Hot Button Topics in Litigation and Trial (Tucson Simulcast)

K Thomas Slack Related Seminars and Products

Beale Micheaels Slack & Shughart PC

is a partner with the Phoenix firm of Beale, Micheaels, Slack & Shughart, P.C., where he represents plaintiffs in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases with an emphasis on truck crash, railroad grade crossing collision, and construction accidents. He has tried numerous catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, including automobile, motorcycle, trucking, railroad grade crossing, roadway design, construction, and premises liability claims. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator in personal injury and wrongful death cases and is a frequent presenter at legal seminars. Mr. Slack earned his B.A. degree, with highest honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from University of California Hastings College of the Law. Mr. Slack is an Arizona State Bar certified specialist in Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation, a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Best Attorneys in Arizona, and Southwest Superlawyers. Mr. Slack is an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. He is the past president of the Phoenix Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), former coordinator of the ABOTA Probate Case Review Program and a former judge pro tem for the Maricopa County Superior Court.

William H Sandweg Related Seminars and Products

Peter Akmajian Related Seminars and Products

Attorney

Schmidt Sethi & Akmajian PC

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.

Thomas P Burke Related Seminars and Products

Thomas P. Burke is a highly respected trial and appellate attorney who has actively practiced law since graduating from the University of Arizona, College of Law in 1984. Mr. Burke has had success for many clients (individuals, companies, and governmental agencies) in a variety of cases in both trial and appellate courts and at the state and federal levels. Tom’s practice is primarily in tort matters which includes serious personal injury, wrongful death, insurance claims, product liability claims, premises liability claims, motor vehicle claims (automobile and trucking), liquor liability claims, and governmental claims. Tom is involved in various attorney associations, having served on the boards of a state organization and two national organizations, and has been a seminar speaker on many trial practice topics. In 2012, Tom was the only nominee in the state of Arizona to the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers where he was inducted as a ‘Fellow” in 2013.

Joseph E Mais Related Seminars and Products

Joseph Mais is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers who has served as lead counsel in many trials and arbitrations as well as numerous other matters that were successfully resolved before trial. These matters include multiple securities, intellectual property, and consumer actions, as well as contract, business tort, and real estate litigation.
Joe is currently ranked by Chambers USA as an Arizona Band One litigator and described as a "top-flight litigator much admired for the ‘clarity of his thinking.’" He is currently listed by Best Lawyers in America in Bet-the-Company commercial and securities litigation. One reviewer said: "Joe is great at reading the overall situation... putting forward the most compelling arguments and knowing what to leave aside." He is also currently recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a "Local Litigation Star."
For more than twenty years, Joe served in law firm leadership roles while maintaining an active litigation practice. He served as managing partner of Brown & Bain P.A. (1995 – 2004), where he led the successful merger of the firm with Perkins Coie. He then served as a member of Perkins Coie’s Management Committee (2004 – 2008), Executive Committee (2004 – 2016) and as Chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation national practice group (2008 – 2016).

Dan Cavett Related Seminars and Products

Cavett & Fulton PC

Dan Cavett is a medical malpractice defense lawyer at Cavett & Fulton, P.C., in Tucson, Arizona, where he has tried cases to juries for over 45 years. He graduated from Emory University and the University of Arizona College of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and the Order of the Coif. He served as an Air Force JAG Officer during Vietnam trying court martials in Southeast Asia. Since returning to Tucson in 1975, his practice is focused on the defense of physicians, hospitals, and healthcare providers. He has been an AV rated lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell for over 35 years, been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1995, and in Super Lawyers. He has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) since 1982, and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Kevin W Keenan Related Seminars and Products

Ronald D Mercaldo Related Seminars and Products

Mr. Mercaldo has been named to “Arizona’s Finest Lawyers”, “Southwest Super Lawyers,” and “Best Lawyers in America”. He has also been named one of America’s top 500 lawyers.

Ron Mercaldo established the Mercaldo Law Firm in 1978 for the purpose of representing plaintiffs in serious injury and wrongful death cases. The firm has specialized for the last 15 years in the area of medical malpractice. Mr. Mercaldo left a larger firm in 1978 where he was a partner doing both insurance defense and plaintiffs representation. Mr. Mercaldo obtained his undergraduate and juris doctor degrees from the University of Arizona completing his studies in 1970. He has been actively involved in the litigation of personal injury and medical malpractice cases since that time, including insurance defense litigation and plaintiff’s personal injury/medical malpractice litigation. Mr. Mercaldo has not accepted insurance company clients for 25 years.

Since his admission to the Bar, Mr. Mercaldo has served on various prestigious committees for the State Bar of Arizona including the judicial selection committee, jury instruction committee, and professionalism and peer review committee where he served as chairman for 4 years. Mr. Mercaldo is certified by the State Bar of Arizona in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation and has sat for over 20 years as a member of the commission passing on the qualifications of other attorneys to become certified specialists. He has been president of the Southern Arizona Trial Lawyers Association, the president of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Ariz., and president of the Morris K. Udall American Inn of Court. He has been a frequent lecturer to both the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association on various litigation topics. He is an AV rated lawyer in Martindale-Hubble and is listed in the bar registry of Preeminent Lawyers.

Mr. Mercaldo has been made a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The “College” was created in 1950 to recognize excellence in trial lawyers. Its purpose is to improve the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice and the ethics of the profession. Fellowship in the college is by invitation only, after a careful examination of the experience, skill, ability and ethical standards of the nominee. A lawyer must be an active trial lawyer for a minimum of 15 years to be considered for nomination and Fellowship is limited to 1% of the lawyers in any given state or province.

Georgia A Staton Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC

Georgia Staton has more than 47 years of experience representing governmental entities, including state, counties, and cities, as well as school districts and privately-held corporations. She is committed to defending clients on issues involving governmental liability, employment law, personal injury, and civil rights. Georgia has tried more than 75 cases to verdict in state and federal court in matters involving wrongful death and claims brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII discrimination, and sexual harassment claims and retaliation, as well as false arrest and excessive force allegations against law enforcement including pursuit cases and SWAT actions.

Georgia is a Certified Specialist in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, an Advocate member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and a Fellow and Past-Chair of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL).

Away from the office, Georgia enjoys traveling the world, reading novels, and learning Russian.

Dimitra Hotis Sampson Related Seminars and Products

AUSA

United States Attorneys Office

Dimitra Sampson is an Assistant United States Attorney in Phoenix, handling mostly violent crimes prosecutions for the last 15 years. In addition to her trial work there, she has held various management positions in the office throughout the years, including Chief of the Criminal Division and serving as the Executive Assistant United States Attorney. Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, she was an associate with Renaud Cook Drury Mesaros, PA from 2004 through 2008. She started her legal career as a Deputy County Attorney in Maricopa County in 1998. Dimitra was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in September 2018.

Christopher T Whitten Related Seminars and Products

Superior court

Chris Whitten is a trial court judge on the Superior Court of Arizona. Before his appointment to the bench in 2006, he was a trial lawyer for fifteen years (and still is, in his heart). He is the Chair of the Phoenix Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and, prior to taking the bench, was certified by the Arizona State Bar as a specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation. As a judge, he has presided over civil, commercial, criminal, family, tax and juvenile dependency cases. By the time of his retirement in 2026, he will have presided over commercial/civil case for eleven of his twenty years on the bench.

He is the Past Chair of Board of Trustees of the National Judicial College, where he served as a Trustee for twelve years. He has taught as an adjunct professor at several law schools, including Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Louisiana State University School of Law, The University of San Diego School of Law and Emory University School of Law.

Judge Whitten has been very involved in the American Bar Association. He is the past Chair of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, a past member of the ABA House of Delegates, a former Chair of the Commission on the American Jury and was a liaison to the Section of Litigation Council. He also served on the ABA Nominations Committee, helping to nominate future ABA Presidents and Officers.

He also enjoys working with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), both nationally and internationally, receiving the Hon. Robert E. Keeton Award for outstanding service in 2017. He has trained judges and lawyers throughout Mexico as they work to reform their judicial process, with Solicitors in Ireland to improve their advocacy skills as their rights of appearance have expanded, with lawyers in Myanmar (Burma) on the important role of advocacy skills in their emerging democracy, with Judges in Egypt on developing skills to combat human trafficking, with lawyers in Guam and Saipan to expand their trial skills, with law professors in Japan on effectively teaching trial advocacy to law students, and with lawyers throughout the United States on taking effective depositions and improving thier trial skills.

Away from the bench, he has enjoyed serving his community as a board member and officer for numerous charitable organizations, including the Arizona Foundation for Blind Children, the University of San Diego School of Law Alumni Board, the Arizona School for the Arts, the Recreational Association of Madison Meadows and Simis and the Brophy Lacrosse Club.

He has been married to his high school girlfriend for over thirty years. Together, they raised two remarkable adult sons, Tom and Charlie. In 2010 Judge Whitten and his sons were part of a team that successfully led a group of thirteen blind hikers on a marathon twenty-four mile, one-day trek from rim to rim across the Grand Canyon.

Laura E Udall Related Seminars and Products

Laura E. Udall PLLC

Laura Udall is a criminal defense attorney in private practice in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona. She attended the University of California at Berkeley for her undergraduate degree and received her law degree from the University of Utah. Following law school she clerked for the Honorable Alfredo Marquez for District Court in Arizona. She then went to work at the Pima County Public Defender for 4 years. In 1992 she and Dan Cooper opened their firm, Cooper and Udall PC, and practiced together until 2021 when she opened her solo firm Laura E. Udall PLLC. Laura has tried over 110 cases to jury verdict. She is qualified as learned counsel for capital work in both Federal and State jurisdictions. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona teaching trial advocacy since 2010. Laura was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2017.

Marco B Mercaldo Related Seminars and Products

lawyer

Mercaldo Law Firm

Marco Mecaldo was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona in 2001 and to the State Bar of California in 1998. He has been "AV" rated by Martindale Hubbell every year since 2009. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Southwest Super Lawyers, and LawDragon Top 500 Plaintiff lawyers in America. He has previously acted as Western Regional Catastrophic Loss Counsel for several major insurance companies and has personally handled more than 100 wrongful death and brain injury cases in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. He is a prior President of the Tucson chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates ("ABOTA") and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers.

Louis S Fidel Related Seminars and Products

partner

Piccarreta Davis Keenan Fidel PC

attended law school at the University of Arizona, graduated in 2007, and has been practicing criminal defense ever since. He started his career at the Pima County Public Defender's Office, and has been in private practice with the office of Piccarreta Davis Keenan Fidel, PC since 2012. Mr. Fidel is an experienced attorney who represents individuals under government investigation, those who have been accused of criminal violations, and law enforcement officers accused of administrative violations. His skills and knowledge have proved highly effective during initial investigations, after charges have been filed, and at trial. Mr. Fidel's qualifications are recognized by his peers, as he has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America directory since 2019, as a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2018-2020, and is currently listed as a Super Lawyers Top Rated Criminal Defense Attorney.

Mr. Fidel has served on the board of the Arizona Justice Project, and is the past-president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice. He speaks French fluently, speaks Spanish proficiently, and is a proud native Arizonan who enjoys, hiking, biking, swimming, and being outdoors with his family.

State Bar of Arizona - Southern Regional Office