2022 Best Lawyers Business Edition
The Litigation Issue
Featured in Best Lawyers
Mr. Jowers focuses his practice on representing children with preventable brain injuries caused by negligent obstetric care. His work has led to record breaking verdicts and settlements as well as recognition by his peers in the legal profession. Throughout the years he has also been privileged to represent military families in actions against the government for negligent medical care at military hospitals. In 2020 he obtained a $15.1 million judgment for a child with cerebral palsy caused by...
Dr. Manley brings to Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC more than 30 years’ experience in the medical profession. As a board-certified OBGYN with well over 2,000 deliveries, he is extremely knowledgeable in all areas of obstetrics. His specialty training was at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), which included a four-month rotation of high-risk obstetrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Following successful completion of his residency, he served as a faculty instructor at GBMC, while al...
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 1996 - Present: Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC (JJS): Founding and Managing Partner of law firm concentrating in representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice, dangerous pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, and environmental litigation. 1989 - 1996: Janet and Strausberg, P.A.: Founding and Managing Partner of law firm concentrating in representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice litigation. (The late Gary Strausberg withdrew from the firm following his appoint...
Kenneth M. Suggs, a principal in the firm of Janet, Janet & Suggs, has been a tireless champion of consumer legal rights for over 40 years. Known for his advocacy in the areas of medical malpractice, product liability, catastrophic injuries, and wrongful death, he has been recognized nationally as one of the nation’s finest trial lawyers. As head of the firm’s Personal Injury Division and a leader on medical malpractice teams, Ken has an in-depth understanding of how serious i...
Richard M. Serbin is a leader in the Sexual Abuse Division of Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC, a national law firm that has successfully represented thousands of survivors of sexual abuse. Mr. Serbin has been nationally recognized as a “crusader” for the rights of those abused by Catholic Clergy and as one of the first legal advocates for survivors of abuse by Catholic priests and clergy. His diligence, commitment, experience, and accomplishments representing hundreds of survivors a...
Albert G. Caruana is a seasoned trial lawyer with approximately 40 years of courtroom experience. Mr. Caruana concentrates his practice in family law, including complex contested dissolution of marriage cases, paternity, domestic violence and custody issues. Mr. Caruana joined Coffey Burlington after practicing at his own firm for nearly thirty years. Prior to starting his own firm, Mr. Caruana was a partner in the Miami office of Greenberg Traurig. Mr. Caruana is actively involved in all str...
Kendall Coffey is a founding member of the law firm Coffey Burlington, PL, based in Miami, which handles matters in Florida and throughout the United States. Mr. Coffey also currently serves as the Chair of the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission for South Florida. Appointed by both of Florida's United States Senators, he presides over the 21-person commission that selects individuals to be considered by the White House to become U.S. federal judges and U.S. Attorney for South Florida. Mr....
Kevin Kaplan joined the firm in 1992, and now serves as its President. He has extensive trial and appellate court experience in commercial litigation. As trial counsel for corporations and entrepreneurs, Mr. Kaplan has litigated matters ranging from aircraft finance, banking and partnership disputes, to trademark and copyright, construction defect and contract claims. He approaches his cases by seeking creative and cost-effective trial strategies for complicated problems.
Robert Burlington is Managing Member and co-founder of the firm. In his more than 35 years of practice, he has litigated and tried to completion a wide variety of jury and non-jury trials in state and federal courts. He has served as lead counsel in multiple arbitrations. These cases include business torts, commercial and real estate contract disputes, securities transactions, class actions, as well as many aspects of state and federal employment litigation. He has built his practice by assis...
Jack Connelly John R. (Jack) Connelly has been practicing law in the Puget Sound for over 28 years, entirely in representation of plaintiffs. His practice is rooted in the core values upon which he founded the Connelly Law Offices; Truth, Justice, Accountability and Equal Access. Jack maintains a strong interest in cases which hold government and corporate entities accountable, which emphasize the dignity and value of every human being, and which make a difference in how government officials,...
Lincoln is a founding partner of Connelly Law Offices. He is a seasoned plaintiff trial lawyer with an in-depth knowledge of personal injury, civil rights and insurance bad faith law. Lincoln’s track record lists dozens of jury trials and settlements that far exceed multi-million dollar results on behalf of his clients. His powerful courtroom reputation brings him some of the best, most complicated cases in Washington state. He has a passion for taking on cases that involve the abuse of...
Nate Roberts is a trial lawyer who represents real, everyday people as they work to hold corporations and government accountable. His primary focus is on the litigation and trial of complex personal injury and wrongful death claims. Over the course of his career, he has successfully tried a wide variety of major cases in both state and federal court, resulting in seven-figure and eight-figure verdicts in the Superior Courts of King, Pierce, and Spokane Counties, as well as U.S. District Court...
Featured in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch
Andrew Janet joined Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC after serving as an associate attorney in the litigation department of Cleary Gottlieb, a preeminent international law firm. He practiced at Cleary’s headquarters in New York and worked on high-profile corporate litigation and investigations where billions of dollars were at stake. At JJS, his practice focuses on representing victims of negligence and other wrongful conduct in sexual abuse cases, high-stakes medical malpractice suits, en...
Matthew White’s practice focuses on representing victims with catastrophic injuries due to medical negligence or other wrongful and negligent conduct. He proudly advocates for victims who suffer from physical harm or economic injury caused by the improper acts of others. He joined JJS after several years of representing individuals and companies in high-stakes disputes and transactions. Matthew is admitted to practice in state courts in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Nort...
Patrick Thronson has a national practice focused on helping people obtain just compensation for preventable medical errors, sexual abuse, and other catastrophic injuries. With his team at Janet, Janet & Suggs, he has recovered tens of millions of dollars to help injured plaintiffs and their families rebuild their lives. Patrick represents clients in individual lawsuits and in class actions in trial courts across the country. NBC News, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and other l...
Stephen Rigg joined Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC after several years of representing individuals and companies at all stages of litigation. At JJS, his practice focuses on representing victims with complex cases requiring extensive pre- and post-trial proceedings. Stephen has brought to JJS his experience ranging from massive civil rights class actions to permitting disputes. In law school, Stephen served as a research assistant for several notable professors, including Donald G. Gifford and...
Corey Bauer is an intellectual property and commercial litigator practicing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the firm of Houston Harbaugh. He works in Houston Harbaugh's substantive practice areas of Business Litigation, Intellectual Property Litigation, Cybersecurity and Data Breach Response, Trade Secret Litigation and DTSALaw®, and UAS/UAV (drone) litigation and investigations. Corey acts as a litigation team lead for the firm in complex trade secret, patent, contract, and tort disputes ...
Andrew Kaufman is a partner in our Nashville office. Prior to joining Lieff Cabraser, Andrew was a law clerk for Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey in Nashville and Judge Stephen Glickman in Washington D.C., and a fellow at Public Citizen Litigation Group. Andrew graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude in 2012. During law school, he was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law and Policy Review , and was honored with the Dean’s Scholar Prizes in Federal Courts, Civil Procedure, and Legislat...
Jallé H. Dafa is a skilled trial and appellate attorney for consumers in high-stakes class action litigation across a variety of industries. A member of the firm’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy and Consumer Protection practice groups, Jallé currently represents Internet users against worldwide data broker Oracle for using cross device tracking technology to collect and sell the behavioral history and personal information of hundreds of millions of people, Android and iPho...
Kevin R. Budner is a partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco specializing in complex, high-impact litigation. Of particular note, Kevin is one of the lead attorneys prosecuting San Francisco’s case in the nationwide opioid litigation . Among other roles, Kevin directed the team’s discovery efforts against Walgreens and played a key role in the multi-month bellwether trial. In a milestone opinion , Judge Charles R. Breyer concluded that “the aggregate evidence that Pl...
Melissa Gardner is a partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Melissa was a semi-finalist in the Harvard Ames Moot Court Competition, as well as a Student Attorney with the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project and South Brooklyn Legal Services. Prior to joining Lieff Cabraser, Melissa worked at Emery Celli Brinckherhoff & Abady and at South Brooklyn Legal Services, where she assisted with the Workers’ Rights and Government Benefits...
Featured "Lawyer of the Year" Honorees
Bio Deborah Chang, one of the founding members of Athea Trial Lawyers, has won record-breaking verdicts and settlements in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases across the country. As if this wasn’t enough, she’s also a partner at Los Angeles firm Chang | Klein LLP. As a trusted advocate at two powerhouse firms, Deborah has made a name for herself as an attorney capable of fighting complex and high-profile cases. At Athea Trial Lawyers, Deborah has been involved in some of ...
A native of Coral Gables, Andy Marks joined Coffey Burlington in 2013 as a partner after more than 25 years of practice as a litigation partner in the Washington, DC firm of Crowell & Moring LLP. Andy also maintains a practice in Washington as the Law Offices of Andrew Marks PLLC. Following graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Andy clerked for U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey in the District of Columbia and also served as Executive Assistant to Ambassador Sol M. Lin...
Gary J. Gunnett concentrates his practice on employee benefit plans, including the design, implementation, maintenance, and termination of qualified retirement plans (pension, profit sharing and 401(k) plans). He works closely with employers, employee benefits consultants, actuaries, accountants and other professionals to provide guidance in matters involving the Affordable Care Act, ERISA, and the Internal Revenue Code. Gary regularly represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service, t...
Donald C. Arbitblit is a leader among plaintiffs’ attorneys in assessing the legal, medical, and scientific aspects of personal injury, mass torts , and environmental and toxic exposure litigation . Don has served on Plaintiffs’ Science/Expert Committees in several national cases and served on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Actos bladder cancer injuries federal multidistrict litigation that settled in 2015 for $2.4 billion. Don was a member of the trial team that ...
Kevin Durkin is a partner at Clifford Law Offices. Over a career that spans more than 35 years, Mr. Durkin has successfully represented clients in many practice areas, including: Aviation accident litigation and transportation liability Truck, railroad and automobile litigation Premises liability and negligent security Medical malpractice Mr. Durkin has been named a top-tier attorney by U.S. News-Best Lawyers in the areas of personal injury litigation, aviation law and product liability since...
Dave Hersh is a civil trial lawyer with the skill, passion, and experience to win your case. When your business or health is on the line, Dave is the advocate you want in your corner, fighting for you. For more than 35 years Dave has focused his practice on civil trial work. Dave thrives on handling complex civil cases, presenting them simply, effectively, and persuasively to a jury. Dave has tried well over 145 civil jury trials to verdict and has “tried” scores of civil arbitrat...
PRACTICE AREAS Trials Commercial Litigation Intellectual Property Securities Insurance Recovery/Bad Faith White Collar Criminal Defense Legal Malpractice Entertainment/Sports EXPERIENCE Jennifer Keller is one of America’s most successful trial attorneys. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of high-stakes commercial litigation and white collar cases. Chambers USA and Chambers Global rank her among the top commercial litigators in the nation, quoting sources who...
Patrick J. Hodan is a shareholder in Reinhart Boerner's Litigation Practice and is a member of the firm's Product Liability team. He represents national public and private manufacturing and service corporations, as well as financial institutions. Patrick's practice covers a wide range of complex commercial litigation, including product liability, product recalls, construction disputes and financial workouts. He has a deep and highly developed expertise in fire litigation and is often retained...
About Melinda Melinda, or Mindy as she is better known, is a member of Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C. family law team. Mindy comes to CCB from a boutique firm that specialized in family law and probate. Before that, Mindy worked as a staff attorney at the Colorado Court of Appeals for almost 20 years. She specialized in cases involving all aspects of family law, dependency and neglect, and workers’ compensation. The issues she addressed ran the gamut from adoption and paternity to complex ...
In Brief
The Write Stuff
by Michele M. Jochner
A series of pointers for making your legal writing clear, concise and—crucially—persuasive.
Getting Reorganized
by Sameer M. Alifarag and Seth H. Lieberman
Taking a second look at first day relief: an examination of recent bankruptcy trends through the lens of two important debtor motions and their impact on Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Accommodation Reigns
by J. Lott Warren and Kara E. Shea
A recent 6th Circuit Court decision could have big implications for employers who don’t follow reasonable-accommodation standards within disability and medical-leave law to the letter.
COVID-19 and a Cloud of Dust
by John J. Song and Theodore M. Becker
Think ERISA health plan litigation was convoluted before? The pandemic—and future pathogens such as the monkeypox virus currently causing consternation among health authorities worldwide—will further upend the legal landscape as new regulations and statutes take effect.
The Great Debate: Do You Arbitrate Commercial Disputes?
by David K. Taylor
In a civil case, is it wiser for a business to try to persuade the counterparty to agree from the outset to arbitration—or potentially to place its very solvency in the unpredictable hands of a judge and jury?
Punishment and Deterrents
by David A. Yeagley
Facing a jury instruction on punitive damages? Here’s a cheat sheet to help you secure the best possible outcome for the defendant you represent.
Freedom to Compete
by Alyson M. St. Pierre and Ashley C. Pack
Recent movement at the federal level regarding management-labor relations mean changes to enforcement of noncompete agreements and other covenants could be imminent.
Before the Claim Hits
by George L. Lankford
General liability insurance is rarely as simple as it might seem—and if you wait to examine your policy specifics until your business has been sued, it’s too late.
