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The Great Trials Podcast offers a series of laid-back, casual conversations with leading trial lawyers, taking listeners "behind the scenes" of America’s greatest trials. Hosted by acclaimed trial lawyers Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey, each podcast episode focuses on one important trial and includes in-depth, insightful interviews with the attorneys who successfully argued the case in front of a judge and jury.
Episodes
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Robert Howell of Howell Law Firm, P.C. (https://www.southgalaw.com/)
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Episode Details:
Accomplished Georgia personal injury attorney Robert Howell of Howell Law Firm, P.C. explains how he represented a highly skilled vascular surgeon whose medical career was cut short due to negligence at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta, Georgia. On January 25, 2010, Dr. Mark Corbitt entered Operating Room 5 to write orders for surgery and attempted to sit on a stool with hard caster wheels. The stool, which was designed to function in carpeted offices, shot out from underneath Dr. Corbitt, causing him to hit his head on the hard floor. Dr. Corbitt was diagnosed with post-concussive epilepsy, resulting in numerous grand mal seizures and constant headaches, and lost his ability to perform surgeries or practice medicine. Despite the hospital's knowledge that numerous physicians had fallen or had difficulty with the stools since they were originally purchased in 2006, the stools remained in use. In 2017, a Lowndes County, Georgia jury assigned 70% of the fault to South Georgia Medical Center and awarded $10,000,000 in damages to Dr. Corbitt. At the time, this was the largest plaintiff verdict on record in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bio:
Robert Howell
Robert D. "Robb" Howell is the founding partner of Howell Law Firm, P.C.. He handles catastrophic and high-stakes injury cases, medical malpractice, pharmaceutical lawsuits, and business litigation. From his offices in Moultrie, Thomasville, and Albany, Georgia, he represents clients throughout the state and the southeast. He also maintains an Atlanta office and serves as Of-Counsel to the firm of Conley Griggs Partin, LLP.
Due to his dedicated representation and trial skills, Mr. Howell has obtained many seven-figure and eight-figure recoveries on behalf of his clients. Since opening in February 2006, Howell Law Firm has recovered well over $80,000,000 for clients who were injured or harmed by the negligence of others. Robb has been particularly successful in securing large recoveries for his clients in small, rural, and traditionally-conservative venues. For example, in May 2014, Mr. Howell was lead counsel in a medical malpractice trial in Lowndes County Superior Court which resulted in a record-setting verdict of $1,811,377.09 for his client. This was the highest personal injury jury verdict in the history of Lowndes County, Georgia at the time. Mr. Howell's verdict in this trial was featured as one of the top verdicts in Georgia in 2014 by the Daily Report on July 31, 2015.
In January 2017, Mr. Howell was lead counsel in another record-setting trial verdict in Lowndes County, Georgia. In that case, Mr. Howell secured a $10 million dollar verdict on behalf of his client who suffered a brain injury from a fall at South Georgia Medical Center. This verdict was reported as the largest ever for a plaintiff in this venue and far surpassed the previous record verdict (also Mr. Howell's) from 2014.
His successes have earned him an AV rating,* and he has been selected by his peers as a Super Lawyer/Rising Star in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 and as a Super Lawyer every year from 2016 to 2021. Mr. Howell was also honored as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer by the American Trial Lawyers Association for the years 2010-2012 and received recognition by that organization as one of the Top 40 Trial Lawyers in the State of Georgia under the age of 40. Mr. Howell was recognized on August 31, 2012, as The Best Attorney In Moultrie Georgia by the Moultrie Observer.
As an active member of his legal community, Mr. Howell serves on the Executive Committee of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association and is a member of GTLA's Political Action Committee Board. Mr. Howell also presently serves as a member of the University of Georgia Law School Council.
Mr. Howell graduated magna cum laude from Valdosta State University in 1994 where he lettered as a varsity tennis player. Four years later, he received his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law, graduating cum laude. While in law school, he was the chairman of the Moot Court Board and an active participant in the law school's prestigious moot court program, winning several titles and awards for his work.
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Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Dan Huff of Huff, Powell & Bailey, LLC (https://www.huffpowellbailey.com/)
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Episode Details:
Georgia defense attorney Dan Huff of Huff, Powell & Bailey, LLC, a firm specializing in the defense of medical negligence cases for physicians and hospitals, explains how he secured a unanimous verdict in favor of radiologist Dr. Joshi and the staff at Radiology Associates of DeKalb, who were faced with charges of medical malpractice and the wrongful death of 51-year-old podiatry patient Lisa Calhoun. In June 2014, Lisa went to her podiatrist with leg pain and was told she may be suffering from deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or blood clots in her legs. The podiatrist ordered an ultrasound, which was then interpreted by Dr. Joshi. The ultrasound confirmed a DVT diagnosis, but there was a factual dispute as to whether the diagnosis was communicated by Dr. Joshi’s office to the podiatrist. A few days later, Lisa was admitted to the emergency room, complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath. While in the hospital, she claimed that she was unaware of the ultrasound results and died of cardiac arrest several hours later. Disputing the claim that Dr. Joshi’s office did not communicate the ultrasound results to the podiatrist, Dan walked the jury through the proper procedures associated with communicating radiology results and shared evidence of phone calls between Lisa and her podiatrist's office as well as between the radiology technologist and the podiatrist's office. This evidence convinced a DeKalb County, Georgia jury that Dr. Joshi and the staff at Radiology Associates of DeKalb neither violated the standard of care nor served as a proximate cause to Lisa's death, resulting in a defense verdict.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bio:
Dan Huff
Since 1991, Dan has specialized in the defense of high damages lawsuits, primarily medical malpractice lawsuits and claims. He has represented defendants in more than 110 jury trials. He has defended and successfully tried cases for every specialty of medicine and numerous hospitals throughout Georgia. Dan’s trial record would be a proud career for any defense lawyer and remarkable because Dan has tried and won so many cases in so few years. In the past five years Dan has tried more than 30 medical malpractice cases in Georgia. Many of those cases have been against the best plaintiffs' attorneys in the state.
Because of Dan’s trial record and reputation with plaintiffs' attorneys, he is able to obtain the best possible outcomes for physicians and hospitals whether the case is tried or resolved.
In addition to representing defendants, Dan is a regular contributor to legal and medical publications and seminars. Dan and his firm are proud to donate their time and resources to help several local charities and provide pro bono legal representation to indigent clients.
In 2018, Dan became a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Founded in 1950, the College is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada. Fellowship in the College is extended by invitation only and only after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds, who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of fifteen years trial experience before they can be considered for Fellowship. Membership in the College cannot exceed one percent of the total lawyer population of any state or province. There are currently approximately 5,800 members in the United States.
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Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Dan Hessel of Golkow Hessel (https://www.golkowhessel.com/)
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Episode Details:
Philadelphia personal injury attorney Dan Hessel of Golkow Hessel discusses how he secured justice for Juan Reyes, a worker who lost a finger and suffered permanent nerve damage after his hand was crushed by a defective hydraulic shear designed by Cincinnati Incorporated. Juan's employer purchased a used Cincinnati hydraulic shear and registered it with the manufacturer in 2007. In 2009, a Cincinnati technician serviced the machine and failed to note the damaged foot pedal and lack of roll guards, which are designed to prevent hand injuries. Due to Cincinnati's negligence and failure to warn Juan's employer about the machine's defects and safety hazards, Juan was seriously injured when he accidentally stepped on the damaged foot pedal and had his dominant hand crushed by the hold-downs. Today, Juan suffers from uncontrollable tremors and cannot use his right hand, which makes day-to-day tasks difficult and prevents him from achieving his career goal of becoming a welder. In November 2016, a Philadelphia jury found Cincinnati Incorporated negligent and the company's hydraulic shear defective, awarding Juan $15,000,000 in damages.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bio:
Dan Hessel
With more than twenty years of experience in the fields of personal injury and subrogation law, Dan handles catastrophic injury cases on behalf of accident victims. Dan has had 16 seven- or eight-figure verdicts or settlements as lead counsel. He has been recognized as a Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer” for seven consecutive years, and a "Rising Star" for three years before that. Recipients of these awards are nominated by their peers, and the honor is limited to 5% of practicing lawyers.
Dan is a life member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an organization reserved for trial lawyers who have obtained seven-figure verdicts or settlements on behalf of their clients. He has had more than $40 million in verdicts and settlements for his clients in the past few years alone. Many of these cases have been featured in journals such as The Legal Intelligencer, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Yahoo! Biz, New Jersey Verdict Reporter, Pennsylvania Damages, North Carolina Verdict Reporter, Pennsylvania Verdict Reporter and the Florida Verdict Reporter. Dan has spoken on issues related to tort law on more than 30 occasions in venues across the country.
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Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
Tuesday Nov 24, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Kenneth Suggs of Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC (https://www.jjsjustice.com/)
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Episode Details:
Award-winning trial lawyer Kenneth Suggs of Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC explains how he successfully represented Taylor Phillips, a young girl whose spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy was caused by her mother's mismanaged labor and delivery at a hospital in Washington, Iowa. Lisa Phillips entered the hospital for the induced labor of her second child by Dr. Lynette Iles, a family physician who physically checked on Lisa only a few times throughout the day and relied mostly on continuous external fetal monitoring to inform her about the baby's health. As the delivery drew closer, Dr. Iles chose to move to intermittent external fetal monitoring, despite the lack of consistent heartbeat readings and missed key indications that the baby was struggling. Taylor was delivered through cesarean section by a different doctor and airlifted to a neonatal intensive care unit for the brain damage she sustained during the period of intermittent fetal monitoring. Due to her traumatic birth, Taylor is a locked-in quadriplegic who cannot speak and who cannot live independently. A Washington County, Iowa jury returned a landmark verdict of $18,126,000 against Dr. Iles and her medical practice for violating the standard of care.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bio:
Kenneth Suggs
Kenneth M. Suggs, a principal in the firm of Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC, has been a tireless champion of consumer legal rights for over 40 years. Known for his advocacy in the areas of medical malpractice, product liability, catastrophic injuries, and wrongful death, he has been recognized nationally as one of the nation’s finest trial lawyers.
As head of the firm’s Personal Injury Division and a leader on medical malpractice teams, Ken has an in-depth understanding of how serious injuries from highway collisions to workplace injuries to doctor errors can impact the health and well-being of a person. He has sought and won justice for many, ranging from infants who suffered severe birth injuries to families severely burned in an 18-wheeler crash. Some of the judgments and verdicts he has won were against major corporations, including Fortune 500 corporations.
Suggs has held a broad range of leadership positions in many organizations devoted to law and education, including President of the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) from 2005-2006, and president of the South Carolina Association for Justice. In 2016, he received the prestigious War Horse Award from the Southern Trial Lawyers Association.
Suggs is routinely recognized as being among the top attorneys in the country. He has been listed among Best Lawyers in America® for more than 25 years in the areas of mass torts, medical malpractice, personal injury and product liability litigation. His other Best Lawyers® awards include Lawyer of the Year – Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs, Columbia, SC, 2016, 2012, 2010; and Best Lawyers® Lawyer of the Year – Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs, Columbia, SC, 2014, 2009.
Mr. Suggs has been named to South Carolina Super Lawyers since it was developed in 2008. In 2009, he was recognized as South Carolina Super Lawyer’s® Top Point Getter.
He has been honored with the American Association for Justice Harry Philo Award and the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association Founders Award, both in 2007, and the American Bar Association’s Torts and Insurance Practice Section’s “Pursuit of Justice” award in 2008.
He also serves on the American Board of Trial Advocates and carries a Martindale-Hubbell® AV® Preeminent™ rating, the highest given.
Mr. Suggs is the 2006 recipient of the “Advocate of the Year” award presented by the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center. He also attained recognition as a Fellow of the National College of Advocacy; he currently serves on the Advisory Board for Best Lawyers in America and the Executive Committee of the Lawyers Committee for the National Center for State Courts.
He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1975, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Clemson University in 1968. He has served on the Clemson University President’s Advisory Committee and Board of Visitors. Before attending law school, he served in the United States Navy, including two years in the Vietnam War.
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Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Jeffrey Kroll of Kaveny + Kroll (https://kavenykroll.com/)
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Episode Details:
Award-winning plaintiffs' litigator Jeffrey Kroll of Kaveny + Kroll in Chicago shares how he advocated on behalf of the first person in the United States to die while using a bike-sharing program. On July 1, 2016, Virginia Murray, a 25-year-old college graduate, rode her DIVVY bike — part of Chicago's official bike-share program — to an intersection where truck driver Cosmin Radu sat idling in his employer's A & B Flooring truck. The light turned green, and Cosmin made a right-hand turn, which his broken turn signal lights did not indicate. His vehicle struck Virginia, killing her instantly. During trial, the Chicago jury returned a $7,000,000 verdict in less than two hours in favor of the plaintiff's estate.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bios:
Jeffrey Kroll
Jeffrey J. Kroll is an award-winning attorney who has represented injured victims of negligence throughout the country for nearly three decades in the areas of trucking accidents, products liability, and medical malpractice. In 2017, Mr. Kroll was part of the trial team that obtained a record-breaking $148 million jury verdict on behalf of a dancer who was paralyzed when a shelter collapsed on her at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Overall, his verdicts and settlements have exceeded $1 million on 80 separate occasions.
Mr. Kroll has lectured throughout the country on personal injury and wrongful death matters. He has had more than 125 legal articles published on topics ranging from strategic jury selection and maximizing an injured client’s recovery, to successfully handling wrongful death cases and preparing and cross-examining expert witnesses. He is well known in Chicago media for countless segments and publications and has taught Trial Advocacy and Medical Malpractice Law at DePaul University and Northwestern Law School. Mr. Kroll was the only Illinois attorney to be published in the Anatomy of a Personal Injury Lawsuit, 4th Edition, released by Trial Guides and the American Association for Justice.
Jeffrey has recovered more than $400 million for his clients.
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Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Ken Friedman and David Roosa of Friedman | Rubin (https://friedmanrubin.com/)
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Episode Details:
Friedman Rubin trial lawyers Ken Friedman and David Roosa share their experience trying the first federal Zoom civil jury trial during the pandemic and explain how they secured justice for an 84-year-old woman who sustained a traumatic brain injury on a Holland America cruise ship. In November 2018, passenger Margaret Dallo was walking down a hallway on the ship when she was knocked over by a door opening outward into the hallway. Margaret fell and hit her head on the frame of the door across the hall, resulting in a bilateral subacute subdural hematoma, which allowed blood inside the skull and put pressure on her brain. Margaret's traumatic brain injury required surgery and greatly diminished her mobility and quality of life. In spite of the defense's attempts to blame her medical condition on pre-existing conditions and previous falls, Seattle jurors participating via Zoom conference ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiff, awarding $1,689,000 in damages.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bios:
Ken Friedman
Since joining Friedman | Rubin in 1999, Ken has appeared on behalf of plaintiffs in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He has successfully tried cases involving claims of sexual harassment, defamation, personal injury, police misconduct, and insurance bad faith.
Ken earned his B.A. in History from Antioch College and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.
A well-respected attorney, he has been given the highest rating, “AV Pre-eminent,” by the Martindale Hubbell, and he has been designated as a “Super Lawyer” by his peers in the Washington Law and Politics survey annually since 2009. Ken also has been rated a “10, Superb” by Avvo.com.
David Roosa
David primarily handles cases involving serious personal injury, traumatic brain injury (“TBI”), insurance bad faith denial of benefits, and nursing home abuse. David has jury trial experience in state, federal, and municipal courts. David and Friedman | Rubin partner Ken Friedman recently obtained a $1.7m verdict in the Western District of Washington’s first ever fully remote jury trial, in which the judge, the jury, the attorneys, and the witnesses all participated via Zoom. (See Bloomberg Law report – here]. David also occasionally tries criminal cases, and has obtained two defense verdicts in 2015, and another in 2017, for wrongfully accused citizens. At the appellate level, David has briefed a number of cases before Washington Division I and Division II court of appeal commissioners, and authored (uncredited) the prevailing briefs in the Wyoming Supreme Court case Irene v. Seneca, et. al., 337 p.3d 483 (Wyo. 2014).
David grew up in Alaska and graduated from West Anchorage High School in 1997. After high school, he spent one year as a Rotary International Exchange Student in Rostock, Germany. Upon returning to the U.S., David studied at the Ohio State University and graduated in 2002 with a B.S. in International Business and a B.A. in German Language and Literature. David then spent roughly two years in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, at the Centro ISI English Academy through the AIESEC program teaching English to adults and children.
Before starting a career in the legal field, David worked for three years as a Licensed Customs Broker and Ocean Import Manager for a global logistics/freight-forwarder and NVOCC in Chicago, IL.
David lives with his wife and two sons in West Seattle. His hobbies include competitive running and swimming, outdoor grilling, watching Ohio State football games in the fall, and playing the guitar – badly.
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Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP (https://www.claggettlaw.com/)
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Episode Details:
Accomplished Chicago trial lawyers Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP explain how they secured justice for the families of two attorneys and a law office secretary who were shot by a disgruntled client who gained unauthorized access to the office due to the failure of building security officers to follow established safety procedures. On December 8, 2006, Joseph Jackson entered a 41-floor professional building at 500 West Madison Street in Chicago, held Allied Barton Security Services officer Robert Brown at gunpoint and demanded to be taken to the 38th floor, where patent lawyer Michael McKenna's office was located. A client of Michael McKenna and an inventor seeking a patent, Joseph Jackson mistakenly thought Michael McKenna had sold his idea and owed him money. Supervising security officer Sidney Chambers knew that Joseph Jackson had been loitering in the building for hours and had suspiciously interacted with officer Robert Brown, but failed to take action. Robert Brown did not follow safety protocol, utilize officer codes to alert his supervising officer to the situation or employ restraint techniques designed to defuse the situation. Instead, he tried to flee the scene and save himself when Joseph Jackson began firing his gun in the law office, fatally shooting Michael McKenna and Allen Hoover and wounding office secretary Ruth Lieb. In 2017, a Cook County, Illinois jury delivered a verdict against Allied Barton Security Services, Sidney Chambers and Joseph Jackson, assigning 60 percent of the responsibility to the deceased Joseph Jackson and 40 percent to Allied Barton in a $30,650,000 verdict.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bios:
Joseph Power Jr.
Joseph A. Power, Jr. is the founding partner of the Power, Rogers, LLP law firm in Chicago, and a prominent trial lawyer focusing on cases involving medical malpractice, trucking collisions, wrongful death, product liability and catastrophic personal injuries.
Power received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 and his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1977. Power was named as partner in 1984 and the firm became Hayes & Power. In 1993, the firm became Power, Rogers & Smith, and has recently become Power Rogers, LLP.
At the age of 28, Power became the youngest lawyer in the country to obtain a jury verdict in excess of $1 million for his client. Power was the lead attorney in a trucking case which led to seventy-six criminal convictions, including the former governor of Illinois in the “licenses for bribes” scandal, which triggered the retesting of over 2000 truck drivers has obtained over 200 verdicts and settlements over $1,000,000. He has the largest jury verdict in Illinois history for a contested liability personal injury case, and in addition, has the largest medical malpractice jury verdict in Illinois history. In the last two years alone, he has been to verdict in six cases, all leading to seven and eight million-dollar recoveries.
As a leader among personal injury lawyers, Power has been listed in the Harvard Law graduates Naifeh and Smith book, The Best Lawyers in America, every year since 1987. The National Law Journal recognized him as one of the top ten litigators in the United States and he has been listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.
Additionally, Power has been repeatedly selected as one of the top lawyers by LawDragon, a group which selects the top 500 lawyers in the country. He has been named a top personal injury and consumer lawyer based upon polling of fellow lawyers in the Leading Lawyer Magazine since 2009 and is one of Super Lawyers Magazine’s top ten lawyers in Illinois. He has consistently been named in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, including the “30 Tough Lawyers” where he was named one of the 30 toughest lawyers in all fields in Chicago. Those listed are, according to the magazine, attorneys you want “for you, not against you.”
Power is involved in many professional organizations. He is currently the immediate Past-President of the Inner Circle of Advocates which is an organization consisting of the top 100 Plaintiff Trial Lawyers in the country, and Past President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Public Justice, Celtic Legal Society and ABOTA (Illinois Chapter). He is a fellow with the International Academy of Trial Lawyers as well as the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is also a member of the Irish Legal 100, the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Power was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee in 1993 and served as Chairman from 1995-2003 during which the committee promulgated the new discovery rules and mandatory voir dire. Due to his professional expertise, Mr. Power has been honored in such publications as Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who of emerging Leaders in America.
He has been recognized by several organizations for his work as a trial lawyer. Power was awarded “Protector of the Working Man” by the Illinois State Crime Commission, “Citizen of the Year” by the City Club of Chicago and “Board Member of the Year” by the Little City Foundation. Additionally, he was awarded the Civil Justice Foundation’s Special Commendation Award for his thoroughness, tenacity and courage in uncovering and disclosing the “license for bribes” scandal. He received the Medal of Merit and Distinguished Award for Excellence from the Illinois State Bar Association and the Medal of Excellence by the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. He was awarded the Tribute for Leadership on behalf of social justice and progressive change by US Action and US Action Education Fund, as well as the prestigious Leonard Ring Award which is awarded to someone who has devoted, as Leonard Ring did, a substantial part of their life and their practice to the Illinois Trial Lawyers, someone who has done more than is called for, and to someone who has the standards, work ethic and commitment to the Illinois Trial Lawyers that Leonard had. Most recently, Joe Power was awarded the Justice John Paul Stevens award which is presented annually by the Chicago Bar Foundation and Chicago Bar Association to attorneys who best exemplify the Justice’s commitment to integrity and public service in the practice of law.
Active in many charitable organizations, Power, his wife Susan and/or the Power Family Foundation regularly contribute to Leo High School, the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Misericordia, Catholic Charities, Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, Free Spirit Media, Big Shoulders, the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, St. Gabriel’s Grammar School, St. Clement Church and DePaul University.
Power is married to Susan Power and they have four sons and three grandchildren. He and his wife live in Chicago.
Larry Rogers Jr.
Larry R. Rogers, Jr. is a trial lawyer with over 25 years of experience advocating for victims. As a trial attorney and partner at Power Rogers, LLP, Mr. Rogers, Jr. has successfully settled and tried to verdict many multi-million dollar results for his clients in medical negligence, trucking, product liability and civil rights litigation. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates an invitation-only group of trial lawyers from across the country invited and admitted based upon their results and commitment to representing victims. Mr. Rogers Jr. was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of the top personal injury lawyers of a new generation of trial attorneys.
Mr. Rogers, Jr. has been involved in a number of significant high-profile matters, including the investigation of what happened to Sandra Bland a Chicagoland resident who was found dead in a Texas jail cell after an unlawful traffic stop. He represents families in several civil rights and police brutality cases including the tragic shooting of Bettie Ruth Jones on the west side of Chicago which he recently resolved for a record 16 million dollars. He has been a frequent guest on local and national radio and television shows to discuss events affecting the citizens of Chicago and the country.
Mr. Rogers, Jr. and the attorneys at Power Rogers have represented victims against some of the most powerful interests in the country and have been ranked at the top of their field, with 11 consecutive 1st place rankings from 2010 to 2020in the Chicago Lawyer Annual Settlement Survey which ranks firms based on their results.
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Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Sean Claggett of Claggett & Sykes Law Firm (https://www.claggettlaw.com/)
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Episode Details:
Nevada trial lawyer Sean Claggett shares his legal strategy representing Elisa Sales, a woman who sustained permanent brain damage when doctors at Summerlin Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas failed to act with urgency after she went into respiratory arrest during a routine pacemaker replacement surgery. During the procedure, the alarms on the monitors checking Elisa's heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels were turned off and inaudible, which was against hospital policy. Due to this violation, the medical staff was not alerted when Elisa's blood pressure dropped dangerously low after she was given too much sedative medication. The doctors and medical staff failed to begin immediately performing CPR when they realized her life-threatening condition, violating the standard of care. The medical team's lack of urgency left Elisa's brain without oxygen, causing permanent damage that reduced her mental capacity to that of a five-year-old. Sean Claggett originally asked for $63 million in damages for Elisa's suffering. After hearing from 18 fact witnesses and 13 expert witnesses during the trial, the defense chose to settle the medical malpractice lawsuit for an undisclosed amount immediately following closing arguments.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bios:
Sean Claggett
Sean Claggett is an established Las Vegas personal injury attorney and handles difficult cases across the country. Sean founded Claggett & Sykes Law Firm in 2005, and is the firm’s lead trial lawyer.
In 2017, Sean was recognized by his fellow trial lawyers of the Nevada Justice Association as Nevada’s Trial Attorney of the Year.
In 2016, Sean had the fourth most influential verdict in the United States according to Courtroom View Network, stemming from a slip and fall at Lowe’s in which his client suffered a TBI after she slipped, fell, and knocked down a three-foot yellow warning cone. Lowe’s top offer before the verdict was $1,400,000.00, and the referring plaintiff attorney offered to resolve the case for $1,749,999.99. The jury returned a verdict in the amount of $16,430,000.00.
Sean’s trial success continued with two verdicts in 2018 in the amounts of $20,000,000.00 and $3,382,000.00. Sean’s verdict of $20,000,000.00 was recognized as the fourth most influential verdict in the United States according to Courtroom View Network, stemming from a negligence case against an HOA for failing to maintain its swing set. The HOA’s top offer before trial was $400,000.00, and the referring plaintiff offered the HOA to resolve the case for $949,000.00. The plaintiff in the case suffered a TBI.
Sean’s trial success continued in 2019 as he obtained a verdict of $645,814.33 in which there was a 16-day gap in treatment after the initial wreck, and then, after eight months of physical therapy treatment, there was a three and a half year gap in treatment before the plaintiff obtained further treatment for his back injury. The top offer from the defense was $50,000.00, and the referring attorney agreed to accept $180,000.00 to resolve the case prior to trial.
Later that year, Sean received an honorable mention from Courtroom View Network as having one of the year’s most impressive trials for his work on a medical malpractice trial where his client suffered a TBI. Sean asked for $63,000,000.00 in closing arguments and the case settled before the jury returned a verdict.
In 2020, Courtroom View Network named Sean to its “Who We’re Watching” list. Courtroom View Network says that after more than a decade of capturing trials for its streaming network, the lawyers on this list are its best of the best of the decade and are the lawyers that other lawyers should watch if they’re looking to improve their craft.
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Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Kila Baldwin of Kline and Specter, PC (https://www.klinespecter.com/)
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Episode Details:
A Philadelphia attorney with a strong track record leading complex cases against medical device manufacturers, Kila Baldwin of Kline and Specter, PC discusses the high-profile trial in which she represented Ella Ebaugh, a woman who sustained lifelong injuries due to defective transvaginal mesh implants designed by Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. In her 40s, Ella was diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence, which caused her bladder to leak unexpectedly. She was implanted with a TVT-Secur and TVT sling and later endured three mesh removal surgeries because the mesh had eroded into her bladder and urethra. Today, Ella is incontinent, wears adult diapers and suffers from frequent urinary tract infections. Using Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson's actions against them, including statements made in internal emails, Kila Baldwin was able to successfully persuade the Philadelphia jury to decide in favor of Ella. In 2017, the jury returned a verdict of $7.1 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages, citing Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson’s negligent design of the products and willful disregard for patient safety.
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Guest Bios:
Kila Baldwin
Kila B. Baldwin, a partner at Kline & Specter, has been involved in a number of the firm's high-profile cases, including as lead counsel in trials that resulted in verdicts of $80 million, $57.1 million and $41 million against Johnson & Johnson in transvaginal mesh cases.
Baldwin was selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for 2019 and 2020. From 2011-2018 she was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer — Rising Star and for 2014-2019 as a New Jersey Super Lawyer -- Rising Star, designating her as among the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the two states who are 40 or younger. She also was selected for the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions of the peer-review publication Best Lawyers in America.
In her latest major case, Baldwin in February 2020 achieved a $12.75 million settlement with a medical device manufacturer, Monteris Medical Inc., whose NeuroBlate Sidefire broke during surgery and caused brain damage to the patient. (Read article) Prior to that case, Baldwin obtained a $75 million settlement in a wrongful death case, the largest pre-trial settlement in a case in Pennsylvania history.
In May 2019, Baldwin was co-counsel in a six-week trial that resulted in an $80 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Inc. for a Media, Pa., woman injured by a surgically implanted vaginal mesh device. The verdict in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court included $50 million in punitive and $30 million in compensatory damages, making it the country's largest compensatory award to date in a vaginal mesh case. (Read article)
A few months earlier, Baldwin won a $41 million verdict -- including $25 million in punitive damages – against a J&J for a Lancaster, Pa., woman who suffered permanent injuries from a vaginal mesh device designed and marketed by a company subsidiary. (Read article)
In late 2017, Baldwin won a major jury verdict against J&J for a Pennsylvania woman injured by a vaginal mesh device made by the company's Ethicon Inc. subsidiary. The award included $7.1 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive damages for the behemoth drug and device maker's reckless behavior in selling the defective product implanted in women across the country. (Read article) The verdict was featured on the BBC program Panorama. In earlier cases, Baldwin was co-counsel in two trials that resulted in verdicts of $12.5 million and $13.5 million for two other women injured by the surgically implanted vaginal mesh products. (See the Hammons and Carlino cases.)
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Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Chris Hamilton of Hamilton Wingo LLP (https://hamiltonwingo.com/)
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Episode Details:
Discussing a landmark premises liability case, trial lawyer and Hamilton Wingo LLP partner Chris Hamilton explains how he held McDonald's responsible for ongoing lack of security and secured justice for the families of Texas A&M college students Denton Ward and Lauren Crisp, who died following a late-night trip to a McDonald's in College Station, Texas. In February 2012, Denton Ward and Lauren Crisp, along with Samantha Bean and another friend, went to McDonald's, where Denton Ward was violently assaulted by Marcus Jones and a mob of other attackers. Lauren Crisp and Samantha Bean carried a bleeding Denton Ward to his SUV in an attempt to get him to the hospital. The driver, Samantha Bean, ran a red light and collided with another car. Denton Ward was killed and Lauren Crisp, who was unrestrained and tending to Denton Ward's injuries, was also killed. Despite the defense's attempts to shift focus away from McDonald's ongoing lack of concern for customer safety at a restaurant location with a history of late-night violence and to blame Samantha Bean for reckless driving, a Brazos County, Texas jury assigned 97 percent of the responsibility to McDonald's and returned a verdict of $27,000,000 in damages.
Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents
Guest Bios:
Chris Hamilton
Chris Hamilton has established himself as one of the leading high-stakes trial lawyers in the United States. Hamilton has a recent track record of verdicts and settlements that are setting the mark in both the personal injury arena and in complex business disputes. For example, Hamilton was recently featured in Courtroom View Network’s (CVN) list of Most Impressive Trials of 2019. In 2014, Hamilton was recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as having the largest jury verdict in Texas for a personal injury case and the 17th largest jury verdict in the United States.
In 2016, Hamilton was recognized by Top Verdict as having the ninth-largest personal injury verdict in Texas. Hamilton was recognized in 2011 by Verdict Search as having one of the top 10 verdicts in Texas and top 100 verdicts in the United States. Hamilton was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2019, the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America for 2020, and is a member of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
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