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Faculty Bios |
HON. JUSTICE BETH BAKER was raised in Spokane, Washington, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication. In 1985, she graduated with high honors from the University of Montana School of Law. Following graduation from law school, Justice Baker served four years as a law clerk for the Hon. Charles C. Lovell, U.S. District Judge for the District of Montana. From 1989 through 2000, she worked as an Assistant Attorney General for the Montana Department |
WILLIAM A. BARTON has tried over 500 jury trials to verdict as part of a national practice focusing on medical negligence, institutional sexual abuse and insurance bad faith since 1972. He has over 40 million-dollar-plus verdicts and settlements. He has been a guest instructor |
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FREDERICK C. “RICK” BERRY JR. has a Bachelor of Science degree in Insurance and a Juris Doctor degree from Arizona State University. Mr. Berry served as the Deputy Director of Insurance of the State of Arizona for two years and earned professional insurance designations of Chartered and Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) in 1981 and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) in 1983. He served as a member of the State Bar of Arizona Insurance Committee for 25 years, including six years as Chairman, and has served as a member of the Arizona Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness. Mr. Berry has |
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MICHAEL L. COHEN is a trial attorney. He graduated in 1991 from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Michael began his practice in Texas, representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil cases. In 1999 he moved to Los Angeles and began devoting his practice to representing plaintiffs. He has tried a nationwide class action for 48,000 class members, a 49-plaintiff mass action against an insurance company, and many cases for individuals and businesses. Most recently, Michael represented the plaintiff in a trademark infringement trial, and the jury awarded Michael’s client $4.7 million, which was the entirety of the defendants’ net profits from their sales of the infringing product. Much of Michael’s work involves representing individuals and business against insurance |
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PROF. CRAIG COWIE is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Blewett Consumer Law & Protection Program at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the
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GREGORY S. MUNRO is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law having recently retired after a career that involved teaching Torts, Insurance Law and Regulation, Pretrial Advocacy and Trial Advocacy. Munro is a past president and board member of MTLA and our 2017 Career Achievement recipient. He researches and writes the Insurance Consumer Counsel’s Column for Trial Trends. Professor Munro has published articles, a book and book chapters on topics of insurance, torts, medical-legal and legal education, and is co-author of Lawsuit Guide, a book for client plaintiffs, soon to be published by Trial Guides. He co-coached the law school’s national championship Trial Team in ATLA competition from 1989 until 1999. He continues to present at CLE seminars. He serves on the Montana State Uniform District Court Rules Committee and practiced plaintiff’s |
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JOHN F. ROMANO, editor and co-author of Anatomy of a Personal Injury Lawsuit, has tried cases to verdict in excess of 200 times. Cases have included automobile collision injury and wrongful death, trucking collision and wrongful death, automobile and vehicular highway design and construction zone negligence, DPT vaccine, medical malpractice, product liability, wrongful death, brain and spinal cord injuries, intrauterine device, first degree murder, consumer fraud, and more. He’s currently involved on leadership committees in selected mass tort case projects. His firm is litigating pharmaceutical cases in areas including DePuy Hip Pinnacle hip cases, knee defect cases, fluoroquinolones aortic aneurysm cases; the Gulf Oil
disaster litigation, Pennsylvania (and surrounding region) “gas fracking-drilling” litigation, opioids, Hurricane Irma insurance claims, and more. In recent years, he has obtained
a multitude of major seven- and eight-figure verdicts for cases involving wrongful death, paralysis, brain injury, and more. Mr. Romano is board ceritified by the National Board
of Trial Advocacy and the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. He is a past president of the Florida Justice Association and a recipient of numerous awards.
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CHRISTINA BRUNER SONSIRE is a partner at the Ziff Law Firm in Elmira, New York where she represents plaintiffs in personal injury and medical malpractice cases. She attended law school at the University of Montana where she earned several academic scholarships and served Montana’s Native American population through work in the Indian Law Clinic. In the summer of 2002 Christina traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to study international indigenous affairs and participate in a conference celebrating the conclusion of the International Decade of the World Indigenous People. A member of UM’s highly selective Moot Court Team, Christina was honored as the Western Region’s Best Oralist in 2004, and her team of three earned a trip to New York City to compete in the National Moot Court finals. Ms. Sonsire currently serves on the board of directors for the Academy of Trial Lawyers, New York’s most prestigious trial advocacy organization. One of six members to be named an Academy Dean for her work
on continuing legal education, Christina has presented more than twenty-six CLE seminars to practicing lawyers at locations all across New York.
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VICTORIA L. VREELAND is a trial lawyer in practice since 1976. In 2011, after 28 years as a partner in a major firm in Seattle, she started Vreeland Law, named in Best Law Firms in America for the past several years. She is adamant about individual rights, the right to trial by |
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