Honors and Awards:

• Michigan Lawyers Weekly "2006 Lawyers of the Year"
• Society of Barristers, Thomas M. Cooley Law School
• Moot Court Competition, Thomas M. Cooley Law School
• Named in Top 100 Lawyers in State of Michigan
• The Inner Circle of Advocates
• dBusiness Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit, 2012

Bar/Professional Activity:

• Detroit Barristers Association
• Detroit Bar Association, Public Speakers Bureau, Board of Directors
• Oakland County Bar Association, Medical Legal Committee
• State Bar Appellate Court
• Member, State Bar of Michigan, Negligence Law, Arts, Communications, Entertainment and Sports Sections
• Board of Directors, American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, 1983 - 1985
• Member, American Bar Association
• Board of Directors, Michigan Association for Justice (Executive Board)
• Member, Board of Governors, American Association for Justice
• Federal Bar Association
• The Inner Circle of Advocates
• Incorporated Society of Irish/American Lawyers
• International Society of Primerus Law Firms
• American Judicature Society
• Detroit Bar Association
• Metropolitan Detroit Bar Association
• Wolverine Bar Association
• Oakland County Bar Association
• State Bar of Michigan
• U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit, 1982
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan, 1982
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1985

Scholarly Lectures and Writings:

• Law Review: Pillar, Cooley Law School Newspaper, Contributor
• Law Journal: Michigan Bar Journal, Current Law Notes Staff
• Litigating Medical Negligence and Injured Infants Case Seminar, AAJ
• 3rd Annual Seminar in the Snow - Moderator - The Myth of Junk Science, MTLA, 1993
• MAJ - The Nuts & Bolts of Personal Injury Practice Speaker - Medical Malpractice, MTLA, 1998
• 11th Annual Seminar in the Snow - Litigation Strategies and Techniques Speaker - Evaluating and Preparing Medical Malpractice Claims, MTLA, 2001
• 12th Annual Seminar in the Snow - Speaker - Medical Malpractice Update, MTLA, 2002
• 13th Annual Seminar in the Snow - Speaker - Medical Malpractice Update, MTLA, 2003
• MAJ - New Ways to Succeed  Speaker - Techniques to Maximize Economic and Non-Economic Damages, MAJ, 2003
• 14th Annual Seminar in the Snow - Speaker - Medical Malpractice Update, MTLA, 2004
• 15th Annual Seminar in the Snow - Speaker - The Winning Edge in Medical Malpractice Litigation, MTLA, 2005
• 2005 ATLA Annual Convention, Toronto, Ontario  - Speaker - Chain of Command, ATLA - Professional Negligence Section, 2005
• MTLA 62nd Annual Convention - Speaker - Trial Techniques to Maximize Non-Economic Damages, MTLA, 2007
• MAJ - It's All About the Jury.  Speaker - Juror Persuasion, Michigan Association For Justice, 2007
• Lecturer on Medical/Obstetrics and the Law, Boston University School Of Medicine And The Center For Human Genetics, 2007
• MAJ - Seeking Recovery for Medical Malpractice in Michigan:  Is there Light at the End of the Tunnel?  Speaker - Cross-Examination, Michigan Association For Justice, 2009
• Meadowlands Seminar.  Speaker - Effective Opening Statements, New Jersey Association For Justice, 2009
• 2009 IAJ Annual Convention - Speaker - It Can Happen in Iowa:  Identifying Jurors Who Will Think Big, Iowa Association For Justice, 2009
• Lecturer on Hospital Liability, Medical Negligence Information Exchange Group, 2010
• MAJ Winning Strategies for Your Med Mal Cases - Speaker - Closing Argument (An Actual Live Presentation of a Closing Argument), MAJ, 2010
• Pan European Organization of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL) - Theories of Hospital Liability in U.S. Courts, Pan European Organization Of Personal Injury Lawyers, 2010
• AAJ Trial Institute - Faculty, 2010
• AAJ Litigating Medical Negligence and Injured Infant Cases Seminar - Speaker The Infant Life Care Plan - Providing for the Life Long Needs of a Child, AAJ, 2010
• 66th Annual Rapid Fire Seminar - Speaker - Cross Examination of Doctors - Rules of the Road  , MAJ, 2011
• AAJ Litigating Medical Negligence and Injured Infant Cases Seminar - Speaker - Effective Techniques in Depositions, AAJ, 2011
• 21st Annual Seminar in the Snow - Speaker - Using the Rules of the Road When Taking Depositions, MAJ, 2011

Verdicts and Settlements:

• $1,300,000.00 - A neuroradiologist, while attempting to place a coil in an aneurysm in the brain caused the aneurysm to rupture, causing a medical emergency.  The neuroradiologist, neurosurgeon, and operating room nursing staff then failed to correctly communicate and identify the proper side of the head the patient was to have surgery to repair the ruptured aneurysm.  The nursing staff and neurosurgeon started brain surgery on the wrong side of the patient’s head which caused considerable delay in clipping the ruptured aneurysm.  Due to the ruptured aneurysm and the delay in fixing it, the patient suffered permanent brain injury and remained in a comatose state until her death.
• $1,800,000.00 - Emergency medicine and obstetric staff failed to promptly evaluate the status of an unborn baby following a motor vehicle accident involving the baby’s mother.  The accident contributed to the development of a placental abruption which, over time, deprived the baby of blood and oxygen.  The delay in evaluating the baby resulted in a delay in recognition of fetal distress and delivery by c-section.  The delay in delivery caused permanent brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delays.
• $2,600,000.00 - An obstetrician and obstetric nurses failed to recognize the need for delivery by c-section based on abnormal fetal monitor tracings and possible infection.  Due to the delay in delivery the child experienced lack of blood and oxygen prior to birth which caused injury to the brain.  Following delivery, neonatologists failed to properly resuscitate the child and failed to control seizure activity which contributed to the child’s brain injury.  The child has permanent brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delays as a result of the improper care.
• $3,360,000.00 - Internal medicine doctors, nurses, and neurosurgical staff failed to take the proper steps to allow performance of an MRI to confirm a suspected spinal epidural abscess (SEA) in a young man with a history of injection drug use. Due to the delay in performing the MRI there was a delay in performance of surgery once the patient developed signs and symptoms of spinal cord compression. The delay in performing surgery resulted in the patient developing permanent paraplegia from the level of C-7 down. The patient now requires 24 hour, round-the-clock care.
• $6,000,000.00  - Pediatricians and pediatric nurses failed to correctly monitor a newborn’s blood sugar and allowed the baby to be discharged before it was proven that the baby could maintain adequate blood sugar levels on oral feedings alone.  As a result of the failure to keep the baby and continue to monitor the baby developed severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) while at home.  The hypoglycemia resulted in permanent brain injury and developmental delays.
• $3,500,000.00 - Failure to operate on subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and hemorrhagic stroke causing persistent vegetative state.
• $4,000,000.00 - Failure to diagnose and treat subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), causing life-long paralysis and other brain damage.
• $1,350,000.00 - Learning disabilities, decreased IQ and global neurological injury caused by failure to perform a ceesarean section in response to repetitive deep variable decelerations on fetal heart monitor.
• $6,000,000.00  - An obstetrician and obstetrical nurse failed to recognize that use of Pitocin was causing too frequent uterine contractions which in turn caused the fetus to be less able to tolerate the stress of labor. Rather than perform a c-section (which the mother consented to) the doctor and nurse continued to administer Pitocin until the baby developed severe bradycardia (low heart beat) which caused permanent brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delays.
• $4,875,000.00 - Brain damage and cerebral palsy (CP) caused by failure to diagnose and treat twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS)
• $1,800,000.00 - 41 year old woman admitted to the hospital for severe abdominal pain.  She was diagnosed with chronic gall bladder disease.  Two days later, she underwent a rather common procedure known as laparascopic gall bladder removal.  This is normally a simple procedure where patients can leave the hospital in a day or two.  In this case, the woman suffered for four months while accumulating over $500,000 in medical expenses.  She died suffering from sepsis and a perforated cecum ( a pouch at the start of the large intestine).  The jury agreed with the medical negligence complaint that the doctor was negligent by clipping the right hepatic duct which led to her death.
• $1,800,000.00 - Patient presented to emergency department complaint of abdominal pain and appearing jaundiced.  Patient underwent surgery to remove an impacted gall stone.  Defendant surgeon reportedly felt the pancreas felt "woody" and proceeded with dangerous non-indicated pancreatic biopsy.  Pancreatic biopsy led to severe multiple complications eventually culminating in the wrongful death of a 39 year old housewife.
• $2,500,000.00 - Settlement paid on behalf of 39 year old male who developed severe asphasia or inability to verbally communicate following endovascular coiling of arterial venus malformation.  Successfully demonstrated how the defendant interventional neuroradiologists negligently injected glue to occlude only the arterial venus malformation, but also the artery of purcheron, an important arterial structure that was not emcompassed within the aneurysm which resulted in the severe aphasia.  Defendants argued that the complications were an expected risk of a procedure.  Plaintiffs successfully demonstrated that the complication was a result of inappropriate technique and the defendants negligent failure to use appropriate testing to ascertain whether the vesel was a vital structure prior to embolizing it.
• $1,700,000.00 - An 8 person jury at the United States Federal Courthouse in Sioux City, Iowa unanimously found a local hospital responsible for the untimely death of an innocent unborn child.  Plaintiff, a mother of five tragically experienced the premature passing of her unborn child, as a result of a local hospital's failure to perform an immediate cesarean section delivery, which would have spared the life of the baby.  The Defendant hospital had all the resources and personnel necessary to deliver the child in time.  In violation of the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the Defendant transferred the mother to a hospital 102 miles away, in another state, in snowy icy weather, while the condition of th emother and baby were rapidly deteriorating.
• $1,375,000 - Permanent paralysis caused by inappropriate surgical positioning for tracheal resection procedure in terminally ill cancer patient.
• $1,650,000 - Failure to perform cesarean section given signs and symptoms of placental abruption and nonreassuring signs of fetal distress on fetal heart monitor, causing spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP).
• $1,750,000 - Failure to diagnose hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) which resulted in atypical global neurological deficits in the absence of cerebral palsy.
• $1,800,000 - Failure to respond to victim of car accident's hyponatremia after traumatic brain injury (TBI) causing cerebral edema, brainstem herniation, Duret hemorrhage and death.
• $2,600,000 - Failure to give mother options as to screening for Group Beta Streptococcus (GBS) combined with negligent uterine hyperstimulation during labor, causing catastrophic brain damage and cerebral palsy (CP).
• $2,750,000 - Failure to suspect or rule out active labor in high risk mother expecting twins, causing cord compression and cerebral palsy (CP) in one twin.
• $2,500,000.00 - 50 year old attonrey presented to defendant's ophthalmology clinic for performance of LASIK surgery.  LASIK surgery negligently done when ophthalmologist failed to cut an adequate flap, consequently leading to laser ablation of of flap hinge, resulting in irregular astigmatism.  Irregular stigmatism required that patient wear hard contact lenses which patient found very uncomfortable to use and which did not eliminate higher order abborsations causing night time halo glare, etc.
• $3,500,000.00 - Obese mother presented to defendant hospital at term, reporting decreased fetal movement.  Inexperienced resident in training was unable to auscultate fetal heart tones.  Resident subsequently performed an ultrasound to confirm her impression of intrauterine fetal death.  Both resident and attending physician inform mother that intrauterine fetal death had occurred.  Subsequently, massive doses of Pitocin were used to expedite delivery of presumably expired fetus.  Following protracted hyperstimulated labor with no fetal monitoring, a diagnosis of failure to progress was made and a cesarean section done at which point, it was discovered that the infant had not died at all.  Infant newborn was severely asphyxiated and suffered mild cognitive impairment. 
• $16,000,000.00 - Mother presented to Riverside Osteopathic Hospital for induction of labor at term.  Following administration of Pitocin, fetal monitoring revealed severe episodes of umbilical cord compression and fetal heart rate decelerations.  Following repositioning, cord compression was alleviated and fetal heart rate returned to normal baseline.  Obstetrical resident negligently approved patient request to go to bathroom necessitating position change and discontinuation of fetal monitoring.  During 11 minute period when fetal monitor was off, cord compression occurred, resulting in severe hypoxic ischemic injury.  Following emergency cesarean section delivery, infant was delivered in a profoundly depressed and asphyxiated condition resulting in severe cerebral palsy and mental retardation.  The Hospital argued that at the time the decison was made to allow the patient to go to the bathroom, the fetal heart tones were normal and the baby was well oxygenated.  Plaintiff countered arguing that discontinuing the monitor in the face of previous decelerations created an unreasonable risk that additional episodes of umbilical cord compressions would go unnoticed squandering opporunity to alleviate umbilical cord compression with position change or immediate cesarean section delivery before brain damage could ensue.
• $35,000,000.00 - 33 year old husband and father of three, successful business executive presented to outpatient detox center seeking treatment for addiction to prescription pain medications.  Defendants negligently failed to ascertain whether patient had cholinesterase deficiency that would make it more difficult for him to recover from anesthetic than normal patients.  Patient left unattended for lengthy periods of time in recovery, suffered hypoxic ischemic brain damage.  After lingering for several days, the patient expired.  Believed to be largest verdict every in Oakland County for medical malpractice.
• $22,000,000.00 - Largest jury verdict in medical malpractice case in history of Genesee County.  Mother, pregnant with twins at 30 weeks presented to McLaren Regional Medical Center for outpatient carpal tunnel surgery.  While in recovery, mother reported contractions.  Following brief period of monitoring, nurse spoke with attending obstetrician and decision was made to discharge mother.  The next morning,  mother awoke with advanced pre-term labor with bulging bags of water and twins totally in breach presentation.  Immediate caesarean section delivery was required.  The twins suffered consequences of premature with soft neuro cognitive impairment.  The male twin later victimized by sodium overdose resulting in stroke and mild cerebral palsy.
• $55,000,000.00 - Michigan's largest medical malpractice verdict.  Verdict obtained on behalf of brain damaged baby who had presented to emergency department of Henry Ford's Bon Secour's Hospital with complaints of difficulty in breathing.  Mother reported child seemed to be "gasping for air."  Vital signs were within normal limits.  Following cursory physical examination, child discharged home with instructions for use of inhaler.  The following morning the child arrested while en route to the hospital for additional respiratory difficulties.  The child suffered severe ischemic brain damage with cerebal palsy and mental retardation.  Effectively argued despite normal vital signs, history of child gasping for air and numerus visits to emergency department over previous week merited admission to the hospital for observation.
• $19,800,000.00 - Jury verdict predicated upon attending obstetricians negligence in failure to provide approriate antenatal care.  During prenatal visits, it should have become obvious that a dangerous condition known as oligohydramnios or decreased amniotic fluid existed.  Oligohydramnios is both a identifier and risk factor for fetal compromise.  As a consequence of delay in delivery, the minor Plaintiff suffered meconium aspiration syndrome and significant cognitive impairment.  Defendants argued that cognitive impairment unaccompanied by cerebral palsy cannot be due to antenatal or perinatal events.  Plaintiff successfully argued that hypoxia and ischemic injury can cause brain damage that manifests in a variety of ways including cognitive impairement with or without cerebal palsy.
• $2,800,000.00. - Jury verdict on behalf of family of deceased 47 year old who died a preventable death from colon cancer.  Patient, a husband and father of 2 children, reported to his family practitioner that he was experiencing bright red rectal bleeding  Dr. arranged for performance of sigmoidoscopy which failed to disclose any basis for bleeding.  Dr. assured patient that bleeding was only due to hemorrhoid.  Sucessfully advocated that with complaints of rectal bleeding, the standard of care requires complete evaluation of entire colon, i.e. colonoscopy.  Tumors may well exist outside the reach of a sigmoidoscopy.

Transactions:

• $4,450,000.00  - Obstetric resident and obstetric nurses failed to recognize abnormal fetal heart tracing in the face of a complaint of decreased fetal movement.  In addition, the obstetric resident failed to properly interpret a test of fetal well being (biophysical profile) resulting in further delay in delivery by c-section.  The delay in delivery caused permanent brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delays.

Video:

Educational Background:

• Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, B.S. in Business Administration and Political Science, 1978