Total Credits: 4 CLE, 2.75 Ethics, 4 Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation Specialization
This year’s CLE in the Red Rocks offers advanced insights into litigation preparation and strategy for both plaintiff and defense practitioners. Addresses critical aspects such as expert testimony, specialized claims, emerging tools, ethical considerations, jury selection techniques, and contingency planning when cases encounter challenges. Topics include:
Chairperson
Amy Hernandez, Amy Hernandez Law, PLLC
Day 3 Agenda
Breakfast: 7:00 - 8:00 a.m.
Break: 10:00 a.m.
Lunch (boxed): 12:15 p.m.
8:00 am – 10:00 am Use of AI in Practice and the Ethical Considerations
Marc Lamber, Fennemore Craig PC
Patricia A. Sallen, Ethics at Law PLLC
10:15 am –11:30 pm Litigating DCS Claims
Robert Pastor, Montoya Lucero & Pastor PA
Russell Stowers, Russell B Stowers PLLC
11:30 am – 12:15 pm Handling Discovery & Disclosure Issues in Litigation
Honorable Jeffrey Bergin, Pima County Superior Court
Peter Akmajian, Schmidt Sethi & Akmajian PC
Patricia A. Sallen, Ethics at Law PLLC
12:15 pm Adjourn/Box Lunch
Hotel Reservations
Hotel reservations are separate from conference registration. Use this link below to secure your room now: https://group.hilton.com/hzogv6. Room rates are guaranteed through Feb. 8, 2025.
Amy Hernandez received her law degree in 2003 from Drake University (with Honors). After law school she served as a law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals. Ms. Hernandez has served on the Civil Practice & Procedure Committee for the State Bar of Arizona and as the Chair of the State Bar Trial Practice Section. She is a former member of the Morris K. Udall Inn of Court and a former board member for the Arizona Association of Justice. Ms. Hernandez served in the United States Army from 1996 - 2000 as a military intelligence analyst. Ms. Hernandez owns Amy Hernandez Law, PLLC where she focuses her practice on plaintiff’s medical malpractice, legal malpractice, and general personal injury.
Marc Lamber focuses his practice on plaintiffs’ catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation. He formed the plaintiff personal injury practice at Fennemore and has built it into the strong and innovative practice it is today.
After several years as a defense attorney, Marc wanted the opportunity to work on a more personal level with clients and saw personal injury law as the best outlet. He has recovered tens of millions of dollars for thousands of accident victims and their families, resulting in hundreds of successful jury trials, arbitrations, mediations, and settlements.
Marc is frequently featured on national, regional, and local media for comment on legal issues and other current affairs, including AI and other technology in the law. Marc has been featured on the cover of AZ Business Magazine as one of The Top 100 Lawyers in Arizona and highlighted by Newsweek as one of the “20 Leaders Plaintiffs’ Trial Lawyers.”
Patricia Sallen is a lawyer in private practice focusing on professional responsibility issues. She represents lawyers in discipline and admission matters, provides ethics advice to lawyers, serves as an expert witness on professional-responsibility issues, and consults on a myriad of other law-related topics. She regularly presents at CLE seminars and publishes articles about professional responsibility and writes the Eye on Ethics column for Arizona Attorney. She also has taught professional responsibility as an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law for more than a decade. In addition to practicing in private law firms, she spent more than 15 years working for the State Bar of Arizona as both a bar counsel and ethics counsel and supervised programs such as the Fee Arbitration Program and Client Protection Fund. She served as expert consultant to the Arizona Supreme Court's 2014-15 comprehensive ethical rules review effort and to the Court's 2019-20 Task Force on the Delivery of Legal Services, which resulted in the groundbreaking rule changes allowing non-lawyer firm ownership and legal paraprofessionals. She currently serves on the State Bar's Ethics Advisory Group and the Supreme Court's Task Force on Ethics Rules Governing the State Attorney General, County Attorneys, and Other Public Lawyers.
Honorable Jeffrey Bergin is an Arizona native who earned both his undergraduate degree and his law degree (with distinction) from the University of Arizona. In September 2011, Judge Bergin was appointed to serve as a trial judge on Arizona's Superior Court in Pima County. This followed a twenty-year career in civil litigation. Since that time, he has served on the civil bench (presiding judge), family bench (presiding judge) and the criminal bench. He also served as the Associate Presiding Judge for the Court from 2019 through July 2021. Most recently, Arizona's Supreme Court appointed Judge Bergin as the Presiding Judge for Pima County. Judge Bergin began his term as the Presiding Judge on July 1, 2021.
Peter Akmajian is a 1984 graduate (with distinction) from the University of Arizona College of Law. He clerked for the Honorable Frank X. Gordon from 1984-85. He has been in private practice since 1985 with O’Connor Cavanagh in Phoenix and Tucson, the Udall Law Firm and now with Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian, where he represents patients and their families in medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. Peter is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of ABOTA.
