The Center Leadership
Center Management Council
Click on council's name to view their bio.
Staff
Dean Martinez
CEO
Sean Dolan
General Counsel
Jay Ludlam
DirectorJohn S. Guttmann is a principal of Beveridge & Diamond PC in Washington, D.C., where he represents companies in complex, high-stakes toxic tort, product liability, and environmental litigation. He has served in leading roles in litigation matters with potential damages/awards in the billions of dollars and has secured dismissal or reduction of claims in numerous matters. John serves as lead national counsel for a petroleum refiner in all MTBE product liability litigation and has been a member of the defense steering committee for the refining industry in those cases. He led a team that successfully defended a public water utility in multiple cases claiming health effects due to alleged lead exposure. John devotes a substantial part of his practice to the defense of natural resource damages (NRD) cases brought by trustees. His litigation experience also includes indemnity litigation, securities class actions, breach of fiduciary duty claims, directors and officers liability suits, complex contract cases, unfair competition cases, and health insurance matters. John is a former DRI national director and previously served as chair of the DRI Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Committee.
Jim McCrystal is Of Counsel with Sutter O’Connell in Cleveland. He has spent four decades handling product liability cases and now has a national practice in that field. He has represented the manufacturers of tires, automobiles, trucks, farm equipment, industrial products, and power systems as well as handling construction litigation and commercial disputes. In addition to his work with clients, Jim has been an active DRI member including service on the Board of Directors and as Ohio State Representative. He is also a past member of the Board of Directors of the Product Liability Advisory Council and is a Past President of the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys and the Cleveland Association of Civil Trial Attorneys. As a Program Director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, he is committed to sharing his considerable expertise when training lawyers both in the USA and internationally.
Baxter D. Drennon is a partner in the Little Rock, Arkansas, office of Hall Booth Smith PC. His practice is a testament to a career built on safeguarding clients’ rights across the complex landscape of products liability, commercial transactions, and banking and finance law. Baxter also successfully defends doctors, nurses, and other medical providers as he helps them navigate through difficult medical malpractice cases. Baxter has built a reputation for his work in managing high-exposure cases such as catastrophic personal injury and complex business disputes. He has served as lead counsel in hundreds of cases and as trial counsel in over a dozen more. Baxter has been actively involved in the DRI since 2010, having served as the chair of the Young Lawyers Committee and as a member of the DRI Board of Directors in 2019—the first young lawyer elected to the Board.
Brooks R. Magratten is a partner of Pierce Atwood LLP in Providence, Rhode Island. He has more than 30 years of experience in insurance and commercial litigation. Brooks is the former Northeast Regional Director of DRI and former chair of its Life, Health & Disability Insurance Committee. He has defended over 200 ERISA benefit and breach of fiduciary cases in 12 states. Brooks is a frequent author, instructor and lecturer on ERISA issues and trial skills. He has represented commercial interests in litigation throughout the northeastern U.S. He is a former adjunct professor of the Roger Williams Law School, teaching federal practice and procedure.
A partner of Reed Smith LLP in Miami, Florida, Lisa Baird represents manufacturers of medical devices, prescription drugs, and OTC drugs in product liability and commercial litigation. She has more than twenty years’ experience defending corporate clients in appellate and trial courts throughout the country, and is admitted in both Florida and California. Her work has a particular emphasis on issues that regularly recur in medical device and pharmaceutical product liability litigation, including preemption, as well as other types of complex litigation, such as class issues, unfair competition, consumer fraud claims, third party payor claims, and punitive damages. Lisa previously served as vice chair of the Center’s Amicus Committee and is a past chair of the DRI Appellate Advocacy Committee.
Patrick J. (Pat) Sweeney serves on the Executive Committee of Sweeney & Sheehan, Attorneys at Law, in Philadelphia. He is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Pat’s practice involves the defense of transportation, construction, and complex personal injury claims. Currently, Pat is the Immediate Past President of DRI – Lawyers Representing Business. Prior to becoming President, Pat served as President-Elect and a member on DRI’s Board of Directors. Pat previously served on the DRI Board of Directors and on the DRI Law Institute, which is responsible for implementing educational programming for the organization. In addition to his work with DRI, Pat is a former president of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute.
Lawrence S. “Larry” Ebner is the founder of Capital Appellate Advocacy PLLC in Washington, D.C., and executive vice president and general counsel for the Atlantic Legal Foundation. He has extensive experience creating strategy for and authoring amicus briefs at both the petition and merits stages in the U.S. Supreme Court, and in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. He serves as immediate past chair of the DRI Amicus Committee and oversees all aspects of the Atlantic Legal Foundation’s amicus program. Larry has written extensively about preparation of amicus briefs, for example, in his For The Defense article, Learning the High Art of Amicus Brief Writing. He also has recorded a one-hour on-demand webinar for DRI titled Friendly Persuasion: Drafting & Using High-Impact Amicus Briefs. Larry Ebner is an accomplished, steadfast advocate for individual businesses and entire industries in federal and state appellate courts throughout the United States. Companies of all sizes, national trade associations, professional organizations, and free-enterprise public interest groups call upon Larry when they need an articulate voice in the Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and state appellate courts.