Moderator:
Tim Agan, Maricopa County Office of the Legal Advocate
Panel:
Honorable Sara Agne, Maricopa County Superior Court
Honorable Andrew Jacobs, Arizona Court of Appeals - Division One
Honorable Doug Metcalf, Pima County Superior Court
Honorable John Napper, Yavapai County Superior Court Div II
Larry Cohen, Cohen Law Firm
Paul Kular, Burch & Cracchiolo PA
Mark Lanterman, Computer Forensic Services
Timothy J Agan, Arizona Justice Project
is an attorney with the Maricopa County Office of Legal Advocate (OLA) Capital PCR Unit, handling State Post-Conviction litigation in death penalty cases. Tim has previously worked with the Arizona Justice Project and as a trial attorney at both OLA and the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office. Tim was the Deputy Director of OLA from 2007 until 2017. Tim has substantial experience in forensic science issues, death penalty litigation and trial practice. Tim has been active in Continuing Legal Education having presented seminars for numerous organizations that include the National Institute of Justice, the Arizona Supreme Court, the Maricopa County Superior Court, the Arizona State Bar, The Arizona Public Defender’s Association, The Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the Arizona Prosecuting Attorney’s Advisory Council, the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office, the National Innocence Network and the National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology. Tim has also served as adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day O’Connor school of Law. He has also done numerous community presentations on legal and criminal justice issues for law school, college, high school and community groups. Tim has served on several Arizona Supreme Court commissions and committees, along with the Arizona Attorney General’s Forensic Advisory Commission and Forensic Science Academy Board. Tim is a 1985 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law. Tim may be reached at tim.agan@maricopa.gov or at 602.506.1295.
Honorable Sara J Agne, Maricopa County Superior Court
was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court on December 13, 2017, and took the bench in early 2018. Judge Agne serves as the Arizona Tax Court Presiding Judge, and has a calendar that includes Commercial Court cases, while generally presiding over cases for the Civil Department of the Court. After graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Judge Agne was a lawyer with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., first as an Associate and then as a Partner in its Special Litigation and Compliance Group. Judge Agne co-chairs the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence and has served for nine years on the State Bar of Arizona Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. The judge is a veteran petitioner of several court rules cycles for a variety of rule sets and chaired the Ariz. R. Civ. P. 5.4 Working Group in 2018 and 2019. During the pandemic, Judge Agne chaired the Task Force on Conducting Juvenile Court Proceedings Safely in a Community Experiencing the Spread of an Infectious Disease, earning recognition as a "Presiding Judge's COVID Hero" for that work. A former journalist, Judge Agne earned a B.A. in Journalism from Arizona State University, serving as Editor in Chief of the University's morning daily, The State Press, as a college senior.
Honorable Andrew M Jacobs, Arizona Court of Appeals
was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Katie Hobbs on February 21, 2023. He studied history at the University of Illinois, and graduated Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1992, where he was a research assistant to Professor Laurence Tribe. He was a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago and Snell & Wilmer in Tucson and Phoenix, and led Snell’s appellate practice for thirteen years. The Arizona Supreme Court has appointed Andrew to six bodies: Judicial Performance Review, the Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, the Committee for Civil Justice Reform, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, the Task Force on Jury Data Collection, Practices, and Procedures, and the Task Force on the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions. Andrew has served on the Arizona State Bar’s Civil Practice and Procedure Committee for fifteen years and was its Chair from 2014-18. He served in the Arizona State Bar Batson Working Group. Andrew was a principal initial drafter of Ariz. R. Civ. P. 26.2 (tiering) and has contributed to many more court rules. He served in the Ninth Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Rules and Civil Practice. He co-founded the District of Arizona’s pro bono program in 2006 and coordinated it for five years. He was the lawyer coordinator for the Ninth Circuit’s pro bono program from 2007-23 for Arizona and Nevada, and for the Arizona Court of Appeals for Division Two from 2014-23. He placed over 220 pro bono cases in these roles. Andrew was admitted to practice in Illinois, Arizona, and Nevada, joining their bars, the ABA, and the Arizona LGBT Bar, as a member of that community. He is also a member of AWLA, Los Abogados, and AAABA, and mentors in the Latina Mentoring Project. He re-founded the Arizona Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society and was its President for many years. Andrew argued sixty civil appeals among three federal circuits and six states. He took two cases to the U.S. Supreme Court as counsel of record. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a Member of the American Law Institute, a co-editor of the Arizona Appellate Handbook, and was an Arizona State Bar Member of the Year in 2016.
John D Napper
was the Yavapai County Public Defender from May of 2014 to December 2016. There he directed an office of 17 attorneys and 15 staff along with approximately 20 contract lawyers. He was in private practice prior to his appointment as the Public Defender. As an attorney he handled civil, criminal, and appellate cases. He graduated with honors from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago Illinois in 2002. Judge Napper was appointed by Chief Justice Brutinel to serve as the Presiding Judge of Yavapai County, effective August 1st, 2020.
Larry J Cohen, Cohen Law Firm
Larry J. Cohen, is a certified specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation who has focused in his more than thirty-three years of law practice on serious medical injury and emotional damages cases, including especially brain injury claims. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University in 1985, and has been admitted to practice in Arizona since 1985. Mr. Cohen also has a Master's degree and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University and has participated in a post-doctoral program in clinical neuropsychology. He continues as a member of the adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University where he has taught courses in professional responsibility, pretrial practice and professional liability. He taught and did research at the University Michigan School of Law and at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and taught on the adjunct faculties of the Arizona Summit School of Law, the Arizona School of Professional Psychology, thereafter Argosy University, Midwestern University, and Norwich University. Mr. Cohen speaks nationally to groups of lawyers, other professionals, insurance companies, governmental entities, risk managers and other interest groups about litigation and trial practice matters, legal ethics, alternative dispute resolution, and issues in brain damage, law and medicine and law and psychology. He has received awards from the Maricopa County Bar Association, the State Bar of Arizona and the State Bar of New Mexico for excellence in continuing legal education. He also received a President's Award from the State Bar of Arizona for contributions in continuing legal education. He has for many years been listed by Southwest Super Lawyers and Arizona's Finest Lawyers as among the best lawyers in Arizona and has been was recognized by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel as among the top one percent of lawyers in the United States.
Mr. Cohen may be reached at the following addresses:
Larry J. Cohen, Esq.
Cohen's Counsel
P.O. Box 465
Bethel, Vermont 05032
602-405-4022
802-234-6984
ljc@cohenscounsel.com
ljc@ljcohen.com
Paul S Kular
Paul S. Kular has a blended caseload and serves as counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants over various practice areas including personal injury, construction defect, contracts, and coverage. He has several jury trials, more than 50 arbitrations, and countless mediations during his twenty-year career. He is a member of the Maricopa County Bar Association and serves as a board member on the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. In 2022 and 2023 he was recognized as a top lawyer in the areas of product liability and insurance coverage by Phoenix Magazine and has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in America. Paul was recently appointed as a judge pro tempore for the upcoming year in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Mark Lanterman
Mark Lanterman is the Chief Technology Officer of Computer Forensic Services. Before entering the private sector, Mark was a member of the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Taskforce. Mark has over 30 years of security and forensic experience and has testified in over 2000 cases. Mark is faculty for the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, and has conducted training for members of the federal judiciary through the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. Mark is a professor in the cybersecurity program at the St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark has provided training in digital evidence, computer forensics and cyber security to the United States Supreme Court. Mark completed his postgrad studies in cybersecurity at Harvard University and is certified as a Seized Computer Evidence Recovery Specialist (SCERS) by the Department of Homeland Security.
D Douglas Metcalf, Judge of the Superior Court, Pima County Superior Court
D. Douglas Metcalf, Judge Pima County Superior Court, 2013 to present. At the time he was appointed to the bench, Judge Metcalf was a partner in law firm of Lewis and Roca, LLP. He started his career as a law clerk for the United States Tax Court and then served as a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice in the tax division. He received his law degree from Drake University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa. He remains a proud Hawkeye.