Karen Deschaine Anderson with Cooley LLP, San Diego, CA practice encompasses a wide range of business and corporate matters including private financings, public offerings, corporate governance, commercial transactions, strategic transactions, securities matters and the general representation of public and private companies. She represents primarily biotechnology and technology companies and investors in those industries. She is a sought-after speaker on topics of interest to founders, start-up companies and companies seeking investment including presenting for organizations and events such as GeekGirl, EvoNexus, VETCON, and mystartupXX, and frequently teaches the San Diego office's "CooleyU" sessions.

Diane Fleming Averell is a principal of Porzio Bromberg & Newman PC in Morristown, New Jersey. Her practice focuses on product liability, toxic tort, and mass tort litigation. Over the last decade, she has defended products ranging from over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals to personal care products, cosmetics, industrial chemicals, petroleum products, handheld power equipment, and tobacco products. In 2018, Ms. Averell was recognized as one of NJBiz's Best Fifty Women in Business. Ms. Averell serves as the Chair of DRI's Women in the Law Committee.

Chad R. Beashore is a partner in the Kansas City office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon. He represents Fortune 500 companies as trial counsel in a wide range of matters in state and federal courts across the country. His practice focuses on product liability litigation, with a focus on automotive defect litigation, and engineering/construction liability. His experience includes serving as national coordinating counsel for a large architectural and design firm, managing all professional liability and risk management activities, including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration of high exposure matters.

Megan M. Belcher, SVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, The Scoular Company, is a law department leader, seasoned compliance and regulatory professional, experi-enced litigator, and employment law expert. Megan leads the Legal and Brand Marketing & Communications teams for The Scoular Company, a company with over $5 billion in annual revenue and over 100 locations world-wide. Prior to joining Scoular, Megan was on the legal leadership team at Conagra Brands, last serving as Vice President & Chief Counsel - Employment Law & Compliance and managing the employment, labor, and employee compliance legal matters for the company's 35,000 employees.

Keri Lynn Bush is a partner in the Orange County office of Lewis Brisbois and a member of the Labor & Employment Practice, specializing in defending and advising businesses in the labor and employment field. She handles litigation, mediation, arbitration, and appeals in all California state and federal courts on issues of wrongful termination/discrimination/harassment/retaliation/defamation/other employment related issues. Ms. Bush also addresses preventive measures such as in-house investigations, creation and review of policy manuals, auditing of personnel files and in-house training, as well as administrative investigations and hearings.

Koriambanya S. (Kori) Carew is Shook, Hardy & Bacon's Director of Strategic Diversity Initiatives. In this leadership role, she equips and empowers leaders to interrupt bias and manage diverse teams inclusively; crafts solutions designed to disrupt systems and achieve equitable results; and equips diverse talent for success. Kori integrates her experience as a trial attorney and law firm partner into the firm's diversity and inclusion strategies. She is a nationally sought out speaker on diversity, inclusion, leadership, and belonging topics and is a member of DRI's Women in the Law leadership team.

Marie E. Chafe is a partner at Cornell & Gollub in Boston. She is an experienced litigator and first chair trial lawyer representing local, national, and international manufacturers and distributors of automobiles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, medical devices, consumer products, and construction equipment. In addition to complex product liability matters, Ms. Chafe has significant experience in commercial litigation, toxic tort actions, catastrophic personal injury, and wrongful death lawsuits in the federal and state courts throughout New England. She is an active member of DRI's Product Liability Committee and is the program chair for this seminar.

Rena Cook M.A., M.F.A., is the founder of Vocal Authority and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. Ms. Cook is a professional voice coach dedicated to growth in communication, confidence, and presence. As an author, speaker, and presenter, Rena helps people develop a more authentic and compelling delivery style. Her recent book Empower Your Voice: For Women in Business, Politics, and Life is available on Amazon; her seminar "The Expressive Litigator" is being developed into a book.

Wendy F. Dawson is senior counsel with 17+ years of diverse experience, both private practice and in-house. While at Caterpillar, Wendy has managed a nationwide team of outside counsel, in-house technical consultants and experts in connection with commercial, product, and employment related litigation. After receiving her MBA from the University of Chicago, Wendy spent several years leading complex domestic and cross-border M & A transactions for Caterpillar worldwide. Wendy currently provides legal support for Caterpillar's internal investigations and government disputes matters.

Christine Saidi Egner is Corporate Counsel in the Product Liability / Product Integrity Global Expert Team. Her responsibilities include risk assessment and case evaluation for complex product liability, asbestos, toxic tort, and automotive systems matters. She manages external counsel during all phases of litigation. She also serves as the Chairman of the Information Governance Committee responsible for the management and evolution of Continental's U.S. legal hold data retention systems. Ms. Egner has been featured in Attorney at Law Magazine for the special edition, "Women in Law. "

Erica Fisher is Corporate Counsel at Pacific Dental Services (PDS). PDS is one of the country's leading dental support organizations, providing supported autonomy that allows dentists to concentrate on clinical excellence and the highest levels of cost-effective comprehensive patient care. She advises internal stakeholders on a myriad of important legal and business issues, including: strategic decision-making, compliance, risk management, retention and management of outside counsel, commercial contract negotiation and more.

Emily E. Frascaroli serves as counsel for Ford Motor Company, where she advises globally on automotive safety, regulatory, and product liability issues, including a focus on autonomous vehicles, mobility, and cybersecurity. She has extensive experience handling regulatory matters with NHTSA and other governmental entities, product defect investigations, and complex product litigation cases. She also is a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School on the legal issues involved with autonomous vehicles, and she is co-chair of the Legal and Insurance Working Group of MCity. In 2017, she was appoint-ed by Governor Rick Snyder to the Michigan Council on Future Mobility.

Sharla J. Frost defends corporate clients in state and federal courts throughout the country. Licensed in five states and admitted pro hac vice in 15 others, she has been first-chair trial counsel in over 60 jury trials and serves on national trial teams in pharmaceutical, mass tort, and other product liability litigation. Sharla's victory in a high-profile talc/mesothelioma lawsuit was ranked #1 in Courtroom View Network's Top 10 Most Im-pressive Defense Verdicts of 2017, and she is ranked in Chambers USA.

Annie Funke is an American actress, who has spent the last two years playing SSA Mae Jarvis on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: Hairspray, Wicked, If There Is... (opposite Jake Gyllenhaal), and Punk Rock. Annie is a graduate of the musical theatre department at University of Oklahoma and the School at Steppenwolf in Chicago. She is the 2017 Young Creative Arts Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and received the 2015 Regents Alumni Award from University of Oklahoma.

Karen R. Glickstein is a shareholder in Polsinelli's Kansas City office. She maintains an extensive trial practice focusing on a wide variety of employment and human resources issues. Her experience includes claims of discrimination and harassment, as well as retaliation matters, violations of FMLA, USERRA, and both common law and statutory "whistleblowing" claims. Karen also has defended EEOC class actions. She has been named a "Missouri Super Lawyer," a top 50 female attorney in Missouri, and a Super Lawyer Top 100 attorney in Mis-souri. She is a former chair of DRI's Employment Law Committee and a former member of DRI's Board of Di-rectors and Law Institute.

Brandon Gutshall is a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. He builds strong, lasting relationships with clients, and collaborates to understand their business needs to achieve better legal outcomes at an exceptional value. Brandon represents clients in all aspects of product and general liability actions in state and federal courts throughout the country. Brandon also regularly performs litigation risk assessments, counsels clients to identify liability risks, and helps them minimize those risks to avoid litigation and better defend against litigation when it occurs.

Randall D. Haimovici is a Director on the litigation team at Uber Technologies, Inc. His background representing clients in commercial litigation, product liability, and class action defense paved the way for his transition to his current position. His work in the product liability arena ranked him in The Best Lawyers of America. Randall's experience also includes co-founding Shook, Hardy & Bacon's digital crimes practice group, where he counseled major corporations dealing with a variety of cyberthreats. In addition to his regular practice, he is deeply committed to pro bono work, and has represented clients in personal injury, landlord-tenant, and civil rights cases.

Ryan Harrington, M.E., brings a unique perspective to his clients having worked in the automotive industry and the federal government. Mr. Harrington specializes in the analysis of complex technical and policy issues while fostering collaboration between industry executives, senior government officials, and engineers related to the deployment of emerging automotive technologies, including automated vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and fuel saving technologies. He has developed test procedures, conducted root cause analyses, and performed customer acceptance evaluations related to automotive systems.

Valerie A.J ackson is the Senior Advisor to the Management Committee and Firmwide Director of Diversity and Inclusion for K&L Gates. A former securities and corporate governance lawyer, Valerie leverages fifteen years of legal industry experience to lead culture change efforts across the firm's offices in the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, while developing partnerships with firm clients and advising business leaders on growing revenue through smart talent strategies and increased client and employee engagement.

Zabrina M. Jenkins is head of litigation at Starbucks Coffee Company, where she manages a team respon-sible for intellectual property, real estate, and commercial/general liability litigation for retail locations in North America. She currently serves as an advisor to the company's Policy Governance Council, and has served on the Diversity Committee for the Law & Corporate Affairs department and as co-coordinator of the department's summer intern program. Prior to joining Starbucks, Ms. Jenkins was an associate at a Seattle law firm.

Amy E. Johnson focuses her practice on insurance coverage and litigation of bad faith disputes across all product lines and layers of coverage, personal injury and property damage, and premises liability. She is a certified mediator with a strong track record in both corporate and private practice. Ms. Johnson has 20 years of experience mitigating risk on coverage issues and high exposure or bad faith claims, including 13 years as Director, Property & Casualty Claims, and Claim Counsel at a national insurance company.

Karen K. Karabinos with Drew Eckl Farnham in Atlanta, GA has been litigating cases for more than 31 years, with the last 21 primarily focused on the complexities of property insurance law. She has successfully handled more than 75 trials and hearings and annually conducts more than 50 depositions and examinations under oath. She partners with her clients in the investigation and adjustment of property damage claims, including defending them in coverage, bad faith, arson, cyber, fraud and property damage cases and pursuing subrogation on her clients' behalf.

Jessica C. Kornberg is the CEO of Bet Tzedek, one of the nation's leading providers of free legal assistance and home to the Holocaust Survivor Justice Network, the nation's largest pro bono initiative. Her tenure - the first by a woman - has seen expansion in to low income tax law, HIV/AIDS law and policy, and guardianship for unaccompanied immigrant children. Previously, Ms. Kornberg distinguished herself as the first executive director of Ms. JD, which she helped establish as a national voice on issues concerning women in law.

Amy Mass is Vice President and Counsel of the Hannover Insurance Group. She is responsible for Government Affairs, Regulatory Matters, and Legal Support for the West Region. In 2017, Amy was ap-pointed by Governor Rick Snyder to serve as the Insurance Industry Representative to the Michigan Council on Future Mobility, which makes public policy recommendations to position Michigan as a leader in innovation on issues related to automated and connected vehicles and the Mobility Ecosys-tem. Ms. Mass is a past member of the DRI Board of Directors and past Chair of the DRI Corporate Counsel Committee. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the DRI Corporate Counsel Roundtable.

Kimberly S. Morris is a partner at Winston & Strawn in the San Francisco office. Kimberly focuses her practice on representing high-level executives, companies, special board committees, and trustees in complex commercial litigation, white-collar criminal matters, and government and internal investigations. Kimberly assists her corporate clients in investigat-ing fraud and whistleblower allegations and in matters involving the Department of Justice the Securities and Exchange Commission, State Attorney Generals, and other federal and state enforcement agencies. She also counsels clients on the development, implementation, and enhancement of compliance and remediation programs.

Maureen Mulligan with Peabody & Arnold is an experienced trial lawyer representing clients in all types of complex business disputes and insurance coverage litigation. She also serves as a strategic advisor to organizations on risk management and fiduciary and ethical duties. Ms. Mulligan was chair of the Boston Bar Association's Women's Advancement Forum and is serving as a Commissioner by appointment of the ABA president on the Commission on Women in the Profession. She also received the 2015 Kirsten Christophe Memorial Award for Excellence in Trial and Insurance Law.

Rebecca A. Nickelson focuses her practice on complex business litigation matters, including products liability, premises liability, asbestos defense, and toxic tort defense. Ms. Nickelson leads the St. Louis branch of HeplerBroom's toxic tort department. She represents clients in multi-million dollar litigation and enjoys developing creative solutions to meet her clients' needs. She is currently the leader of the Public Service team within DRI's Board Philanthropic Activities Committee. She is co-chair for the Missouri High School Mock Trial Pro-gram, and attorney-coach for the high school mock trial team that won four Missouri State Championships and Runner-Up at the National Competition.

E. Todd Presnell is a partner in Bradley's Nashville office where he practices in the areas of business and em-ployment litigation. Mr. Presnell also counsels and advises in-house legal departments on the attorney-client and other privileges, and authors the popular legal blog Presnell on Privileges. Mr. Presnell is a former chair of DRI's Young Lawyers Committee, former Chair of the DRI Annual Meeting, and currently serves on the DRI Law Institute.

Amy E. Richardson is a partner with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP, where she serves as co-chair of the Legal Ethics and Malpractice group. She focuses her practice on legal ethics and malpractice, complex civil litigation, and government enforcement actions. Ms. Richardson counsels and represents lawyers and law firms in disciplinary investigations and prosecutions as well as malpractice matters. She also counsels and advises lawyers and law firms in partner admissions and departures, and law firm dissolutions. Ms. Richardson teaches ethics and professional responsibility at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin (ret.), Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, New York, NY Judge Scheindlin is known as an influential judge during her 22-year tenure with the Southern District of New York. Among her many important cases, she is well-known for her ruling that the New York City Police Department's practice of stop and frisk was an unconstitutional violation of civil rights because it overwhelmingly targeted minorities, and for her extensive landmark Zubulake decisions in the field of electronic discovery that led to substantial changes of the civil procedural rules.

Edward P. Schwartz, PhD, M.S.L., is a noted jury consultant who blends the strategic focus of game/decision theory with the real-world insights of social psychology to gain a complete picture of how people absorb, analyze, and process information. Dr. Schwartz conducts quantitative and qualitative analyses, provides assistance regarding pretrial jury behavior/case evaluations/trial strategies/jury selection, and gives actionable feedback on case themes evidence, witnesses, and presentation style. He has consulted on hundreds of cases across the country and offers insights on juries through national news interviews, law review articles, peer-reviewed journals, and teaching at Harvard, Yale, and Boston University.

Julie Hagen Showers is the Associate Vice President of the Office for Equity and Diversity of the University of Minnesota, and former Director of the University's Office for Conflict Resolution. Previously, she was a partner at FordHarrison, a national labor and employment law firm. For over 17 years, she was at Northwest Airlines including as Vice President of Labor Relations. She served as the Chief Negotiator in multiple rounds of bargaining and as Senior Vice President of Inflight Services, responsible for hiring, training, regulatory compliance, performance management, and operational integrity for 10 domestic and 11 international flight attendant bases. Ms. Showers also is an adjunct professor in the University of Minnesota Law School.

John C. Trimble is a partner with Lewis Wagner LLP in Indianapolis practices catastrophic, complex, and class action litigation in state and federal courts in Indiana and across the country. He focuses on insurance coverage disputes, bad faith defense, lawyer and insurance agent malpractice, business litigation, and catastrophic damages caused by all casualty and business risks. For nearly 30 years, John has conducted mediations as a part of his practice and he teaches and lectures widely on the subject. He served on DRI's Board of Directors and is a past president of multiple bar associations. He is currently President-Elect of the Texas-based Association of Attorney Mediators.

Alecia Walters-Hinds is a partner in the New York City office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP. She is a member of the General Liability Practice where her practice areas include premises, motor vehicle (personal and commercial), wrongful deaths, construction, labor law, dram shop, toxic tort, and property damage. Ms. Walters-Hinds also has experience in employment discrimination, labor law, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as well as medical professional malpractice. She is currently the Vice-President of the New York City Chapter of ABOTA and a member of the New York City Trial Lawyer's Alliance.

Kelly A. Williams is a business litigator Houston Harbaugh P.C. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ms. Williams focuses on representing companies in intellectual property litigation, such as trademark and copyright infringement, as well as trade secret disputes. In addition, she has experience representing companies involving product liability, unfair competition, commercial disparagement, insurance coverage disputes and other business litigation. Ms. Williams also has experience with complex e-discovery, a topic upon which she has written and spoken, along with cyber security issues. Ms. Williams is also a member of DRI's Commercial Litigation, Intellectual Property Litigation, Product Liability and Data Management and Security Committees. Additionally, Ms. Williams is active in her local bar association. She served as a member of the Board of Governors, the Judiciary Committee, the Public Service Committee and is a member of the Legal Technology and E-Discovery Committee. Kelly is the Vice Chair of the Women in the Law Committee.

Sandra J. Wunderlich with Tucker Ellis LLP in St. Louis, MO has a diverse litigation background, with particular emphasis on intellectual property consulting and litigation. An experienced trial lawyer, Sandy has been lead trial counsel in a dozen jury and bench trials. Over the past 25 years, she has litigated patent, trademark, copyright, and domain name matters from the cease-and-desist stage through appeal. A member of the Federal Circuit, she has successfully handled appeals in that court. Outside of litigation, she provides intellectual property consulting on the likelihood of litigation and strategizes with clients on ways to avoid it.

Melissa Yoon is Director and Associate General Counsel at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ionis is a leader in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics to treat patients with significant unmet medical needs who suffer from severe, often life-threatening diseases. She is part of a small legal team that works with internal stakeholders across all functions of the company and its domestic and foreign subsidiaries on matters including complex licensing transactions, commercial contracts, employee relations, risk management, and supply chain issues, among other matters.