Dyanna Ballou is a first-chair trial attorney with numerous jury trials in state and federal courts across the county. Her practice has included the defense of product liability, premises liability, and commercial matters involving asbestos, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, aviation, tobacco, food products and many others. Dyanna is admitted to practice in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois. She is a partner in the Kansas City law firm Rasmussen Dickey and Moore, where she has served as the firm's CEO. There she manages large dockets of cases for her clients with an emphasis on the challenging jurisdictions of St. Louis, MO and Madison County, IL.

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.

Michelle L. Burton practice focuses on defense of insurers in first party bad faith claims, complex coverage disputes, suspect and fraudulent claims, business disputes and defense of insureds in construction, premises liability and professional liability claims including broker errors and omissions. Ms. Burton also has expertise in the area of affordable housing. Ms. Burton is both an accomplished trial attorney and adept legal writer. She has obtained defense verdicts against multi-million dollar claims for her clients throughout Southern California. Ms. Burton has earned the respect of her peers and trial court judges for her tenacious, tactful and adept litigation skills. Ms. Burton has also authored numerous appeals both published and unpublished including recently overturning a 1.9 million punitive damages award against an insurer on JNOV and a 1.3 million dollar punitive damages award against an insurer.

Carol A. Cesaretti is a Managing Partner in the Chicago office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. She is the Director of the firm's National Dedicated Medicare Compliance Group and the Illinois Workers' Compensation Group.Ms. Cesaretti represents Fortune 100 companies, self insureds and works closely with third party administrators and insurance carriers in defending workers' compensation claims. She has successfully litigated cases before the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission as well as in Circuit Courts and the Appellate Courts. An active and respected member in the workers' compensation arena, Ms. Cesaretti served as co-editor of the Workers' Compensation Newsletter for the Illinois State Bar Association and is a frequent lecturer on workers' compensation issues across the country. She was selected as a Rising Star in the 2011 edition of Illinois Super Lawyers.

Michael B. Cohen is a partner in the Chicago office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Mr. Cohen represents clients in a wide variety of civil and criminal litigation matters, both state and federal at the trial and appellate levels, with particular focus on complex commercial litigation. His litigation practice includes the areas of appellate law, bankruptcy, civil rights, commercial, constitutional, criminal, employment, estates and trusts, insurance coverage, medical malpractice defense, personal injury actions, privacy, professional liability, and real estate.

Michael Conley is Co-Managing Principal of the Philadelphia office and an insurance litigation and recovery lawyer in the firm's Insurance Recovery Practice Group also in the Philadelphia office. His broad legal experience includes insurance litigation, insurance coverage litigation, and general litigation. He exclusively represents policyholders, including closely held, publicly traded, nonprofit, and municipal entities, with claims against their insurance companies.

Dallas M. Cowan, PhD, CIH, DABT is a board-certified toxicologist (DABT) and Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) with more than eight years of consulting experience in occupational toxicology, industrial hygiene, exposure and human health risk assessment. Dr. Cowan's industrial hygiene and safety experience includes a variety of exposure assessment techniques, qualitative and quantitative fit testing for respiratory protection programs, development of safety bulletins, preparing and conducting safety briefings regarding permit required confined space entry, fall protection, respiratory protection, and personal protective equipment. He has been involved in several air sampling campaigns aimed at characterizing air concentrations of various chemicals including asbestos, VOCs, and particulates. He is knowledgeable and testifies in dram shop litigation and modeling of drugs and alcohol. He also has recently conducted researched aimed understanding biological modeling of the active ingredients in marijuana.

Clayton E. (Clay) Dickey has practiced law for over twenty-five years, primarily in the areas of commercial and business litigation, products liability, insurance defense, and franchising.He has represented manufacturers, employers of delivery vehicles, health care providers, franchisees, franchisors and distributors.

Jonathan A. Havens counsels clients on regulatory, compliance, enforcement, and transactional matters related to products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Companies in the consumer health care products, life sciences, cosmetics, tobacco, and medical cannabis industries, among others, turn to Jonathan for advice on how to get and keep their products on the market. He advises companies throughout the product life cycle, including product development, formulation, manufacture, distribution, and promotion. More specifically, Jonathan handles matters involving labeling, good manufacturing practice (GMP), quality system regulation (QSR), product design, and registration and listing, to name a few. When disputes, including litigation, arise relating to these and other issues, Jonathan helps clients navigate them. This includes preparation for FDA inspections, response to inspectional observations (FDA Form 483) and warning letters, managing product recalls, and resolving import and export issues. He also counsels clients through business transactions that involve oversight by myriad federal and state agencies.

Shanel A. Lindsay Boston-based attorney and patient advocate Shanel Lindsay founded Ardent LLC and invented the precision medicinal cannabis tool, the NOVA™ Decarboxylator, along with Ardent's suite of wellness and beauty products. Shanel drafted the state of Massachusetts' adult use cannabis law and is founding member and co-chair of the Northeast Cannabis Coalition and counsel to the Massachusetts Patients Advocacy Alliance. She was recently appointed by the Treasurer to the newly-formed Massachusetts Cannabis Advisory Board, working with the Massachusetts government to develop and implement regulations for the medical and adult use markets. Shanel is dedicated to improving public understanding of cannabis' medicinal benefits. She is certain that with increased education, research, and reliable clinical data, patients and doctors—even those who have not previously considered cannabis as an option—will discover it is a legitimate, viable, and safe treatment for a wide variety of ailments and conditions.

Robin D. Linley provides proactive advice to leading manufacturers and distributors and others in the distribution chain on risk management, litigation avoidance strategies, government regulation and compliance, and product warnings and recalls. He primarily represents clients in the defence of serious personal injury cases involving allegations of failure to warn, negligent design, manufacture and testing of medical devices, pharmaceutical products, automotive parts, food products, commercial and industrial machinery, crop protection and agricultural products, electrical products, restaurant equipment, and consumer goods. Many of these cases are class actions.

Robert S.(Rob) May is a partner at the Portland, Oregon law firm Kilmer, Voorhees & Laurick PC. His practice focuses on product liability, complex casualty, first party bad faith and insurance coverage in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Before entering private practice Rob worked as an attorney in the entertainment industry in radio, motorsports and live concert production. Rob also represents several Oregon colleges and universities and has been a regular guest lecturer in trial advocacy at the Willamette University College of Law.

Angela L. (Angie) Perez, PhD is a Managing Health Scientist at Cardno ChemRisk in Portland, Oregon. She is expert in the area of cannabis liability as it relates to product exposure and safety, product defect, and the development of cannabis-related human health risk assessments. Dr. Perez consults in the area of device testing for tobacco products, evaluating emissions from electronic cigarettes and flavoring chemicals and assessing human health risk. She has three current focal areas in-progress related to marijuana research – 1) a combined state of the science/state and legal perspective on marijuana-related issues and potential liabilities, 2) a risk assessment based on inhalation and/or consumption of marijuana products that contain variable levels of pesticide, metals, fungus, or microbial agents and 3) a state of the science review of physiomotor impairment associated with marijuana exposure: An approach for determining a blood-THC threshold.

Stephen O. (Steve) 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 in Foley & Mansfield's Seattle office, focuses her practice on defending asbestos matters and building a marijuana product liability defense practice. She currently sits on the DRI Executive Director Board, is the DRI Northwest Regional Director ; Chairs the DRI Marijuana Law Committee and has been named as a "Super Lawyer" for the past five years. For fun, Melissa loves to ride her Harley; is working on her goal of running a half marathon in every state and every national park; and is always expanding her collection of shoes.

Anthony L. Schumann is a Martindale AV-rated partner in the Chicago office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. He focuses his practice in the areas of governmental liability, employment law, commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. Mr. Schumann routinely represents the City of Chicago and its employees, including police officers. He is a frequent lecturer and speaker at local and national conferences and has served as a moderator and panelist on topics addressing diversity in the legal profession.

Michael D. (Mike) Shalhoub is a proven trial lawyer who focuses his practice on product liability defense for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. In his more than 30 years of experience, he has resolved more than 100 cases at the trial stage and achieved numerous defense verdicts. His experience includes cases involving product liability as well as medical malpractice, business and commercial disputes, insurance coverage, construction accidents, and general liability.

John W. Vardaman III is an attorney with extensive experience in the enforcement and application of federal laws and policies concerning the Bank Secrecy Act, money laundering, and other financial crimes. Prior to joining Hypur, John served with the U.S. Department of Justice for 10 years identifying and addressing threats related to the financial system and national security, and worked for the Department of the Treasury on a range of terrorist financing issues in the wake of 9/11. As Hypur's General Counsel, John advises on strategy to ensure that Hypur's offerings are in alignment with legal and regulatory requirements, with the goal of bringing greater transparency to our financial system in a way that benefits both financial institutions and customers.

Brenda P. Wells, PhD, 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.

Scharome R. Wolfe has over 14 years of legal experience with her main practice concentrated on general commercial litigation real property litigation including premises liability, construction defects, fraud and general liability arenas; bad faith defense litigation; affirmative litigation and declaratory judgment actions on behalf of insurance carriers; special investigations into suspicious injury, medical, theft and fire claims, including conducting Examinations Under Oath (EUO); debt collection; and creditor bankruptcy defense.