Litigation

Mr. Petri has been a long-time resident of Indiana. He attended high school in Hammond, Indiana. He later attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, after which he served several years in the U.S. Governmental Service. His experiences in the service inspired him to enroll in law school, and the skills he gained during his service were an invaluable foundation for the practice of law. He graduated from Indiana University School of Law in 1966, and was immediately elected Prosecuting Attorney for Owen County. He served as Prosecuting Attorney until 1974. Since 1974, Mr. Petri has owned and operated his own legal practice, known today as Vernon J. Petri & Associates. Mr. Petri has significant professional and leadership experience. He has served a term as President to the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Association, as well as several years on the organization’s board of directors. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association. Lastly, he has served on the National Board of Directors of the Breast Implant Litigation Group of the American Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Petri has been named to the Million Dollar Forum, which is exclusively reserved for attorneys who earn verdicts and settlements in excess of $1,000,000. Even in the face of adversity, he has consistently obtained favorable verdicts for his clients. In his 40+ years of practice, he has fought to expand the rights of those injured in Indiana by exploring new theories of negligence, and in many cases, appealing them all the way to the Supreme Court of Indiana.

Margaret Moses Branch is married to Turner W. Branch, senior partner of the Branch Law Firm. Ms. Branch is the managing partner. She is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and International Women’s Forum, named Woman of the Year in 1995. She serves on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Center for Civic Values (Interest on Legal Trust Accounts). She was Chair of the Association of Trial Lawyers Women’s Law Caucus (5,000 members) and was founding President of the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association. She has been a frequent lecturer on Continuing Legal Education programs for attorneys. Ms. Branch has served as Vice-Chair of the Association of Trial Lawyers of the America Tobacco Litigation Group. In her practice, Margaret Moses Branch has been particularly interested in women’s health issues. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer ATLA Litigation Group. She was moderator for the National College of Advocacy, Medical-Legal Update Seminar, for the section entitled “Medicine and the Law: Special Issues Facing Women.” Ms. Branch served as a moderator of the ATLA National College of Advocacy, “Litigating Women’s Health Issues”. She has served as counsel in cases that involved failure to diagnose breast cancer, colon cancer, uterine cancer, pancreatitis, leukoplakia, peritonitis, appendicitis, compartment syndrome, aneurysms, pneumonia, meningitis, abruptio placenta, kernicterus, and other illnesses and diseases. She has been involved in cases that addressed issues of surgical negligence, i.e., laminectomies, cholecystectomies, colonoscopies, hernia repairs, and hip replacements. Additionally, she has been involved in cases that dealt with obstetrical issues, i.e., failure to perform timely Caesarean sections, inappropriate radiological procedures, unnecessary hysterectomies, and incomplete abortions.

John W. Day is an attorney who practices in criminal defense, civil litigation, wrongful death and government misconduct/civil rights litigation. John W. Day serves clients throughout New Mexico, including the communities of Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos and Farmington. Prior to opening his own office, John had a long and successful tenure as a partner in one of Santa Fe’s oldest and largest law firms where he practiced in the same areas of criminal defense, wrongful death, civil litigation and government misconduct/civil rights litigation. John has represented clients in federal, state and tribal courts throughout New Mexico. He has successfully defended cases involving national security clearance matters, white-collar offenses and homicide, among others. John has provided personalized legal representation to families and institutions with special legal problems and crisis situations. John serves as general counsel to large high-wealth families and to specialized not-for-profit organizations that value his unique set of problem-solving skills and his experience. John serves as an on-air legal analyst for KOAT-TV, Channel 7, the ABC affiliate station for Albuquerque and all of New Mexico.

Robert Kasieta is the founder and managing member of Kasieta Legal Group. He focuses his practice on Civil Litigation. He is a member of the Dane County Bar Association, the State Bar of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Association of Justice, and American Association of Justice. Bob received his associate degree from Gogebic Community College; his bachelors degree, summa cum laude, from Northern Michigan University; and his law degree from Marquette University. He is certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has attained the highest rating, AV, from the national attorney rating service, Martindale-Hubbell. Bob also regularly teaches other lawyers. In addition, he teaches at Wisconsin Law School.

I have been practicing law for 24 years now and I am one of the founding members of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC. During this time, I have distinguished myself as one of Chicago’s elite trial attorneys. Prior to starting the my own firm, I practiced for 15 years at the prestigious Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and, before that, as a member of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Bureau of Special Prosecutions. I have tried over 100 jury and bench trials to verdict. I have handled and successfully resolved hundreds of millions of dollars in claims in a variety of practice areas, including complex premises liability, aviation litigation, medical negligence, medical liability, hospital liability, and mass disasters.

For nearly 30 years clients have trusted Timothy Gunning to resolve the biggest legal problems in their lives. Mr. Gunning has represented people and businesses from all walks of life against all manner of adversaries, including the federal, state and local governments, regulators, bureaucracies, big businesses, small businesses, insurance companies, lawyers and law firms, and the rich and powerful. Although his typical case is a criminal defense, personal injury or professional malpractice matter, Mr. Gunning is frequently asked to engage in other high-profile, complex and contentious matters, and has brought his talents to bear with great effect in a wide variety of cases, including professional license matters, corporate and administrative investigations, business litigation, fiduciary litigation, and a variety of tort litigation such as automobile and trucking accidents, sexual abuse and assault, elder abuse, fraud, invasion of privacy, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful employment discharge, assault and battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and wrongful death. Mr. Gunning is also frequently engaged by clients mired in difficult disputes with their business partners, family members or neighbors, where the stakes and emotions are high. Mr. Gunning is well known for his ability to assess a given situation, identify strengths and weaknesses and devise and implement highly effective solutions to litigation and investigation matters. While always preparing for a successful trial outcome, and highly regarded for his courtroom skills and many successes there, Mr. Gunning is also very adept at brokering satisfying resolutions to seemingly intractable disputes and controversies. When not working, Mr. Gunning enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, fishing, enjoying the Ravens, the Orioles and all things Boston College.

Ray has been practicing in Idaho since 1989. After attending the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1970, he graduated with his BA in Philosophy with highest honor from DePaul University in Chicago, received the Arthur J. Schmitt Fellowship and attended graduate school. He received his Juris Doctor with honor from the DePaul University College of Law in 1982. Ray began his law career in Chicago, clerking for the Chief Judge of the Cook County Law Division and practicing at top-flight litigation firms, also serving as the Sauk Village, IL Fair Housing Administrator and receiving the Mayor's Award for mentoring moot court law students. Ray moved to Idaho in 1989 and began his private practice. He has a long-standing independent practice and was a partner in Martin, Chapman & Schild in Boise. Ray has worked alongside Dennis Sallaz extensively over the years, becoming a partner in the firm in 2014. Ray has been listed in Who's Who in American Law and the Martindale-Hubbel Register of Pre-eminent Lawyers, co-hosted a Treasure Valley legal talk show, was for several years the Legal Columnist for the Idaho Business Review, has taught several Continuing Legal education courses and was published in the Idaho State Bar's Advocate magazine. Ray has an extensive and varied legal and litigation background, spanning divorce, custody and family law, criminal defense, corporations and LLC's, wills, estates and probate, guardianship, contracts, land use and planning, real estate, collections, administrative law, personal injury, fraud, insurance claims and general civil litigation, lawsuits and appeals. Ray co-authored the appellate brief in Bewley v. Bewley, and successfully appealed before the Idaho Supreme Court in Kawai v. Longstreet. Ray is licensed before the Idaho State Courts, the U.S. District Courts of Idaho and the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals for the 7th and 9th Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court. He maintains his Illinois license on inactive status relating to Illinois State Courts. Ray's organization memberships have included Rotary Club, Oriental Lodge #60, AFAAM and El Korah Shrine, having been Temple Attorney and liaison to the Shriner's Children's Hospital.

Mike has many years of experience as a partner at one of the Upper Valley’s personal injury law firms and is passionate about helping injured persons get the compensation they deserve. Mike is uniquely caring and personally supportive of his clients while at the same time diligent, aggressive and knowledgeable in fighting the insurance companies in personal injury and workers’ compensation cases throughout Vermont and New Hampshire. Being licensed to practice in both Vermont and New Hampshire affords Mike tremendous flexibility when handling complex personal injury cases that have jurisdictional overlay between the states, which happens quite often as Vermonters are regularly injured in New Hampshire and vice-versa.

Bill Hopkins was born and raised in Bishopville, South Carolina. He attended North Carolina State University where he received his B.S. degree in Textile Chemistry in 1988. After graduation, Bill worked for nearly three years for Springs Industries, Inc., a large textile company, at a dyeing and finishing plant in Lancaster, South Carolina. Bill was working as a third shift superintendent at the time he was accepted into law school at the University of South Carolina. During law school, Bill served as the Research Editor for the South Carolina Environmental Law Journal. It was also during law school that he began clerking for the law firm of Whaley, McCutchen, Blanton & Rhodes, LLP, one of the oldest and most prestigious litigation firms in South Carolina, which had originally been founded in 1936. Bill continued to work at the firm after graduation and ultimately became a partner in the firm and then was elected Managing Partner in 2005. Bill and the firm were selected by South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster to represent the State of South Carolina in lawsuits brought against several pharmaceutical companies regarding their reporting of false and inflated prices for drugs which resulted in overpayments by the State Medicaid and State Health Plan programs, known as the AWP litigation. Bill remained as the Managing Partner until December 31, 2007 when the firm dissolved after 71 years of continuous practice. Bill founded and started a new law firm called McCutchen Blanton Hopkins & Campbell, LLP, where he continued to practice with Thomas McCutchen and Hoover Blanton, two of the most well known leaders and stewards of the South Carolina Bar. Bill ran this law firm until November 1, 2010, when he joined the national law firm Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles, P.C. in Mongomery, Alabama in the Consumer Fraud section with an emphasis and focus on class action litigation. Bill has been active in various bar associations and organizations, including the South Carolina Bar. At the time he joined Beasley Allen, Bill was serving on the Professional Responsibility Committee and the Conventions Committee of the South Carolina Bar. Bill is currently serving as the Co-Chairman of the Class Action Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. Bill served as the Chairman of the Employment Rights Section of the South Carolina Association for Justice for three years. In 2010 Bill Hopkins was elected to the South Carolina Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), which is a distinct recognition and privilege. ABOTA is a national organization of both plaintiff and defense trial attorneys which is committed to the preservation of trial by jury. To be eligible for consideration, an attorney must have tried at least 20 civil jury trials to jury verdict as lead counsel. Bill has tried over 70 civil cases to jury verdict as sole or lead counsel, in areas such as personal injury, business torts, fraud, products liability, trade secrets, unfair trade practices, insurance matters and employment. Bill has also had an active appellate practice and has argued 8 cases before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, including an en banc argument in the case of Ocheltree v. Scollon Productions, Inc., a seminal case regarding the law of sexual harassment, in which many organizations (including the EEOC) made appearances and submitted amicus briefs, and which case was the subject of numerous articles, including an article in the New York Times. Bill has also argued several cases before the South Carolina Court of Appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court. Bill has also developed a successful class action practice, being appointed by several different courts as lead counsel or liaison counsel in many different class action cases.

Diana has been a mediator for twelve years, since 2012. She has helped hundreds of couples resolve their divorce and custody conflicts through mediation, without the extra cost, delay, and emotional trauma of litigation. Diana is also an attorney and has represented people in family law cases, including divorce, custody, and paternity matters, for 30 years. She is intimately familiar with the law, courtroom procedure, judges and litigation. Diana is also skilled at diplomatic negotiation, and has resolved countless cases over the past 30 years as an attorney, through mediation. She was a founding partner of "Huntsman, Lofgran, Walton, PLLC, where she has led her firm in practicing law since 2005. She is presently of counsel with HLW, having retired from litigation in March, 2024. Whether helping a couple as a mediator, or representing a person as an attorney, Diana enjoys helping others find hope and resolution in difficult times -- divorce being one of the hardest things a person may face. That being said, if a couple is willing to try, Diana is passionately committed to the concept of mediation, as opposed to litigation and court rooms, as a far more positive, less costly, faster option of resolving conflict.