Total Credits: 3.75 CLE, 3.75 Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation Specialization
Our esteemed panel seeks to narrow the gap between bench and bar, and remove much of the mystery and uncertainty inherent in modern litigation, by affording the attendees with the opportunity to hear members of the judiciary, paired with experienced attorneys, speak on a wide variety of topics germane to litigation practice and procedure. Divided into three separate four-hour programs, this track offers a comprehensive “real world” view of trial practice, to include an in-depth discussion on the elimination of peremptory challenges in Arizona and its practical effect on voir dire and jury composition, contrasting the differences in state and federal practice, a behind-the-scenes look at the appellate process, and a focused look at several increasingly important stages of trial practice, including dispositive motions, pretrial motions, juror questions, and making on-the-spot tactical shifts during trial.
Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz in the Courtroom: Shaping the Battlefield Through Dispositive Motions and Realizing that No Battle Plan Survives First Contact with the Enemy
Topics covered:
• Motions to Dismiss and for Summary Judgment, Daubert Motions, and Motions in Limine
• Shifting and adapting tactics as your trial unfolds
• Dealing with juror questions and the insights they may contain
Program Co-chairs:
William G. Klain, Lang & Klain PC
William M. Fischbach, Tiffany & Bosco PA
Faculty:
Vice Chief Justice Ann Timmer, Arizona Supreme Court
Judge Sara Agne, Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge David Gass, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One
Judge Pamela Gates, Maricopa County Superior Court
Judge Michael Liburdi, United States District Court for the District Court of Arizona
Judge Peter Swann (ret.), Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One
Judge Danielle Viola, Maricopa County Superior Court
| Civil Track Materials Day Two (1.3 MB) | 112 Pages | Available after Purchase |
is the Associate Presiding Judge for the Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County. Prior to her appointment as the Associate Presiding Judge, Pam served as the Presiding Civil Judge, the Associate Criminal Presiding Judge, and the Associate Presiding Judge (Downtown) for Family Court. She chairs Arizona's Task Force on Jury Data Collection, Policies, and Procedures and the Statewide Jury Selection Workgroup. She also co-chaired the Maricopa County Superior Court's committee tasked with improving access to justice and reforming the Court's resource center. Her committee work also includes the Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, the Steering Committee on Arizona Case Processing Standards, the Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Committee on Superior Courts, the Committee on Time Periods for Electronic Display of Superior Court Case Records, Data Quality Standards Committee, Our Courts Arizona, Arizona Task Force to Supplement Keeping of the Record by Electronic Means, National State Court Remote Jury Pilot Group, the Superior Court Records Retention Schedule Revision Committee, and the Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. Pam also serves on the Maricopa County Superior Court Jury Committee and chairs the Court's Data Integrity Committee. She was awarded the Chief Justice Outstanding Contributions to Arizona Courts Award in 2022, Judge of the Year by Phoenix Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (2021), Judge of the Year from the Maricopa County Bar Association (2018), and the Mark Santana Award for exceptional contributions in law-related education (2008). Prior to becoming a judge, Pam worked as a partner at Bryan Cave LLP.
Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer joined the Arizona Supreme Court in 2012. She was elected by her colleagues as Vice Chief Justice in 2019. She currently chairs the court’s Commission on Technology, and previously chaired the court’s Legal Services Task Force, and the Attorney Regulation Committee. She is a member of the National Conference of Bar Examiners Board of Trustees, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Appellate Judges Education Institute and has been elected to The American Law Institute. She has received many honors, including most recently being named one of a New Decade of Arizona’s Most Intriguing Women (2022), an ABA Journal and ABA Center for Innovation Legal Rebel (2021), and the Arizona Capitol Times Woman of the Year (2020). Prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court bench, Justice Timmer served on the Arizona Court of Appeals for twelve years, serving as its chief judge for three years. Justice Timmer earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, her J. D. magna cum laude, from Arizona State University Law School (now the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law), and a Masters in Judicial Studies from Duke University Law School. As an attorney, she primarily practiced commercial litigation with Phoenix-based law firms.
CHIEF JUDGE DAVID BRUCE GASS grew up in central Pennsylvania but spent a year taking classes in Chihuahua, Mexico. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor before joining the Phoenix law firm of Lewis and Roca, LLP. He spent seven sessions working as Counsel at the Arizona House of Representatives, before going to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
In 2009, Judge Gass was appointed to the Superior Court in Maricopa County. He served on all four major assignments. He sat on the Arizona Bar Association’s Civil Jury Instruction Committee and served as President of the Arizona Judges’ Association. He and Judge Pamela Svoboda established the STRENGTH Court in Maricopa County. STRENGTH Court works with victims of sex trafficking who are in the juvenile justice system.
In 2019, Judge Gass was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One. He began serving as the Vice Chief Judge effective July 2021 and began his term as Chief Judge effective July 2023. He is a member of the Arizona Judicial Council and the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Diversity, Equality, and Justice. He chaired the 2022 Child Support Guidelines Review Subcommittee.
Judge Gass was awarded the 2005 Arizona State University College of Law Alumni Association recognition for outstanding service, the 2014 Michael D. Ryan Award for Judicial Excellence from the State Bar of Arizona Public Lawyers Section, the 2018 Pete Dunn Above and Beyond Award as outstanding ambassador of the Judges in Arizona, and the 2018 Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Judicial Officer of the Year. The State Bar of Arizona awarded him its 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award. In 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court’s Committee on Judicial Education and Training awarded him the Excellence in Education Award.
Judge Gass is on the Arizona Town Hall Training Committee and has worked with Arizona Anytown Youth Leadership.
Judge Gass is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He focuses and speaks on diversity and inclusion issues. He has been active in many related projects. Several are listed here. He developed a training module to unpack and demystify the judicial application process to encourage diversity in Arizona’s courts. He also developed an undergraduate internship program at the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One to give diverse undergraduate students experience working in the courts and to encourage them to go to law school.
Most notable, Judge Gass felt strongly that Arizona should officially recognize the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution so that we never forget the wrongs done to persons of Japanese descent and their families. He spent five years making it a reality so we always remember our constitution and our civil liberties are fragile and require our constant attention.
And he saves stray dogs on the side.
Peter Swann retired as a judge Arizona Court of Appeals in 2022, after fourteen years’ service on that court, including two years as Chief Judge. From 2003-2008 he was a judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court, where he served in the Civil and Family Departments. From 2006-2008, he served as Associate Civil Presiding Judge and helped develop the court’s electronic filing system. As an attorney in private practice in Phoenix at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, he represented clients in commercial and constitutional litigation and commercial transactions. Swann received his law degree from University of Maryland Law School, where he graduated first in his class in 1991. After serving as a law clerk to the Hon. Norman P. Ramsey in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, he became a member of the State Bar of Arizona, receiving the highest score on the Arizona bar exam. Swann served six years on the Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Arizona, has served for the past 22 years on the Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure and also served on its Professionalism Committee. In 2013 and 2014, Swann served on a committee tasked with rewriting the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, and in 2015 and 2016 served on the Supreme Court’s Civil Rules Restyling Task Force and Family Rules Restyling Task force. In 2016 and 2017, he served on the Supreme Court’s Civil Justice Reform Commission. In 2008, Judge Swann was named “Judge of the Year” by the Phoenix Chapter of the Arizona Board of Trial Advocates. In 2016, Swann was named “Judge of the Year” by the Arizona Supreme Court. And in 2019, he was named “Judge of the Year” by the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. Since 2003, Swann has frequently served as a mediator in both appellate and trial court matters in all types of civil and family cases.
joined the Maricopa County Superior Court in 2011. She currently serves as the Civil Presiding Judge. Danielle previously served as the Arizona Tax Court Judge, the Associate Criminal Presiding Judge, and the Administrative Judge for the Post-Conviction Relief Unit. She is the immediate past chair of the Jury Advisory Committee for the Maricopa County Superior Court, and she currently serves on the Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, the Court Interpreter Program Advisory Committee, and the State Bar Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. Danielle also served as a member of the COVID-19 Continuity of Court Operations During a Public Health Emergency ("Plan B") Workgroup. Before taking the bench, Danielle practiced in the area of commercial litigation at Snell & Wilmer LLP.
is a Shareholder in the Phoenix, Arizona office of Tiffany & Bosco, P.A. Will is an experienced trial attorney that concentrates his practice in commercial and civil litigation with an emphasis in real estate, intra-company and business disputes, eminent domain, and select catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death/medical malpractice cases. Will is rated AV® Preeminent™ in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, a member of Arizona's Finest Lawyers, and a member of the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) panel of arbitrators. Will's community activities include serving on the State Bar of Arizona's Civil Practice and Procedure Committee, the Camelback East Village Planning and Zoning Committee, and the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona. Will's first courtroom experiences were in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps, where he served with the 101st Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division. Will was the lead prosecutor in two high-profile war crimes cases during the Iraq war-the Mahmudiyah Massacre and the Operation Iron Triangle killings-and won convictions in each case. He was honorably discharged in 2008 at the rank of Major. Will is a veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and the Republic of Korea, and is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal. Will received his B.S. from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona and his J.D./M.B.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his free time, Will enjoys training for and competing in Ironman races and short-course triathlons, as well as mountain biking and snowboarding. He lives in Phoenix with his wife Terri and their Chesapeake Bay retriever Chinook.
a member of Lang & Klain, PC, focuses his practice on complex corporate and commercial litigation. He is a 2012-2022 Super Lawyers® selectee in business litigation and is listed in Best Lawyers in America® for commercial litigation and bet-the-company litigation. Bill has served on the State Bar of Arizona's Civil Practice and Procedure Committee since 2000, and chaired the Committee from 2011-2014. He is an appointed member of the Arizona Judicial Council's Committee on Superior Court. Previously, Bill served as Co-Chair of the Arizona Supreme Court's Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure and as a member of the Court's Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence, Committee on Civil Justice Reform, Business Court Advisory Committee, and Committee on Civil Rules of Procedure for Limited Jurisdiction Courts. Through these committees and task forces, Bill has been involved with the restyling of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, and the Arizona Rules of Evidence, the initial drafting of the Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure, the design of the Maricopa County Superior Court's Commercial Court pilot project, and a host of other civil rules projects, including the 2018 civil justice reform amendments and 2014 case management and trial setting rule amendments. He was awarded the Chief Justice's Outstanding Contribution to the Courts Award in 2016, the State Bar's Member of the Year Award in 2013, the State Bar President's Award in 2008, and the Scottsdale Bar Association's Award of Excellence in 2012. Bill teaches a course on Civil Pretrial Practice as an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of law and has chaired or served on the faculty of more than 80 CLE programs for the State Bar and other professional associations. He has also authored a number of law-related articles for various publications. Bill is a member of the American Bar Association, the Maricopa County Bar Association, and the Scottsdale Bar Association. He received his J.D. from the University of Denver and B.A. from the University of Richmond. Bill lives in Phoenix with his wife, Carrie, and their two daughters.
Michael T. Liburdi
United States District Judge
District of Arizona
The Honorable Michael T. Liburdi is a United States District Judge for the District of Arizona located in Phoenix. His judicial service began in August 2019.
Immediately prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Liburdi was a shareholder at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. He was also a partner at the Phoenix office of Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. Judge Liburdi entered private practice with the law firm of Brown & Bain P.A., which became the Phoenix office of Perkins Coie LLP. Judge Liburdi’s private sector law practice included complex commercial litigation, antitrust, constitutional law, and political and election law.
From 2015-2018, Judge Liburdi served as General Counsel to Arizona Governor Douglas A. Ducey. He provided legal advice to the Governor, advised on and vetted appointments to the state judicial branch, directed litigation involving the state agencies, and worked with members of the Arizona Legislature and Arizona’s Congressional delegation on legal policy issues.
Judge Liburdi began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor on the Arizona Supreme Court.
Judge Liburdi has served as an adjunct professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Judge Liburdi earned his Juris Doctorate magna cum laude from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude from Arizona State University.
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.
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