DRI Faculty List

Marijuana Law Seminar

Hotel 1000 | Seattle, WA | June 22 - 23, 2017


Doug Banfelder
Stratton Agency/Nine Point Strategies

Doug Banfelder, Stratton Agency/Nine Point Strategies located in San Carlos, CA. Doug obtained his P&C insurance license in October 2010, and the following month Arizona voters approved the state's medical marijuana program. In developing his new niche Doug captured a majority of his home market, expanding on this success by writing a significant share of Washington's I-502 adult-use policies. For the last three years he has broadened his reach to other markets around the country, creating a true national program. To accommodate future expansion Doug moved his book of business to the Stratton Agency in 2016, launching Nine Point Strategies which was twice recognized as an IIABA Best Practices Agency.


J. Daniel Bariault
Business Advocate Law PLLC

J. Daniel Bariault, Business Advocate Law, PLCC. Dan Bariault has over thirty five years of experience in all aspects of corporate and business law, with particular emphasis in tax, securities, antitrust, and regulated industries. He has worked with many high-tech startups in all aspects of business formation, corporate governance, and business strategy. He has been an adjunct faculty member and teaching graduate business courses in finance, business development, securities and portfolio analysis, valuation analysis, and international marketing and management. Mr. Bariault represents a host of marijuana producers, processors, and retailers, investors, as well as service companies supporting the emerging marijuana industry.


Matthew Y. Biscan
Satriana & Biscan LLC

Matthew Y. Biscan, is a trial lawyer and member of Satriana & Biscan LLC in Denver.His practice is largely devoted to the defense of commercial, insurance, tort and professional liability litigation. Mr. Biscan also represents professionals and businesses in transactions. He is a past secretary-treasurer and board member of DRI and is a member of the IADC and FDCC. A Colorado "Super Lawyer" for many years now, he is also listed in the International Who's Who of Product Liability Defence Lawyers. Matt is the Program Chair for the Marijuana and the Law Seminar.


Kenneth J. Diamond
Winterbauer & Diamond PLLC

Kenneth J. Diamond, Winterbauer & Diamond, PLLC Kenneth Diamond joined Winterbauer & Diamond PLLC as a Member in 1997. He represents employers on the full range of employment law issues and is listed in Chambers USA and other publications as among the top employment law attorneys in Washington. After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1986, Ken clerked for a federal judge for one year and then practiced in Washington, D.C. before moving to Seattle. From 2014-2016, Ken taught the Employment Law class at Seattle University School of Law as an adjunct professor.


Sandra Giannone Ezell
Managing Partner
Bowman and Brooke LLP

Sandra Giannone Ezell is an undeniable force in the courtroom defending product liability and mass tort litigation, often as national trial counsel. For more than 25 years, she has handled high-exposure wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases for a broad range of product manufacturers. Her ability to connect with a jury and tell her client's story in a compelling fashion has earned her national recognition as "the number-one trial lawyer in Richmond" by Chambers USA. (2016)


Mark J. Fucile
Fucile & Reising LLP

Mark J. Fucile of Fucile & Reising LLP handles professional responsibility, regulatory and attorney-client privilege issues for lawyers, law firms and corporate and governmental legal departments throughout the Northwest. Mark is the chair of the Washington State Bar Committee on Professional Ethics and is a member of DRI and IADC. Before co-founding his firm in 2005, Mark was a partner and in-house ethics counsel for a large Northwest regional firm. He also teaches legal ethics as an adjunct for the University of Oregon School of Law. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law.


Rob Kampia
Marijuana Policy Project

Rob Kampia,co-founded the Marijuana Policy Project in 1995 and has served as its executive director ever since. Rob is the architect of most of the state-level marijuana laws that have been enacted in the United States since 2000. Rob has provided fiery testimony before Congress twice, as well as testifying before nine state legislatures. Rob has been quoted in almost every newspaper in the United States and regularly debates prohibitionist opponents on national television, including on CNN, the Fox News Channel, the Fox Business Network, CNBC, and MSNBC.


Carla J. Kinslow PhD
Rimkus Consulting Group Inc

Carla J. Kinslow PhD is a toxicologist with over 26 years of biomedical, regulatory, and environmental experience. Carla has expertise in inhalation toxicology; toxicogenomics; toxicological risk assessment; opiate, alcohol, and marijuana toxicology; ambient air monitor placement; human health impacts analysis from emission events; monitoring data; modeling data related to ambient and indoor air quality; water contamination; and stakeholder communication. She specializes in regulatory compliance for risk-based remediation assessment, soil and groundwater toxicology under the USEPA, as well as, state and federal air permits. She has served as manager for various regulatory projects where she helped design and implement air monitoring networks, ground water monitoring projects, and remediation scopes, with subsequent assessment of human health impacts based on collected data. She has extensive experience in National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and federal and state regulatory rules regarding air, soil, and water toxicology. Dr. Kinslow also has extensive experience in the evaluation of health risks based on genetic predisposition to disease from


Brian E. Klein
Baker Marquart LLP

Brian E. Klein is a partner at the boutique litigation firm Baker Marquart LLP in Los Angeles, CA. His nationwide practice focuses on high-stakes criminal and regulatory defense and civil litigation matters. He has extensive experience representing financial technology companies and entrepreneurs, including those involved with digital currencies. He formerly volunteered as the Bitcoin Foundation's outside general counsel and currently is on the Board of Advisors of BlockSeer, a blockchain analytics company, and serves as the Chair of the non-profit Digital Currency & Ledger Defense Coalition.


Stephen O. Plunkett
Shareholder
Bassford Remele PA

Stephen O. Plunkett, a shareholder with Bassford Remele PA in Minneapolis, represents nursing home and assisted living facilities in the Midwest. He has chaired national seminars dealing with long term care litigation issues. Mr. Plunkett is a member of DRI's Law Institute and the past chair of DRI's Medical Liability and Health Care Law Committee. He is admitted to practice in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Mr. Plunkett has been recognized by his peers as a "Top 100 Lawyer" and "Super Lawyer" in Minnesota Law & Politics. Steve is the Vice Chair of the DRI Law Institute.


Melissa K. Roeder
Of Counsel
Foley & Mansfield, PLLP

Melissa K. Roeder, Of Counsel in Foley & Mansfield's Seattle office, has more than a decade of general civil litigation and insurance defense experience. Well recognized in the Pacific Northwest asbestos defense community, she delivers effective and practical solutions to her clients, who include subcontractors, equipment manufacturers, and retailers. Melissa is the Vice Program Chair for the Marijuana and the Law Seminar.


Joe Rogoway
Rogoway Law Group


Neda Shapourian
Smith Shapourian Mignano LLP

Neda Shapourian focuses her practice on advising small businesses, cannabis entities, and technology start­ups. She advises her clients by structuring a tailored approach to meeting legal needs to achieve both short term and long term goals. Neda enjoys working with her clients to identify and neutralize legal hazards so her clients can focus on growing their businesses.


Bruce L. Turcott
WA State Office of the Attorney General

Bruce L. Turcott, is a Senior Counsel in the Washington Attorney General's Office Licensing and Administrative Law Division in Olympia, WA. He advised the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board on implementing the world's first recreational marijuana licensing system from scratch and is co-chair of the Attorney General's I-502 work group. Mr. Turcott also advises other large and small state agencies. He earned his J.D. at the University of Washington and clerked for Washington Supreme Court Justice Barbara Durham. Mr. Turcott is a Washington bar examiner and an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.


Brenda Powell Wells, Ph.D., CPCU, AAI, CRIS
Professor
East Carolina University

Brenda Powell Wells, Ph.D., CPCU, AAI, CRIS, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, holds both a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Risk Management and Insurance from the University of Georgia. She holds the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Accredited Advisor of Insurance (AAI) and Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations. She has spent over 29 years studying and teaching risk management and insurance, currently serves as the director of the East Carolina University Risk Management and Insurance program. She is the Robert F. Bird Distinguished Professor of Risk Management and Insurance, is a widely-sought-after speaker on insurance issues, and owns her own consulting firm, Risk Education Strategies.


Susan B. Zaunbrecher
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP

Susan B. Zaunbrecherwith Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP, Cincinnati, Ohio. Susan is the chair of the Corporate Department and the Business, Acquisitions and Securities practice group, is a champion for progress. As a corporate attorney, she brings a holistic approach to counseling her business clients. Susan provides the most value where legal issues and business interests overlap, requiring fresh thinking and strategic action. An experienced corporate lawyer, Susan focuses mainly on transactions, mergers and acquisitions, compliance and securities law primarily for financial institutions but also represents public and private manufacturing and service companies in many other industries.