Torts, Insurance & Compensation Law and Trial Lawyers Sections

Robert J. Genis, Esq.

Sonin & Genis Esqs

Bronx, New York

Bob Genis is a Trial Attorney with the Bronx, NY law firm of SONIN & GENIS, ESQS, specializing in the trial of wrongful death and significant personal injuries caused by medical malpractice or negligence in State & Federal Courts in NY, NJ and CT. Bob has obtained over 25 multi-million dollar verdicts. Bob obtained a verdict for over $ 28 million in a reckless disregard police chase case, and $ 4.5 million in a Summary Jury Trial, including Top Verdicts & Settlements both nationally and in NYS (according to the National Law Journal, NYLJ and ALM Verdictsearch). Notable verdicts include: $ 22 million dollar verdict in a tractor-trailer crash; $ 17 million in a wrongful death case for inadequate security; $ 15 million for driver with a stop sign and a torn meniscus; $ 8 million for a slip & fall on pigeon poop causing aggravation of pre-existing spinal stenosis; $ 6 million on a trip & fall with a BAC of .318 and no comparative negligence; $ 3 million for a police negligence case; $ 3 million for aggravation of a nonsurgical herniated disc and many other similar verdicts. Bob is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Super Lawyers, National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers, an Emeritus Director in NYSTLA, an Officer or Director of numerous bar associations, has published widely and frequently teaches CLE on a national and state level. Bob has taught at AAJ National Conventions, the Masters in Atlanta, with Don Keenan and David Ball, for the NYSTLA, NYSBA, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York County Lawyers Association, Bronx County Bar Association, Bronx Women Bar Association, Bronx Black Bar Association, Orange County Bar Association and others. Bob has Chaired and taught “Evidence to Win” and Co-Chaired “Depositions to Win” for NYSTLA and other Bar associations for a number of years. The only recipient of the “Lawyer’s Lawyer” Award from the Bronx County Bar Association, and recipient of the Leadership Award from the Jewish Lawyers Guild, and Distinguished Alumni Award State University of New York. www.soningenis.com.

Sharon Stern Gerstman, Esq.

Magavern Magavern Grimm LLP

Buffalo, New York

Sharon Stern Gerstman is of Counsel to Magavern Magavern Grimm LLP, Buffalo, NY, after a 29 year career in New York Supreme Court, as Confidential Law Clerk to Justice Joseph D. Mintz, and as a Court Attorney/Referee. Her practice includes Mediation, Arbitration, Appellate Advocacy and Motion Practice in Civil Litigation matters.

She was an adjunct professor, teaching New York Practice, at the Law School of University at Buffalo for 30 years, an Assistant Professor at the Law School of University of Missouri – Kansas City, and an Instructor at the College of Law of the University of Toledo. She holds an LLM from Yale Law School, a JD from University of Pittsburgh and an AB from Brown University.

She served as President of the New York State Bar Association (2017-2018) and is a member of its House of Delegates. She has chaired the NYSBA Committee on CPLR and Committee on Lawyer Advertising and LRS Regulation, and has co-chaired its Strategic Planning Committee, Task Force on E-Filing, and Committee on Lawyer Advertising. She has also served on the ABA Board of Governors, the Councils of two of its Sections and Divisions, and continues to serve in its House of Delegates. She is also a lifetime member of the Bar Association of Erie County and a former President of the Erie County Bar Foundation.

She is the co-author of New York Civil Practice before Trial (James Publishing) , the author of several chapters of Weinstein, Korn & Miller, New York Civil Practice and the author of numerous journal articles on Civil Practice and Tax.

Gail Gottehrer

Law Office of Gail Gottehrer LLC

Stamford, Connecticut

Gail’s practice focuses on helping companies monetize data and mitigate legal, regulatory, and reputational risk. She is an expert on the privacy and data security laws, and legal and ethical issues, associated the data collected and used by emerging technologies including AI, autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, blockchain, NFTs, and the metaverse. She is one of the few defense lawyers to have been involved in the trial of a class action to verdict before a jury.

Gail has taught Law for Knowledge Innovation at Columbia University, and is a Fellow at the Center for Legal Innovation at Vermont Law School. She has given technology-related presentations for judges through the National Judicial College and the New York State Judicial Institute, and has guest lectured on technology law issues at Stanford University, the Wharton School, and Interpol.

Gail Co-Chairs the New York State Bar Association’s Technology and the Legal Profession Committee, and chairs its Cybersecurity Subcommittee. She serves as a member of the State of Connecticut’s Task Force to Study Autonomous Vehicles and Co-Chaired the Regulatory, Safety, Law and Policy Subcommittee of the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Autonomous Vehicles and the Law.

An internationally recognized thought leader, Gail served as a peer reviewer for Interpol’s Framework for Responding to a Drone Incident and presented a session on data privacy and security at Interpol’s Car Cyber Threats Expert Group Meeting in 2019. A member of the Atomium – European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy’s AI4People 2020 Automotive Committee, she co-authored a paper entitled AI4People: Ethical Guidelines for the Automotive Sector – Fundamental Requirements and Practical Recommendations that was published in the International Journal of Technoethics (Volume 12, Issue 1, January-June 2021). She is also a member of the ITU’s Focus Group on AI for Autonomous and Assisted Driving.

Gail was selected as one the Profiles in Diversity Journal’s 2017 Women Worth Watching in STEM and one of the Connecticut Technology Council’s 2016 Women of Innovation. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Murray C. Goldman, in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

CaraMia Hart, Esq.

Finz & Finz, P.C.

Mineola, New York

CaraMia R. Hart is a senior medical malpractice trial attorney at Finz & Finz, P.C. Her legal career has focused upon trial advocacy, successfully trying complex medical malpractice cases to verdict. Prior to litigating medical malpractice cases on behalf of injured patients, as she does now at Finz & Finz, P.C., Ms. Hart had previously defended such cases on behalf of physicians and major metropolitan hospitals. Earlier in her litigation career, she had also tried criminal cases under the leadership of the Honorable Robert Morgenthau at the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Ron Hedges, Esq.

Dentons US LLP

New York, New York

Ronald J. Hedges, J.D., is a Senior Counsel with Dentons US LLP. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey from 1986 to 2007. Mr. Hedges is a frequent writer and speaker on various topics related to, among other things, electronic information and is the lead author of Managing Discovery of Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges, Third Edition (Federal Judicial Center: 2017), https://www.fjc.gov/content/323370/managing-discovery-electronic-information-third-edition. He is also the Co-Senior Editor of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation: Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition, https://thesedonaconference.org/sites/default/files/Judicial%20Resources%20publication%20announcement.pdf and is the Editor of Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations and Actions: Representative Court Decisions and Supplementary Materials, hosted by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office at Understanding electronic information in criminal investigations and actions | Mass.gov. His full biography is available at https://www.dentons.com/en/ronald-hedges.

Professor Michael J. Hutter

Albany Law School

Albany, New York

Michael J. Hutter is the senior member of the Albany Law School faculty, having joined the faculty in 1976. Professor Hutter is an honors graduate of Brown University, receiving scholarships during his four years of matriculation, and Boston College Law School. In law school he was the Editor-In-Chief of Boston College’s law review (Annual Survey), and was elected to the Order of the Coif. After graduation, Professor Hutter served as law clerk to Judge Matthew J. Jasen, an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. After his clerkship, and before he started his teaching career, he was a litigation associate with the Hodgson Russ law firm.

Professor Hutter’s teaching areas include Evidence, NY Practice, Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Business Torts and Trade Regulation. He is a recipient of teaching awards from Western New England Law School and Albany Law School, New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers, Capital District Trial Lawyers Association, and the Suffolk and Schenectady County Bar Associations. His extensive scholarship, including law review articles, book chapters, bar journals and monographs on issues of intellectual property (trade secrets), trade regulation (antitrust and covenants not to compete), evidence and torts has been cited by many courts, including the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Illinois Appellate Court, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, South Dakota Supreme Court, Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Appellate Division of the State of New York, and New York State trial court judges; and as well by numerous academic commentators.

Professor Hutter is a recognized expert in the area of New York Evidence. He has served as an educator to the New York State Court System, invited by the New York State Office of Court Administration, and its Judicial Institute, to teach evidence and discuss evidence developments at its annual seminars for Justices and Judges throughout the state, as well as seminars for law clerks and court attorneys. Recently, he was appointed by the Chief Judge of the State of New York to act as the Reporter to a Special Committee, composed of sitting and retired judges, charged with compiling a guide to New York’s existing law of evidence which is presently available on the Unified Court System website for judges, lawyers and the public. Professor Hutter is also the Evidence columnist for the New York Law Journal, publishing a bi-monthly article discussing recent New York evidence cases decided by the courts. As of April, 2018, forty-five evidence columns have been published.

Professor Hutter has also been active in service to the legal profession. He has served as President of the Albany County Bar Association, elected by the Association’s membership. Additionally, Professor Hutter has served by appointments of the Chief Judge of the State of New York, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department, three governors, legislative leaders, and New York State Bar Association Presidents on statewide public service commissions and study groups. Included in those appointments are Executive Director of the New York State Law Revision Commission and a Commissioner on the Commission, Director and Chair of the of the Capital Defender, member of the Commission on Judicial Nomination (selection of candidates for the Court of Appeals, member of the Third Judicial Department Screening Committee, member of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board, and the NYSBA Committees on Courts of Appellate Jurisdiction and Civil Practice Law and Rules. Professor Hutter has also been an active presenter as an invited speaker, over 200 presentations, on a wide range of legal topics to various bar groups in New York.

Professor Hutter has also been involved in handling appeals on a pro bono, retained and amicus curiae basis in the New York Court of Appeals, all four Appellate Division departments, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. His advocated positions have prevailed in whole or part in numerous significant appeals, including Ambac. Assur. V. County-Wide, 27 NY3d 616 (2016) (common interest attorney-client rule); Portfolio Resources v. King, 13 NY3d 93 (2010) (borrowing statute); Skelos v. Patterson 13 NY3d 141 (2009) (appointment of Lt. Governor); States v. Lourdes Hospital, 100 NY2d 208 (2003) (res ipsa loquitur); Henry v. City of New York, 94 NY2d 275(1998) (infant notice of claim); County of Rensselaer v. Regan, 80 NY2d 908 (1992) (powers of Comptroller);People v. Cooper, 78 NY2d 476 (1991) (prior crime evidence); Hazan v. WCB, 120 AD3d 82 (2015) (9/11 recovery for first responders); Grimditch v. Town of North Elba, 98 AD3d 183 (20140 (ownership of Lake Placid bed).

Professor Hutter is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Association and New York State bar Association.

In 1999, Professor Hutter was one of seven persons recommended by the State Commission on Judicial Nomination to Governor Pataki for the position of Associate Judge, New York State Court of Appeals. He was rated highly qualified for the position by the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Matthew J. Kelly, Esq.

Roemer Wallens Gold & Mineaux LLP

Albany, New York

Jim is a partner of the Firm, overseeing all litigation, and is a member of ASDA and IALDA.  He began his legal career as Staff Counsel to the New York Public Service Commission from 1979 to 1983, and has been in private practice since that time.  Jim has tried over one hundred civil and criminal cases to verdict throughout New York State in all four Departments of the Appellate Division and in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts. He was appointed to the Governor’s Judicial Selection Committee for the Third Department by Chief Judge Hon. Judith Kaye and reappointed by Chief Judge Hon. Jonathan Lippman.  He has also been appointed to the Character and Fitness Committee of the Appellate Division Third Department by Presiding Judge Hon. Karen Peters, and reappointed by Hon. Elizabeth A. Garry.  He has served as President of the Albany County Bar Association and on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association.  He has received awards from The New York State Bar Association and American Bar Association for his creation of the Diversity Internship Program for minority law students.

Peter C. Kopff, Esq.

Peter C. Kopff, LLC

Garden City, New York

J.D., Albany Law School, 1975

A.B., Princeton University, 1970

Defend Personal Injury cases primarily in Medical Malpractice

Peter C. Kopff, LLC 2012 – Present

Kopff, Nardelli & Dopf, LLP 1982 – 2012

Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP 1975 – 1980

New York State Bar Association has created the Peter C. Kopff “Trial Advocacy Award” (2021)

Peter C. Kopff is a former Chair of the New York State Bar Association – Trial Lawyers Section (2012).

Former President of the New York City Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (2008 – 2009).

Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Albany Law School (2004).