at Trial, the Ethics of Settling Mass Tort Cases, Trial Strategies and Electronic Discovery. Millrood has testified before the Federal Civil Rules Committee on proposed rule changes and has authored numerous comments to the Rules Committee and Subcommitee on MDL litigation. He is an invited lecturer at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and an invited trial team coach at the Tulane Law School. Earlier in his , Millrood garnered several notable achievements and verdicts, including serving as co-counsel in a $22 million medical malpractice verdict, among the largest in state history at that time. Millrood is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice Board of Governors and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Board of Directors. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the federal District of New Jersey, the U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Third Circuit. Millrood earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and his law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.

Simon Morrison

Managing Director
Shine Lawyers (Australia)

Simon is Managing Director of Shine Justice Limited and a Director of Shine Lawyers NZ Limited. He started with Shine Lawyers as an articled clerk in 1988, back when the firm was a small country practice operating in Toowoomba, Queensland. He became a partner of the firm in 1995 and led it to listing on the ASX in 2013.   Right from the beginning, Simon believed in Shine Lawyers’ capability to provide justice for everyday Australians who had been wronged.  Having spent over 30 years at Shine Lawyers helping an ever-increasing number of clients nationwide, Simon feels fortunate to have been involved in many areas of the business and to have undertaken a variety of roles as the firm continued to grow.  Simon has served as Chief Executive Officer of Shine Justice Limited and continues to serve as Managing Director. His passion for helping clients to seek justice has never wavered. As Managing Director, Simon now focusses on expanding Shine’s international mass torts business.  A former National President of the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) and chair of the ALA's National Workers Compensation Special Interest Group, Simon sits on the Board of Governors of the American Association of Justice.  Simon has expertise in and is an acknowledged leader in workers’ compensation and is a Queensland Law Society Accredited Specialist in personal injury law. He has given evidence at numerous government inquiries, assisted in drafting legislation and has spoken at international, national and state conferences.  Simon looks forward to seeing Shine Lawyers globally right wrongs, wherever and whenever they occur.  Simon has a Bachelor of Laws from Queensland University of Technology.   

James Murdica

Partner
Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Jim Murdica is the chairman of Barnes & Thornburg’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice. Jim's practice focuses on the defense of pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer product litigation in state and federal courts nationwide, particularly consolidated mass torts and multi-district litigations. He serves as national coordinating counsel and MDL counsel for consolidated litigations across the U.S., involving thousands of plaintiffs as well as in numerous single-plaintiff cases involving pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and medical devices. Jim has coordinated the resolution of some of the largest mass torts of the last decade and counsels clients on product liability due diligence related to potential acquisitions and divestitures. Since 2016, he has been recognized by Chambers USA for his work in product liability and mass tort in the nationwide category. In Chambers, clients describe Jim as having "an incredible ability to synthesize complex scientific issues into very persuasive arguments that can be used both in court and in negotiations with the other side."

Melissa Nafash

Partner
Milberg

Melissa H. Nafash is a Partner in Milberg’s New York office and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Mass Arbitration Practice. She has represented over one million clients in matters regarding data breaches, misuse of personal data, cryptocurrency, consumer finance, and personal banking litigation.   Highly regarded in her practice, The National Law Journal‘s “Elite Trial Lawyers” recognized Ms. Nafash as a “Rising Star of the Plaintiffs Bar,” Lawdragon recognized her as a “Next Generation Lawyer,” The Best Lawyers in America® named her among the “Ones to Watch” in the Class Actions – Plaintiffs category, and Women in Business Law selected her as a finalist for its “Arbitration Rising Star” award.   Ms. Nafash has also received the National Trial Lawyers’ “Top 40 Under 40” award, the “New York Metro Area Outstanding Young Lawyer” award, and the “New York Metro Area Top Young Women Attorneys” award.   Prior to joining Milberg, she was a Partner at Labaton Keller Sucharow where she developed the firm’s groundbreaking ADR Practice in response to the use of mandatory arbitration clauses by companies in consumer contracts. There, her practice achieved over $200 million in recoveries for over 400,000 clients in some of the largest consumer mass arbitration matters in recent history.   For more than a decade before changing her practice space to focus on mass arbitration, she was a pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts litigator, helping those who were physically injured by defective pharmaceutical drugs or medical devices. She was appointed to the plaintiffs’ steering committee in In Re: Davol/C.R. Bard Hernia Mesh Multi-Case Management and assisted in leading the litigation for more than 30,000 plaintiffs. In addition, she managed several other litigations from onset through settlement.   Ms. Nafash received her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law at Bristol, Rhode Island and her B.A. in Political Science at the University of Connecticut.   She is admitted to practice in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, numerous U.S. District Courts across the country, as well as the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Paul J. Napoli

Founding Member, Partner
Napoli Shkolnik

In Memoriam

Paul J. Napoli, Founding Member and Partner of Napoli Shkolnik, brought more than 31 years of legal experience to his primary areas of practice including governmental affairs, environmental law and mass tort litigation. He was widely recognized as one of the country’s top litigators, having successfully led numerous high-profile cases such as the World Trade Center litigation, the Flint Water Crisis and claims brought on behalf of local cities and states involving the Opioid Epidemic. Paul was well-known for his ability to oversee large-scale complex cases involving large multi-billion-dollar corporations, including contamination caused by PFAS, also known as ‘forever chemicals’. Notably in the AFFF litigation affecting America’s public water systems, Paul successfully negotiated settlements over $15 billion with defendants.

Marie Napoli

Founding Member, Partner
Napoli Shkolnik

Ms. Napoli continues to be at the forefront of complex litigation nationwide and has been appointed to leadership roles in various state and federal multi-district case. She is a leading media commentator and author on topics ranging from mass torts to workplace discrimination. For her work, she has been industry and peer recognized, notably Ms. Napoli was named to National Trial Lawyers Women’s Rights Top 10.

Hon. Glenn A. Norton (Ret.)

Missouri Court of Appeals

Glenn A. Norton is Of Counsel with the Firm. His practice focuses on the areas of mediation, arbitration and special master appointments. He has extensive experience in the courtroom, with hundreds of jury and non-jury trials, and has been assigned by The Supreme Court to cases involving complex litigation and felony matters. As a retired judge, Glenn Norton is particularly well-suited to preside over arbitration hearings on any type of matter. Judge Norton is certified by the University of Missouri School of Law as a mediator. Judge Norton was appointed Judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals in 2002. He served as Chief Judge of the Court and presided over the settlement docket until he left the Court in 2015. He has also previously served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Bob Holden, where he oversaw the legal departments for all 15 state agencies and reviewed judicial appointments, death penalty cases, budget issues, clemency applications and legislation. Judge Norton practiced law in the former Briscoe and Norton Law firm in 1985, where he was responsible for murder trials and other high-profile felonies, and he was elected to serve as Associate Circuit Judge for Ralls County. He was re-elected to this position in 1998. Within the Judicial Branch, Judge Norton served on the Executive Council, the Legislative Steering Committee and as Chair of the Associate Circuit Judge Section.

Coral Odiot-Rivera

Partner
Napoli Shkolnik

Ms. Odiot’s practice primarily focuses on environmental class actions and mass tort litigations. As a Partner, she played an integral role in the negotiation of the two landmark settlements for $12.5 billion and $1.185 billion with 3M and DuPont, Chemours and Corteva in the AFFF Multi-District Litigation. She also leads several environmental litigations representing individuals and entities nationwide affected by air, soil, and/or water contamination encompassing a wide spectrum of hazardous substances, including lead, per- and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS), 1,4-Dioxane, and smelter plant by-products. Coral graduated cum laude from the Interamerican University School of Law where she also was Editor in Chief of the school’s Law Review. She began her career clerking for the Hon. Anabelle Rodríguez Rodríguez, Associate Justice for the Puerto Rico Supreme Court (2012). After clerking for the Supreme Court, she worked as a legal advisor for the Civil Rights, Democratic Participation and Social Economy Committee of the Senate of Puerto Rico. Prior to joining her current firm, Coral was a legal advisor for the Independent Consumer Protection Office (“ICPO”) representing the Puerto Rico energy consumer in matters before the Puerto Rico Energy Commission and Puerto Rico courts. As a legal advisor for the ICPO, Coral became knowledgeable in matters of Energy and Environmental Law and was given a scholarship by the National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys for a Georgetown Law Course about Regulating Public Utility Performance.

Jonathan Orent

Attorney
Motley Rice LCC

Jonathan Orent is a seasoned trial lawyer who advocates for people hurt by medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, social media addiction and other consumer products. Jonathan has led multiple large-scale litigations for his clients.* Beyond his work in the courtroom, Jonathan has become a recognized voice in the field of e-discovery and other emerging topics in the law. Jonathan appointed lead counsel of hernia mesh litigation In re Atrium Medical Corp. C-QUR Mesh Products Liability Litigation, MDL #2753 and serves as co- lead and co-liaison counsel in the largest consolidated hernia mesh litigation in the country, In re Davol/C.R. Bard Hernia Mesh Multi-Case Management Coordination. Jonathan led Motley Rice’s hernia mesh trial team in Trevino et al. v. Davol in 2022, achieving a $4.8 million* verdict against C.R. Bard following a month-long jury trial in Rhode Island Superior Court. He was co-liaison counsel in the In re Bard Litigation in New Jersey state court and as state court liaison counsel in Massachusetts. He was a member of the litigation team that successfully tried the Barba v. Boston Scientific Corporation case to a $100 million verdict* in Delaware (later reduced by appeal to $10 million). Jonathan also argued the successful appeal to the Massachusetts Court of Appeals, which allowed key evidence relating to Boston Scientific’s alleged knowledge of the potential harm caused by its products. In addition to his leadership in hernia and pelvic mesh litigation, Jonathan is spearheading emerging litigation and is pursuing cases against the makers of weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Outside of his medical device work, Jonathan represents children and parents who allege Instagram purposefully designed its platform to be addictive to young people and increased its user growth at the expense of the mental health of its users. Jonathan also represents communities and people facing personal injury, property damage and economic loss as a result of negligence, environmental hazards or groundwater and soil contamination. In 2008, he sued a large New England utility company for more than 100 Tiverton, R.I., residents who claimed they suffered damages resulting from environmental contamination of their residential property. More recently, Jonathan helped settle contamination litigation between members of the Tallevast, Fla., community and a major aerospace defense contractor involving property damage and emotional distress caused by the alleged release of trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE) and other chemicals into the groundwater. Jonathan has worked on complex litigation against the lead paint industry on behalf of government entities in California, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as lead poisoning cases for individual children and families against property owners. He also assists with discovery and trial preparation of the firm’s asbestos cases. Prior to joining Motley Rice in 2005, Jonathan was a law clerk with the Missouri State Public Defender Youth Advocacy Unit and a legal intern for Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. Recognized as an AV® rated attorney Martindale-Hubbell®, he has made numerous presentations on a variety of legal matters involving medical device litigation, environmental law, and e-discovery. He currently serves on the Sedona Conference Working Group that publishes important and influential commentary in the field of e-discovery. He is an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, teaching about Rhode Island’s influential history in mass torts. He also served on the Rhode Island Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a group whose mission is to address key community issues and discrimination matters, such as foreclosure scams and the disparate treatment of minority youth. Jonathan is President of AG Bell Rhode Island, as well as a member of the Rhode Island Early Intervention Work Group, a group that reviews early intervention services provided to deaf or hard of hearing children between the ages of 0-3 in Rhode Island.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES:

New England Legal Awards

2023 Distinguished Leaders list

Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly

2022 Leader in the Law

Rhode Island Super Lawyers® list

2018–2023 Environmental litigation; Personal injury – product: plaintiff

Rhode Island Super Lawyers® Rising Stars list

2014–2017 Business litigation; Class action/mass torts; Appellate

Best Lawyers® Providence, RI

2023–2025 Mass tort litigation/class actions – plaintiffs

2024-2025 Product liability litigation – plaintiffs

Gale Pearson

Attorney
Nachawati Law Group

For more than 25 years, Gale Pearson has represented thousands of plaintiffs in a range of complex litigation, from environmental law to pharmaceutical litigation to Qui Tam prosecution. Before receiving her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Gale attended California State University, where she studied laboratory medicine, physics, and chemistry. She spent years working in the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center and is a nationally recognized clinical laboratory scientist. As such, Gale plays a substantial role in Nachawati Law Group’s representation of those harmed by environmental polluters, as well as the bad acts of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Throughout her career, Gale has played a pivotal role in several MDL litigations, serving on science committees or, as in the case of a Certified Class Action against Phillip Morris, Co., and its parent company, as lead counsel. In United States Absher v. Momence Meadows Nursing Center Inc., she served as co-lead counsel and helped achieve a substantial verdict for her clients. In addition, she was asked to serve as Plaintiff’s liaison counsel in the Minnesota State Medtronic Cases and was appointed to the same position in the Minnesota State Guidant Cases. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Gale’s legal success has earned her peer recognition across the country. In 2003, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer presented her with the Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award for her work with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. In 2005, she was recognized by Forbes Magazine as among America’s top attorneys, and she has been named to the Minnesota Super Lawyers list by Thomson Reuters from 2015-2019. Gale is frequently invited to speak on scientific issues related to pharmaceuticals, as well as complex interstate civil procedures.

William G. Pintas

Founding Member, Partner
Pintas & Mullins PR, LLC

William Pintas leads one of the largest partnering personal injury firms in North America representing tens of thousands of clients in mass torts, nursing home maltreatment, asbestos claims, institutional sex abuse and environmental disasters. The firm is at the forefront of technology, marketing and law firm partnership strategies. Attorney Pintas is also chief legal strategist for famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

William J. Pintas

Founder & CEO
Aspen AI

William is the Founder and CEO of Aspen AI, a conversational and workflow AI solution that mimics paralegal performance, transforming client intake and communication for law firms. He earned a computer science degree from NYU in just 2.5 years, demonstrating his deep passion for technology and innovation.

William’s journey began in the personal injury space, where he witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies of traditional client intake, with only 5–10% of inquiries converting into viable cases. With the emergence of GPT-3.5 in 2022, he saw the opportunity to revolutionize legal intake. That vision led to Aspen AI, which gives AI a voice, enabling it to engage with clients over the phone, text, and email — having real conversations instead of relying on static forms. By handling initial screenings and outbound communication, Aspen AI saves law firms thousands of hours, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and enhanced client engagement through timely alerts and summaries for high-quality cases.

Today, Aspen AI partners with some of the largest mass tort and personal injury law firms, including PersonalInjury.com, Ben Crump Law Firm, and Pintas & Mullins, screening tens of thousands of calls each month. At this conference, William will play live calls and demonstrate how law firms of all sizes can leverage AI-driven intake solutions to streamline operations, reduce overhead, and remain competitive—without sacrificing the human touch.

Joshua E. Porte

Partner
Holland & Knight LLP

Josh Porte is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Nashville office. Mr. Porte advises clients in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint venture agreements and other strategic business and fundamental transactions.   Mr. Porte counsels private equity firms, investors and legal service providers on structuring and executing investments in law firms and other legal services businesses. With deep experience in ownership, regulatory and compliance considerations unique to the legal industry, Mr. Porte helps clients develop strategic structures that align with evolving market dynamics and ethical rules. He also advises on investments and acquisitions across healthcare sectors, including dental, medical and physical therapy enterprises.   Mr. Porte is widely recognized for his work on law firm management services organization (MSO) transactions and related regulatory matters. He advises clients on structuring MSOs, navigating complex ownership and professional responsibility rules and deploying capital to support firm growth. His clients span the legal industry, from law firms and in-house departments to legal technology companies nationwide. He is also a frequent media commentator and publishes thought leadership on legal services innovation to help clients stay ahead of key industry developments.

John M. Restaino, Jr.

Senior Partner
Milberg

Dr. John M. Restaino, Jr., joined Milberg as a Senior Partner working out of the Denver, Colorado area. A non-practicing podiatric surgeon and an attorney with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Restaino focuses on Mass Tort and environmental cases.     Dr. Restaino practiced podiatric surgery from 1980 until 1990. In 1991, he began the practice of law after receiving his JD. Relying on his unique experience and perspective, Dr. Restaino enjoys looking “outside the box” in the development of specific aspects of litigation, including the science pertaining to each litigation, the development of expert witnesses, and the cross-examination of defense expert witnesses.     Dr. Restaino received his Master of Public Health degree from the Division of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, he actively conducts pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology. He frequently lectures at legal seminars and has lectured at the University of South Carolina, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Northwestern College of Medicine, and Harvard Medical Center.     Dr. Restaino as a member of the Diet Pill MDL and Chair of its Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Propulsid MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Rezulin MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Vioxx MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Zyprexa MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Ortho-Evra MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Gadolinium MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the Yaz/Yasmin MDL Science Committee; Co-Chair of the DePuy ASR Hip Prosthesis  MDL Science Committee; member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and Co-Chair of Science Committee, Pradaxa Multi-District Litigation; member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and Co-Chair of Science Committee, Transvaginal Mesh Multi-District Litigation; member of the Plaintiff’s Executive Committee, Plaintiff’s Steering Committee and Chair of the Science Committee, In Re: Incretin Mimetics Products Liability Litigation; Member of the Lipitor MDL Plaintiff Steering Committee and co-chair of its Science Committee and member of the Science Committee, Talc MDL     Outside the office, Dr. Restaino enjoys martial arts and holds a Black Belt in Kenpo karate and a 2nd degree Black Belt in Okinawan karate. He is a two-time winner in the Kenpo Internationals Black Belt Heavyweight division/senior division. He also enjoys SCUBA diving and holds an “Instructor” rating from the North American Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI). He is both Dive Master and Rescue Diver qualified, having previously taught Dive Medicine at the NAUI College in Laguna Niguel, California.  

Andy Rogers

Chief Revenue Officer
Shield Legal

Andy Rogers is a proven revenue strategist, driving eight-figure revenue growth at Shield Legal. With 20+ years of expertise in mass tort litigation, ethics, legal marketing, and lead generation, he is trusted by the top minds in the industry. Known for his leadership and ability to navigate complex legal landscapes, Rogers is a sought-after speaker.

Shayna E. Sacks

Partner
Napoli Shkolnik

Shayna E. Sacks is a Partner at national law firm Napoli Shkolnik where she provides experienced representation to individuals, communities, local and state governments in multiple mass torts, including healthcare litigation, defective pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, the opioid crisis, and complex environmental & emerging contaminant litigation.   Known for their ability to oversee large-scale complex litigations, firm lawyers are consistently appointed to leadership roles in a variety of mass tort litigations, notably for Shayna in the Plavix Product Liability and Marketing Litigation and PPI Products Liability Litigation.    Ms. Sacks is a sought-after speaker for high-profile conferences such as the NACo Annual Conference and NY State Trial Lawyers; has been interviewed by national media outlets such as the Associated Press and ABC News; and has contributed thought leadership articles on Social Media Addiction and product recall processes.    For her legal accomplishments, Shayna is regularly selected to Super Lawyers®, The Best Lawyers in America®, and The National Trial Lawyers – Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Lawyers.    As a part of a dedicated team of attorneys with a proven track record of success, Shayna exemplifies the firm’s knowledge, resources, and tenacity to pursue justice and compensation for their clients.

Christopher A. Seeger

Partner
Seeger Weiss LLP

A founding partner of Seeger Weiss, Christopher A. Seeger, is widely recognized as a highly innovative and accomplished plaintiff attorney. Chiefly known for multidistrict mass torts and class actions involving drug injury, toxic injury, and personal injury, Chris’ versatile practice also includes product liability, property damage, antitrust, and third-party payer litigation, as well as consumer, insurance, and securities fraud. Chris has led some of the most complex, groundbreaking, and high-profile litigations in the U.S. at the state and federal levels. He has received more multidistrict litigation (MDL) appointments than any other lawyer between 2016 and 2019, according to a 2020 ALM study. Chris served as co-lead counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Litigation, having been chosen by Judge M. Casey Rodgers from a pool of nearly 200 other applicants to represent more than 250,000 service members and veterans who suffered hearing injuries while using 3M earplugs. After more than four years of litigation, Chris secured a landmark settlement worth over $6 billion in August 2023, successfully resolving the largest mass tort in American history. Appointed by Judge Joy Flowers Conti to lead the Philips Recalled CPAP, Bi-Level Pap, and Mechanical Ventilator Litigation as co-lead counsel, Chris represented patients impacted by the company’s recall of more than 10.8 million devices. He was the lead negotiator for a $550+ million uncapped class action settlement announced in September 2023, resolving economic loss claims of users and payers impacted by the recall. After receiving final approval for the economic loss settlement, Chris negotiated additional agreements in April 2024 to resolve plaintiffs’ personal injury claims for $1.075 billion and medical monitoring claims for $25 million, providing compensation to patients who suffered significant physical injuries caused by the recalled machines. In the National Prescription Opiate litigation, Chris was appointed to the Executive and Settlement Committees by Judge Dan A. Polster. In 2022, he played an instrumental role in securing settlements worth more than $15 billion with Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, and Kroger. Also, in 2022, a $6.6 billion settlement was reached with pharmaceutical manufacturers Teva and Allergan (AbbVie). Previously, in July 2021, the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the federal opioid litigation formally announced the terms for a $26 billion global settlement agreement with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the “Big Three” drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. To date, Chris has been involved in over $60 billion in settlements through the National Prescription Opioid Litigation. Chris serves as co-lead counsel in the Proton-Pump Inhibitor Litigation on behalf of patients who suffered kidney injuries while using proton-pump inhibitor drugs. On October 3, 2023, he announced a $425 million settlement with AstraZeneca and additional agreements with GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda, and Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, bringing the total value of the resolution to $590.4 million. Chris also serves as Plaintiffs’ Coordinating Counsel in the MultiPlan Health Insurance Providers Litigation, a case alleging that MultiPlan and major health insurance companies conspired to suppress reimbursement rates for out-of-network healthcare providers. Most recently, Chris was appointed lead counsel in the Depo-Provera Products Liability Litigation by the Honorable Judge M. Casey Rodgers. The litigation, consolidated in multidistrict proceedings, claims Pfizer misrepresented the long-term safety of the injectable birth control Depo-Provera and failed to warn of the increased risk of intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor. Chris’ unprecedented run of recent settlements adds to his impressive legacy of resolving major cases and obtaining billions in compensation for injured plaintiffs. This includes a $4.85 billion landmark global settlement with Merck on behalf of patients who suffered heart attacks and strokes while taking Vioxx, a $21 billion-plus settlement with Volkswagen and Audi over the “clean diesel” scandal—the largest consumer auto industry class action settlement in U.S. history, a $1.5 billion settlement for farmers impacted by Syngenta GMO seed contamination—the largest agricultural settlement in U.S. history, and a $1 billion-plus uncapped settlement for retired NFL players and their families in the historic NFL concussion case. Beyond his courtroom achievements, Chris is deeply committed to strengthening the judicial system. In 2025, Seeger Weiss, under his leadership, made a $500,000 donation to the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School to establish The Seeger Weiss/Daniel Anderl Memorial Fund, supporting judicial independence and complex litigation education. The fund honors Daniel Anderl, the late son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. After starting his career as a corporate defense lawyer representing the interests of big business, Chris was struck by the imbalance of power between corporations and the individuals harmed by them. As a result, he left to become a plaintiff attorney. The son of a union carpenter who worked his way through school, Chris is a former amateur boxer and a current Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Now, whether working on a class action involving thousands of people against a multinational conglomerate or an individual case protecting one client’s rights, he fights with the same passion and conviction. Chris has been recognized for his outstanding work and success in leading complex federal cases. See his Awards tab for further details. Regularly quoted by the press regarding his work on nationally and internationally prominent cases, Chris has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, and ESPN. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.  

Hunter Shkolnik

Founding Member, Partner
Napoli Shkolnik

Hunter J. Shkolnik leads the discovery and trial teams of various mass tort litigations, including pharmaceutical and medical device litigations for Napoli Shkolnik. He is also active in managing national litigation and plaintiff litigation groups including for the American Association for Justice. Mr. Shkolnik is currently serving as a chairman, leader, or court-appointed representative on Plaintiff Steering Committees in various drug and other mass torts, including the MultiPlan Health Insurance Provider Litigation, the Self-Funded Payer Track Insulin Pricing Litigation, and National Prescription Opiate Litigation. He also regularly lectures and organizes seminars on issues involving Environmental Risk and PFAS, Healthcare Litigation, and Ethical Considerations in Mass Tort Litigation. Hunter is a legal and political news analyst with extensive experience in areas such as civil and criminal law as well as election-related issues.

Matthew J Sill

Attorney
Fulmer Sill

Matthew J. Sill focuses his practice on pharmaceutical and medical device mass torts, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and class action litigation. He is frequently selected for leadership positions among large groups of attorneys representing hundreds or thousands of injured parties. Matt currently represents over 75 cities, counties, and tribes in the nationwide opioid litigation, In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, MDL No. 2804, Case No. 17-md-02804. Matt also recently filed the first case in Oklahoma regarding the marketing and sale of JUUL, In Re: Juul Labs, Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices, and Product Liability Litigation. Matt regularly accepts invitations for faculty positions and speaking engagements at seminars and continuing legal education programs. He has lectured in numerous locations, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, and Texas, with programs typically being attended by lawyers from several other jurisdictions. He was chosen to co-chair HarrisMartin Publishing’s 2013 CAT Flood and Windstorm Litigation Conference. In the practice area of pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, Matt has been a featured instructor or moderator at educational programs devoted to Actos®, GranuFlo®, Topamax®, pre-emption in generic drug cases, and several other topics. He authors a number of articles, and up-to-date information on relevant publications and published legal opinions are available by request from admin@fulmersill.com. Representing plaintiffs with cases pending in several different jurisdictions, Matt’s ability to practice pro hac vice is often based on the recommendation and sponsorship of local attorneys. See; e.g., MDL 2244, In Re: DePuy Hip Implant Litigation; MDL 2738, In Re: Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Liability Litigation. He is fully admitted to practice in the State of Oklahoma (2007), where out-of-state lawyers often retain him as local counsel for high-profile matters ranging from product liability to securities and antitrust. See; e.g., In Re: Chesapeake Energy Derivative Litigation. Matt has successfully helped families and individuals involved in opioid litigation, diabetes drug litigation, birth control litigation, gadolinium-based contrast dye litigation, hip replacement litigation, fentanyl pain patch litigation, heart defibrillator lead litigation, Las Vegas hepatitis litigation, Chinese drywall litigation, hormone replacement therapy litigation, denture cream litigation, heart surgery products litigation, dialysis products litigation, and aircraft crash litigation, to mention only a few.

Melissa K. Sims

Senior Counsel
Milberg

As Senior Counsel at Milberg, Melissa Sims maintains her own practice in Illinois with offices in Chicago and downstate. She represents communities nationally, helping them seek redress for public nuisance, using her vast experience as a municipal trial lawyer. Ms. Sims was born and raised in a small town in North Central Illinois. After graduating from college at Illinois State University and while attending law school, she worked as a part time employee at the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department and as a legal advocate for the local domestic violence sexual assault shelter, Freedom House. She received an appointment from the Illinois Supreme Court and volunteered license to practice law while in law school, prosecuting traffics and misdemeanor cases to gain experience in the courtroom. After graduating from Northern Illinois University College of Law in DeKalb, Ms. Sims joined the Wimbiscus Law Firm in Spring Valley, Illinois. There, she represented units of local government including sheriffs, counties, cities, villages, school districts, zoning boards, and townships. Ms. Sims has been engaged in the general practice of law for more than twenty years. Her representation of clients has encompassed every possible facet of law: banking, hospitals, corporate, not-for-profit, tax, divorce, child support, probate/estate, trust, real estate, probate, civil rights, patent infringement, criminal, and municipal law. She has drafted municipal legislation and has represented units of local government in trial, appellate, and federal courts. She once argued a precedent setting probate case before the Illinois Supreme Court. Ms. Sims prosecuted hundreds of municipal ordinance violations for the towns she represented. The late William J. Wimbiscus, Jr., began practicing municipal law in 1950; Ms. Sims learned from his vast experience in her municipal practice. As a tenacious municipal prosecutor, Ms. Sims utilized a local ordinance against Exxon, CBS and Viacom for a Superfund site for one of her municipal clients. In that case, she set national precedent before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on whether a non-home rule unit of local government could exercise its nuisance powers during the course of a Superfund cleanup. Following this case, Ms. Sims represented the Village of Roxana, Illinois, against Shell and Conoco Phillips using her DePue precedent and fined the polluters for every lot, street, and alley which contained benzene from the refinery. Both cases settled. Ms. Sims has served for ten years on the board of directors of Freedom House, also having been its President. She volunteers for local not-for-profits and religious organizations. She also serves as a director on the board of a local bank. She is licensed in Illinois.

William Smith

Partner
Anapol Weiss

William is a trial lawyer whose practice focuses on complex civil litigation, including catastrophic personal injury and mass torts involving consumer products and sexual assault. William plays vital roles in several multidistrict litigations, working to advance the interests of plaintiffs nationwide. For example, a federal judge appointed William to serve as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the multidistrict litigation regarding Toxic Heavy Metals in commercial Baby Food. William also plays a role on subcommittees to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the multidistrict litigation regarding Uber drivers sexually assaulting passengers. William’s work on behalf of his clients has not gone unnoticed. The National Trial Lawyers recognize William’s fierce advocacy as one of their Top 40 under 40 lawyers for plaintiffs. Earlier in William’s career, he was an associate at Kirkland and Ellis, LLP, where he litigated high-stakes cases for plaintiffs and corporate defendants. In his time at Kirkland, William served as trial counsel for defendants in multiple products liability trials. In 2018, William was a key member of a trial team that secured a favorable verdict in what Law 360 described as a “Top Product Liability Case of 2018.” The following year, William’s trial team won what Courtroom View Network called one of the “Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts” of 2019. At Kirkland, William also maintained an active pro-bono practice where he specialized in fighting for the rights of unhoused, incarcerated, and low-income plaintiffs in personal injury cases. William grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, where he studied Drama at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He earned his B.A. in Political Science and Theater Studies from Yale University. William graduated from Harvard Law School in 2018. At Harvard, he was an active member of the Harvard Defenders, a student practice organization that represents defendants in criminal show-cause hearings in Massachusetts.

Alex R. Straus

Partner
Milberg

Larry Taylor

Managing Partner - Texas
The Cochran Firm

Larry oversees our Mass Torts, Criminal, Employment and Civil Rights practice areas as well as leads our community involvement efforts. While Larry is active daily in Mass Tort litigation he continues to play a role in client communications, and those cases that involve everyday folks. He is an active coach in youth sports and sits on a number of diverse community stakeholder entities. Between growing up in Duval County Florida and Harris County Texas (3rd Ward, Acers Homes, Greenspoint) and raising his kids in rural Texas, Larry has gained an appreciation for those who struggle for a sense of fairness. From the client in urban America seeking to be heard, to the small town rural American wanting fairness, it all resonates with Larry's need and desire to fight for them. Having once needed a lawyer to represent him against a goliath of a corporation, he understands the complexities and care needed to make sure his clients are informed and made comfortable during the most vulnerable time of their lives.

Harrison Tropp

Partner
SGP Advisors

Harrison is a Partner with SGP Advisors, joining the organization after several years with a boutique consulting firm. Harrison mainly represents law firms who practice in the default services, creditor’s rights, class action, and general plaintiff areas. Through his experience, Harrison remains privy to new servicer and creditor directives as a means to formulate creative solutions for SGP Advisors clients. Harrison’s primary focus of insurance includes Professional Liability, Cyber, Crime, and Employment Practices Liability coverages. Harrison remains committed to his clients by tailoring coverage to their specific needs, while providing an in-depth understanding of the global insurance market. Harrison was born in raised in Tampa, attending Jesuit High School and Florida State University. In his spare time, Harrison is an avid tennis player and enjoys his time with his wife and two children.

Shean Williams

Managing Attorney Atlanta
The Cochran Firm

Dedicated to battling injustice, Shean Williams is an accomplished trial attorney who prides himself on his strong work ethic and determination. Williams excels at persuading the jury to be protectors of their own community as they also correct the injustice to his clients. For the last 20 years, Mr. Williams has earned a formidable reputation for successfully obtaining verdicts and settlements totaling more than $150 million – in cases involving trucking and automobile collisions, medical malpractice, negligent security, maritime injuries, civil rights and police brutality, and medical devices and pharmaceutical litigation. Williams is also nationally renowned for his expertise in commercial vehicle litigation. His command of the motor carrier regulations and standards have led to record verdicts in trucking cases across several states. In fact, Williams led his firm’s legal team when winning a substantial $22 million verdict – the largest amount of compensatory wrongful death damages ever awarded in the state of Georgia, in a trucking case. Eight figure verdicts are not rare for Williams. In 2016, he obtained a $20.5 million verdict against Emory University – stemming from a wrongful death where a 23-year-old man died, as a result of a botched sleep study. He also led a trial team that was awarded a $17.5 million verdict against Grady Memorial Hospital for a young man who suffered brain damage during an elective surgery. In another record-breaking win, Williams received the largest settlement from a Georgia municipality, for a police brutality case where the civil rights of Kathryn Johnston were violated. These victories were all featured in The National Law Journal’s TOP 100 Verdicts.

R. Brent Wisner

Managing Partner
Wisner Baum LLP

R. Brent Wisner is the managing partner and lead trial attorney at Wisner Baum. Recognized as one of America’s 50 Most Influential Trial Lawyers by Trial Lawyer Magazine, Brent has built a reputation for taking on large corporations in high stakes litigation and winning significant verdicts and settlements for his clients. Over the last several years, Brent has served on the plaintiff’s leadership for multiple mass torts, earned jury verdicts worth a combined $2.427 billion, and helped negotiate settlements in excess of $1 billion—all before the age of 40. He is currently the youngest attorney in American history to win a multi-billion-dollar jury verdict, which he achieved with a $2 billion Roundup cancer verdict against Monsanto on behalf of the Pilliods. While success in the courtroom is often measured exclusively by dollars and cents, Brent’s legal work has led to changes in business practices that will protect people and the environment for generations. Hundreds of media publications across the globe have asked for his perspective on a variety of pressing legal issues.

Boris Ziser

Partner
McDermott Will & Schulte

Global Head of Structured Finance, CLOs and Alternative Assets, and member of the firm’s Management Committee. Boris advises on asset-backed lending and securitization, warehouse facilities, secured financings, specialty finance lending and esoteric finance transactions across a diverse array of asset classes.   With more than 30 years of experience, Boris works on a variety of asset classes, including life settlements, litigation funding, equipment leases, structured settlements, lottery receivables, timeshare loans, merchant cash advances and cell towers, in addition to other esoteric asset classes such as intellectual property, various insurance-related cash flows and other cash flow producing assets.   He also represents investors, lenders, hedge funds, private equity funds and finance companies in acquisitions and dispositions of portfolios of assets and financings secured by those portfolios.   Recognized as a leading lawyer in the industry, Boris is ranked in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, and The Legal 500 US for his work in structured finance.   He serves as outside general counsel to the Institutional Longevity Markets Association (ILMA) and is a member of the Structured Finance Committee of the New York City Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the Esoteric Assets Committee and Risk Retention Task Force of the Structured Finance Association.   Boris has been interviewed for the article “Attorneys Must Tread Carefully in Litigation Funding’s Next Stage,” published in Law360, and the articles “SRZ’s Leading Litigation Finance Practice: Holistic Expertise for a Booming Asset Class” and “Life Settlements and Longevity Swaps: Opportunities for Investors, Individuals, Insurers and Pension Funds,” both published in The Hedge Fund Journal.   Boris has also been featured on Bloomberg’s “Wall Street Week” and Nasdaq’s “TradeTalks.”