Matthew J. McColgan is a partner at German Gallagher & Murtagh, where he defends trucking and transportation companies in cases ranging from catastrophic injuries to property damage and cargo claims. He also handles premises liability and other casualty matters. Matt’s practice consists not only of defending matters in suit, but also providing 24/7 support to investigate accidents and losses when they occur, and in counseling clients about how to manage losses pre-suit. Matt’s practice covers all of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where he practices in all relevant state and federal courts. Throughout Matt’s career, he has had the privilege of representing a variety of clients, including supply chain logistics, property management, full-service oil, and lending and home care businesses. As a trial attorney, Matt understands the best settlement strategy is to be trial-ready. He strives to be efficient, to identify cases that merit early resolution, and to be responsive to his client’s business needs.

Pete Veloski is an associate with Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky P.C. who represents victims of serious accidents and catastrophic injuries. His practice focuses primarily on premises liability, trucking accidents, motor vehicle accidents and workplace injuries. He obtained his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from Temple University. During law school, Pete was an editor of the Temple Law Review and completed Temple’s nationally recognized trial advocacy program. Pete is also on the Board of Directors of the Spring Garden Soup Society, which has been serving the Philadelphia community since 1852. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and before the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. He is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the American Association for Justice and has been named as a Rising Star by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers in 2022 through 2024. He lives with his family in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Dr. Wolfe is a senior-level physician with over 20 years of success. He has experience in hospital and clinical settings, treating all neurological conditions in children and adults and is board certified in four disciplines. He has participated in industry sponsored clinical trials and is a trusted advisor to med-tech companies developing disruptive technology. Dr. Wolfe is presently practicing with Eastern Neurodiagnostic Assoc., PC, in Voorhees, NJ. Prior to this practice, he was a partner and advisor with Academic Technology Ventures, Inc. ATV utilizes a scientific approach to uncover, acquire, develop, and license disruptive technologies among the tens of thousands generated by universities and labs every year. He is a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine, M.D, and Drexel University, B.S. he is an active member of the American Academy of Neurology and American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Daryl Christopher is a 1998 magna cum laude graduate of Juniata College, and a 2003 magna cum laude graduate of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2005, Mr. Christopher has limited his practice to personal injury, medical malpractice, and product defect cases. He has been included in the Best Lawyers in America every year since 2013. Mr. Christopher was selected as Lawyer of the Year for Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers. He has also been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer from 2010-2024. Mr. Christopher is a member of the American Association for Justice (Formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) and the Pennsylvania Association for Justice where he served on the Board of Governors. He previously served as chair of the Publications Committee, the chair of the Future Leader’s Section, and the chair of the Amicus Curiae Committee. Mr. Christopher is also a member of the Pennsylvania and Dauphin County Bar Associations.

Joely P. Esposito, PsyD, is a neuropsychologist and partner at Clinical Neuropsychology Associates. She has been with the practice since 1995 when she started as a doctoral-level intern. The following year, she worked as a psychometrician for the practice, and then completed her post-doctoral fellowship with CNA. Dr. Esposito’s position in the practice has grown and changed over the years. She provides clinical neuropsychological evaluations to individuals with a variety of known or suspected neurological/neuropsychological conditions. She also provides medical/legal evaluations for attorneys and insurance carriers, and is available to provide expert testimony. Dr. Esposito offers consultation services to medical professionals, other mental health professionals and attorneys. In addition, she has a small caseload of therapy patients; coordinates and oversees the treatment services for the practice; supervises graduate student interns, practicum students, and post-doctoral fellows; and assists in managing the day-to-day operations of the practice. Dr. Esposito also offers her time to give presentations about the brain and neuropsychology to various audiences, including other professionals, support groups, and elementary school children. She is also a faculty member of the L.L.M. Trial Advocacy program at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Dr. Esposito earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical Psychology from Tufts University (1992), her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Widener University (1995) and her Doctor of Psychology degree in Clinical Psychology from Widener University (1997). She is board certified with the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and holds licenses to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In addition, she is a member of various professional organizations.

Krista Corabi is a Partner with Summers, McDonnell, Hudock, Guthrie & Rauch, P.C. and specializes in the defense of civil lawsuits.  She has experience at the magistrate, arbitration, and trial levels.  She also participates in other forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation.  Additionally, she has successfully argued several cases in front of the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Ms. Corabi has substantial experience in the Orphan’s Court, including raising estates for deceased individuals and assisting minor children with injury claims. She assists with court approval and management of settlements; as well as proper distribution of funds to minor children who reach the age of majority. Additionally, she advises on the tax consequences of settlements obtained on behalf of a deceased person. She is a graduate of Duquesne University School of Law, J.D., and John Carrol University, B.S. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

Anna King is the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Prior to this position, she served as legislative counsel in the PA House of Representatives. Anna is a graduate of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, in Carlisle.

Judge Susan E. Schwab was appointed Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 2012. She served as the Chief Magistrate Judge of the Court from January 2017 to December 2020. She spent 11 years in public service with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Auditor General; Deputy Chief Counsel and Deputy State Treasurer for Administration for Treasury and Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration and Deputy Chief Counsel for the Democratic Caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Prior to that, Judge Schwab was in private law practice with Rhoads & Sinon, LLP in Harrisburg and Semanoff, Orsmby, Greenberg and Torchia, LLC in Huntingdon Valley. Judge Schwab is from Wilkes-Barre and graduated summa cum laude from Wilkes College. She was a member of the inaugural class of the Harrisburg campus of Widener University School of Law, where she served as an Internal Editor of the Widener Journal of Public Law. She graduated magna cum laude and was the law school’s first valedictorian. Judge Schwab has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Widener University School of Law and the Chair of the Widener University School of Law Harrisburg Campus Diversity Advisory Board. She also served as Widener University Commonwealth Law School’s Jurist-in-Residence from 2019-2020.

Kevin is a partner at Stampone O’Brien Dilsheimer Holloway where he focuses his practice on catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death claims. Kevin is an active trial lawyer and is routinely sought out by colleagues as trial approaches to become involved as lead trial counsel. Kevin’s practice has involved all different types of catastrophic injury cases including product liability, trucking injury cases, medical malpractice, workplace injury, premises liability, civil rights, and institutional physical and sexual abuse cases. He is one of the leading attorneys in the Country on behalf of infants who have died from asphyxia and suffocation in the “Infant Inclined Sleeping Products” and individuals who have suffered scalding and burn injuries from defective pressure cookers, both of which have been recalled by the CPSC.I n addition to the monetary sums he has recovered, his legal work has led to the exposure of wrongdoing by large corporations and insurance companies. In a recent product liability case, as a result of Kevin’s work, the manufacturer of a piece of construction equipment which killed a young worker changed their sales practices to ensure that a piece of optional safety equipment was required to be sold with all products in the future. In another recent case, Kevin’s legal work resulted in an historic settlement with the City of Philadelphia in which they agreed to provide tasers to their entire police force at a cost of approximately $14 Million. The officers who shot Kevin’s client were not equipped with tasers when they encountered his client, a man in a mental health crisis. The city also agreed to pay a multi-million-dollar settlement to the victim’s family. Kevin’s verdicts and recoveries have been reported as some of the largest in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 2024, Kevin obtained a $55,000,000.00 verdict on behalf of his client who suffered a bilateral leg amputation when she was struck as a pedestrian by a careless trucker. The verdict is thought to be the largest in the history of Essex County, NJ. In other recent cases, Kevin and his co-counsel recovered $18.5 million for two men who were injured and killed in a gas station explosion; a $20,000,000.00 in a product liability case, a confidential 8 figure settlement in a product liability case, and $14,000,000 for a client in a product liability case. In 2023, Kevin obtained a $5.3 million verdict on behalf of a man injured by a construction worker sent home from a construction site, just days after obtaining a confidential 8 figure settlement in a product liability case. Earlier this year, Kevin’s work was reported in a medical malpractice case where he was retained just days before trial on behalf of the family of a man who died from a blood clot following routine Achilles surgery. Kevin called the Defendant doctor as the first witness to the stand in his case, and exposed his credentials as being mis-represented. The case settled for the entire seven figure insurance policy limits immediately after his cross examination, despite there being no settlement offer when the witness took the stand. In another case, after forcing the defense medical expert to admit that the doctor who hired him “breached the standard of care” Kevin was described by that defense expert witness as a “Philadelphia Bully” to another defense attorney. Kevin has obtained countless other seven figure verdicts and settlements on behalf of his injured clients. He is a 2007 graduate of Boston College, and a 2011 graduate of Widener University School of Law and is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida.

Rebecca Leonard is a Member of Ricci Tyrrell Johnson & Grey. She concentrates her practice on products liability defense, including in the industrial equipment industry, as well as premises liability litigation. She has successfully defended clients via summary judgment, mediation, arbitration and trial. Ms. Leonard has had the pleasure of defending, counseling and advocating for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. Prior to joining Ricci Tyrrell Johnson & Grey, Ms. Leonard was an Associate at Lavin O’Neil Ricci & DiSipio in Philadelphia. She previously clerked for the Honorable Albert John Snite, Jr. in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. She is admitted to practice in the Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, and before the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. She is a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, J.D. (cum laude) and University of Pittsburgh, B.A. (cum laude). She is an alumni of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) Trial Academy, and has participated in mock trials and educational programs for the Temple LLM Mock Trial [Masters in Trial Advocacy Program] and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).

Judge Nealon was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County in 1998 and was elected in 1999 to serve a ten-year term commencing January 2000. In November 2009 and 2019, he was retained for additional ten-year terms on the bench. Prior to joining the bench, he was a trial lawyer for 14 years and was board certified as a civil trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. From 1987 to 1998, he served on the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association (PATLA) and was Vice President of PATLA at the time of his appointment to the bench. He also served on the Pennsylvania Bar Association Civil Litigation Section Council from 1996 to 2005, and on the Joint State Government Commission Advisory Committee on Medical Professional Liability from 2004 to 2005. From 2016 from 2022, Judge Nealon served as the first Chair of the Continuing Judicial Education (CJE) Board of Judges responsible for the development and delivery of CJE in Pennsylvania and judicial compliance with mandatory CJE requirements. He served as an Officer of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges (PCSTJ) from 2015 to 2022, including as PCSTJ President from 2019 to 2021. In addition, he currently serves on the Civil Jury Instructions Subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee for Proposed Standard Jury Instructions. Judge Nealon has served as Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the PCSTJ from 2006 to 2011, and 2023 to the present, and served as a member of the PCSTJ committee that published the Civil Trial Handbook for Pennsylvania Trial Judges: Management of Civil Jury Trials (1st Ed. 2000), and which drafted a second edition of that handbook in 2015.  He was Chair of the PCSTJ’s New Judges School from 2005 to 2011 and has served as an instructor at the New Judges School since 2012. In 2020, Judge Nealon was appointed as the Chair of the Jury Trial Working Group established by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) to prepare a report for the judiciary that was published in June 2020 and identified issues and provided recommendations regarding the resumption of jury trials once the statewide judicial emergency based upon the COVID-19 health crisis expired. In March 2021, the AOPC appointed him as Chair of the Remote Proceedings Task Force created to identify best practices concerning the use of advanced communication technology (ACT) by courts during the pandemic, to determine what proceedings courts should consider conducting by ACT once the local judicial emergencies ceased, and to make recommendations relating to procedural rule changes that may be necessary to facilitate such use of ACT. He currently serves on the AOPC Judicial Needs Assessment Steering Committee assisting with an empirical and weighted caseload study of the Pennsylvania trial courts, and the AOPC Civil and Family Data Project Advisory Group identifying and developing the most useful metrics for the civil and family caseload reports and dashboards used for the statewide case management system. Judge Nealon has lectured at continuing judicial and legal education programs presented by the PCSTJ, the Judicial Education Department of the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Duquesne University School of Law, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (formerly PATLA), the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, the Pennsylvania Bar Association Civil Litigation Section, the National Business Institute, the Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds Association, the Dispute Resolution Institute, Lorman Education Services, the Insurance Society of Philadelphia, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Lackawanna Bar Association, and the Dauphin County Bar Association. In 1999, Judge Nealon was the recipient of the President’s Award from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, and in 1995, he received the President’s Award from the Lackawanna Bar Association. In 2010, he received Catholic Healthcare Partners’ Founder Award for Excellence in Governance Leadership, and in 2021, the Lackawanna Bar Association presented him with the Chief Justice Michael J. Eagan Award for community service. Judge Nealon received the Professional Excellence Award from the PBA Civil Litigation Section in 2023. He obtained a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Scranton (1981) and his Juris Doctor degree from the Dickinson School of Law (1984).

Mr. Leonelli is the Chief Executive Officer and a partner at Edgar Snyder & Associates, which is a large personal injury firm with its home office in Pittsburgh, PA. He joined Edgar Snyder in 2011 as an associate in the personal injury department. During his time at the firm, Mr. Leonelli has primarily represented plaintiffs in motor vehicle accidents and premises liability matters, including litigation throughout Western Pennsylvania. Recently, Mr. Leonelli was named as the first ever CEO of Edgar Snyder & Associates and is now heavily involved in the overall management of the law firm and its various departments, including personal injury, workers’ compensation, social security, legal intake, finance, business intelligence, and marketing. Mr. Leonelli has been selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star (limited to 2.5% of attorneys under the age of 40) since 2018, is a member of the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forums, and has been selected to the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Leonelli has also completed the Building Trial Skills program through the National Institute for Trail Advocacy (NITA), and currently serves on the Pennsylvania Association of Justice’s Board of Governors. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Duquesne University School of Law, and holds a Bachelors of Science from Seaton Hill University with dual majors in Human Resources Management and Marketing. Mr. Leonelli is a member of the Seton Hill University Alumni Advisory Counsel and a recipient of the University’s 2016 Distinguished Young Alumnus Achievement Award.

Prof. Cohen is a professor of law at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law courses as well as courses in sex discrimination and reproductive rights. His scholarship explores gender construction in the law and abortion providers and provision. He is the co-author of the forthcoming book After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but not Abortion (Beacon 2025, with Carole Joffe) as well as Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism (Oxford 2015, with Krysten Connon), and Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America (California 2020, with Carole Joffe). After graduating from Columbia Law School, Professor Cohen clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court and Judge Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before joining Drexel, he was a fellow and a staff attorney for the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia. Professor Cohen continues to litigate cases with the Women’s Law Project, including a win earlier this year before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a challenge to Pennsylvania’s refusal to use Medicaid funds for abortion care.

David N. Wecht was elected to a ten-year term on The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in November 2015 and began his service as a Supreme Court Justice in January 2016. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is the oldest appellate court in the United States of America and predates the nation’s independence by several decades. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was established by the Commonwealth’s Judiciary Act of 1722 and traces its roots to the Provincial Appellate Court created in 1684. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Wecht served as a Judge of The Superior Court of Pennsylvania from January 2012 to January 2016, and as a Judge on The Court of Common Pleas for Pennsylvania’s Fifth Judicial District from February 2003 to January 2012. From January 2009 to January 2011, Justice Wecht served by appointment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as Administrative Judge of the Fifth Judicial District’s Family Division, which encompasses both domestic relations cases and cases of juvenile dependency and delinquency. As Administrative Judge, Justice Wecht designed and implemented several reforms and innovations, including the Unified Family Court, the local rule on parenting coordination, and improved conflict counsel appointments in juvenile cases. Prior to taking the bench, Justice Wecht was twice elected as the Allegheny County Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court. In that capacity, he pioneered innovations that included creation of a free will consultation program for seniors and authorship of a state law that prevents accused murderers from controlling their victims’ estates. Justice Wecht is a 1984 Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale, where he was a National Merit Scholar and earned Yale College Distinction in both history and political science. At Yale Law School, Justice Wecht was selected as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and as an Editor of both the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. While a law student, he also volunteered as a certified legal intern in the Office of the State’s Attorney in New Haven, Connecticut, and provided pro bono legal assistance to inmates of the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1987, Justice Wecht served as Law Clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge George MacKinnon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington, D.C. and received the Award for Distinguished Service in that position. From January 1989 until taking the bench in February 2003, Justice Wecht continuously practiced law, first at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC, then at Katarincic & Salmon in Pittsburgh, PA, and finally at The Wecht Law Firm in Pittsburgh, PA. He was licensed to practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., and was admitted to the bar of numerous state and federal courts, including The Supreme Court of the United States. A frequent lecturer to bench, bar, and community groups throughout Pennsylvania and in several other states, Justice Wecht also has served for many years on the faculties of the Duquesne University School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at universities in China and in Israel, where he visits regularly to instruct law students. Justice Wecht’s extra-judicial writings have appeared in a number of publications, including the Yale Law Journal, Gonzaga Law Review, Widener Commonwealth Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, Pennsylvania Lawyer, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, Pittsburgh Legal Journal, Tablet, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Midstream, and others. Justice Wecht also serves or has served as a Fellow or Member of several professional organizations, including the American Law Institute, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges. He has volunteered his time to a number of governmental, civic, and community boards and groups, including the Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership Center, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee, the Law Enforcement Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee of the Community College of Allegheny County, the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges Commission, and others. Justice Wecht was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill section and graduated from Shady Side Academy in 1980. Justice Wecht and his wife Valerie were married at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, on whose Board of Trustees he served. Justice Wecht and his wife continue to live in Allegheny County, where they raised four children, all of whom are now adults.

Ms. McConnell is an Partner at Summers, McDonnell, Hudock, Guthrie & Rauch, PC. She specializes in complex litigation, with a focus on UM/UIM coverage, transportation defense, premises liability, construction and products liability. Ms. McConnell has tried multiple jury cases to verdict throughout Central Pennsylvania. She has also appeared before the Pennsylvania appellate courts. Ms. McConnell earned her law degree from the Penn State Dickinson School of Law in 2011 and her B.A. from Drexel University in 2008.

Mr. Marzzacco is the sole owner of Marzzacco Niven & Associates, in Harrisburg. The firm provides representation in Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Employment Discrimination and Civil Rights matters throughout Pennsylvania. Mr. Marzzacco’s practice is concentrated in automobile, motorcycle and trucking case litigation, including Wrongful Death and Survival actions. He also represents persons seriously injured or killed in premises liability cases, work accidents, dangerous or defective product cases and civil rights matters. Mr. Marzzacco was rated by his peers as “The Best Lawyers in America” from 2017 to present and named in “Super Lawyers” every year since 2017 as well. He has lectured at Continuing Legal Education seminars for PBI, PAJ and others, presenting on various topics and has written on a variety of personal injury law, automobile law and automobile insurance issues for the Legal Intelligencer and other publications. Marzzacco is a member of several Trial Lawyers’ groups, including the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ), where he currently serves on the Middle District Board of Governors; the American Association for Justice (AAJ), as a member of the Trucking Litigation Group; and the Dauphin and Cumberland County Bar Associations, having served on the Board of Directors in Dauphin County from 2019-2020 and currently serving as the CLE Board Chairperson. Mr. Marzzacco has taught trial advocacy at Widener University School of Law’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP) from 2001 to present and has coached trial teams for Widener University’s Mock Trial program as well. Marzzacco also served on the law school’s Dean’s Advisory Committee from 2021 to 2023.

Tim’s practice includes all aspects of civil litigation, including personal injury and commercial/business lawsuits. Tim has experience litigating cases in Pennsylvania state and federal courts. As a result of his successes, Tim has been named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star list. This distinction is given to lawyers under 40 and to no more than 2.5% of lawyers in the state. Tim is active in the Montgomery and Pennsylvania Bar Associations. He has been a member of the Montgomery Bar Association’s Leadership Academy and the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Bar Leadership Institute. He is Co-Chair of the Montgomery Bar Association’s Pro Bono, Access to Justice, and Community Service Committee. He also serves as Education Liaison to the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Civil Litigation Section. In recognition of his public service, Tim was awarded the Montgomery Bar Association’s 2022 Henry Stuckert Miller Public Service Award. Tim graduated from Temple University Law School in 2010, where he was in the top twenty-five percent of his class and served as a staff editor on the Temple Journal of Science, Technology, and Environmental Law. While in law school, Tim interned for Judges Abramson and Carrafiello in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, volunteered at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and spent a semester as an intern with the Claims Unit of the Philadelphia Law Department. As an undergraduate, Tim studied double bass performance at Temple University, where he graduated summa cum laude. When Tim is not practicing law, he likes to listen to music, spend time with his family, and study the Korean language. He serves on the board of directors for the Cheltenham Center for the Arts and on the Whitpain Township Shade Tree Commission.

Mr. Dilsheimer is a partner and trial attorney at Stampone O’Brien Dilsheimer Law in Cheltenham. Before that, he practiced most recently with Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky.  Mr. Dilsheimer has vast experience handling complex, catastrophic injury cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, as well as other locations around the country. He concentrates his practice on major, catastrophic injury litigation. He has worked on the settlement and trial of several multi-million dollar cases and has a wide range of experience in cases involving traumatic brain injury, defective products, construction accidents, FELA, premises liability, medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, subrogation matters, and commercial litigation.  Mr. Dilsheimer’s successful verdict in a Monroe County, PA jury trial was reported by The National Law Journal as one of the “Top PA Verdicts of 2010” in the January 2010 edition of Verdict Search National. The trial involved a head-on automobile accident. He graduated magna cum laude from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1992.  Mr. Dilsheimer was Managing Editor of the Temple Law Review.  He graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College in 1988. Mr. Dilsheimer does pro-bono work for the Gift of Life, which coordinates organ donation and transplantation in the tri-state area.

Mr. Payne is a partner in the litigation department at White and Williams, LLP, in Philadelphia. He is also the immediate past chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee, chair of the Pro Bono Committee and co-chair of the Partners’ Compensation Committee. He primarily focuses his practice in the areas of insurance defense, bad faith, extra-contractual damages, disability and coverage matters. Mr. Payne is a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America by Best Lawyers, and an AV Preeminent peer-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. He has over 35 years of experience representing insurance carriers and insureds in first- and third-party litigation matters. Mr. Payne has successfully defended wrongful death, extra-contractual damages, product liability, asbestos, toxic tort, environmental, mass tort, commercial auto, construction, insurance coverage, disability, ERISA and general liability cases. Prior to joining White and Williams, LLP, he managed an inhouse litigation office for a major insurance carrier. Mr. Payne is licensed to practice before all state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has written and lectured on bad faith, extra-contractual damages, civil litigation and uninsured and underinsured motorist issues. Mr. Payne is a past Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, a past Zone 1 Governor and Minority-At-Large Governor of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, past president of the Board of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN), past president of the Conference of County Bar Leaders, past president of the Board of the Bethesda Project, a member of the Board of Directors of the Homeless Advocacy Project, a past co-president of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group (PDLG) and a past president of the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel (PADC). He was recognized by the Legal Intelligencer as an “Unsung Hero” for his dedication and service to the pro bono community. Mr. Payne is the recipient of The Honorable William F. Hall Award, the Huey R. Burkett Service Award, the Multicultural Leadership Award, and most recently named Defense Attorney of the Year by the Pennsylvania Defense Institute. He was also named as one of the “Top 60 African American Attorneys in Philadelphia” by the Philadelphia Tribune. Mr. Payne has been selected to City & State Pennsylvania’s 2022 Law Power 100 (39) and City & States Philadelphia’s Power 100 (91) lists. He serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Payne received his B.A., cum laude, from Washington and Lee University and his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he served as the president of the Student Bar Association.

Judge Perez earned her Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts before enrolling at Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law. Upon graduating, Judge Perez accepted a position at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. It was there that she honed her skills as a trial attorney, dedicating thousands of hours to her cases, which culminated in the representation of indigent defendants in the Court of Common Pleas, Major Trial Division. Ready for a different challenge, Judge Perez was tapped to serve as an associate at Friedman Schuman Applebaum, PC, where she represented municipalities in counties throughout Southeast Pennsylvania and members of Laborers Union Local 135. In 2011, Judge Perez established her own practice, Perez Law LLC, specializing in criminal defense and family law. While maintaining an office in Philadelphia, Judge Perez represented clients in federal court and across various counties throughout Pennsylvania. During that time, Judge Perez argued a range of complex cases, including those involving sex trafficking and capital homicide. For over a decade, Judge Perez has shared her passion for training young lawyers by serving as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, teaching trial advocacy to second- and third-year law students. In 2016, Judge Perez became one of the youngest judges to serve on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas bench, where she presided over thousands of cases in the Criminal Division. Judge Perez has served as the Supervising Judge of the City’s Investigating Grand Jury Program, on the State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision, and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates. In 2022, Governor Tom Wolf appointed Judge Perez to serve on the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania. On July 12, 2022, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. nominated Judge Perez to serve as a United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The United States Senate confirmed Judge Perez’s nomination on December 7, 2022, and she received her judicial commission on December 16, 2022.

Mr. Cooper is a partner at the Harrisburg-based personal injury law firm of Schmidt Kramer P.C. where he specializes in personal injury law with an emphasis on motor vehicle accidents and insurance cases. An active member of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ), Mr. Cooper served as its 2012-13 President. He is also chairman of its Legislative Policy Committee and has served on both the Executive Committee and Board of Governors. He is also the Treasurer of LAWPAC, the Association’s PAC. Mr. Cooper has an AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell rating. In November 2014, Mr. Cooper was appointed by then Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Wolf to act as a co-chair for the transition team committee overseeing the Department of the Commonwealth/State. In 2012, Mr. Cooper was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to its Appellate Court Rules Committee. He has also been appointed as a Hearing Officer with the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board. In 2020, Mr. Cooper was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to its Civil Procedure Rules Committee and was appointed by the Court to serve as the Committees’ Vice-Chair. In July 2021 he was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Wolf to the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board, and he was elected this year by the Board to service as its Chair. Mr. Cooper has been named by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers as one of the top 100 lawyers in the Commonwealth every year since 2011. In 2008, Mr. Cooper was honored by PAJ and awarded its prestigious Milton D. Rosenberg Award for leadership and efforts for victims’ rights. In 2005, Mr. Cooper received the Association’s prestigious George F. Douglas Amicus Curiae Award for outstanding appellate advocacy. In addition, Mr. Cooper has been selected for inclusion as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer every year from 2006 to the present, and in 2005 was a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Stars. He has also been named Best Lawyers In America each year since 2012. Mr. Cooper has been actively involved in many important appellate cases in the Pennsylvania Supreme and Superior Courts and United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, including Donovan v. State Farm, Gallagher v. GEICO, Rush v. Erie Ins. Exch., Rancosky v. Washington National, Allstate v. Wolfe, Ayers v. Geico, Heller v. League of Cities, Bumbarger v. Peerless, State Farm v. Rosenthal, Sackett v. Nationwide, and Smith v. Rohrbaugh. Mr. Cooper is also a member of the Pennsylvania and Dauphin County Bar Associations. He is a member of the Dauphin County Bar Associations. In 2021 he was named to the Board of Directors of the Joe Allegrini Children’s Hero Fund Board and this year was re-appointed to another term. Mr. Cooper is an editor for the leading treatise on Pennsylvania Auto Insurance released in December 2012, the Third Edition of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law, Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Insurance: An Analysis of the Financial Responsibility Law. He is also an editor of all supplements for the Third Edition and was also a contributing editor on the Second Edition of the treatise. He is also the author of The A to Z of Civil Depositions in Pennsylvania published by PBI Press in February 2013. The text is a manual for attorneys who need assistance and ideas with handling various types of civil depositions in the Pennsylvania state and federal courts.
Mr. Cooper received his J.D. from Widener University School of Law (1993) and his B.A. from the University at Albany (1990). He is a frequent lecturer and author, who is also involved with the community through the Harrisburg Jewish Community Center and as an Adjunct Professor at Widener Law Commonwealth.

Ms. Coatsworth is a partner at Margolis Edelstein. She has litigated hundreds of motor vehicle, dealer fraud and lemon law cases from both the plaintiff and defense sides. Additionally, she concentrates her practice in the defense of professionals such as realtors, home inspectors, accountants and physicians. She also has extensive experience with premises liability and product liability and has handled employment and construction work and several fraternity cases. Ms. Coatsworth has defended dozens of car dealerships and real estate sales people for claims of breach of contract and fraud and violations of various fraud-related statutes such as the Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Magnuson Moss Warranty Improvement Act, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Lemon Laws, the New Vehicle Damage Disclosure Act, the Automotive Industry Trade Practices Act, the Real Estate Sellers Disclosure Law and the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act. Additionally, Ms. Coatsworth specializes in representing Greek letter organizations in all manner of claims including dram shop, hazing, and personal injury. She was selected for inclusion in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Stars from 2011 through 2018 and Super Lawyers in 2021-2024. Ms. Coatsworth currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association as Chancellor, having previously served as Chancellor-Elect, Vice Chancellor, Assistant Treasurer, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Parliamentarian and Elected Member. Additionally, Ms. Coatsworth is a member of the Judicial Evaluation and Selection Committee. She is a past co-chair of the Women in the Profession Committee, and she is also very active with the State Civil Litigation Section. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Young Lawyers Division of that organization for six years and held the positions of Secretary and Vice Chair of the Division. She also sits as a Trustee of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation and a Board Member for Philadelphia VIP. She serves on the Leadership Council of Community Legal Services. Ms. Coatsworth is also a member of the Advisory Board of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts. In the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Ms. Coatsworth is the Immediate Past Zone One Governor, and she sits on the Executive Counsel of the Civil Litigation Section as a Past Chair and the Women in the Profession Commission’s Executive Council as Co-Chair on the Nominating Committee. She previously served as co-chair of the PBA Women in the Profession Commission and chaired several of its committees including Annual Meeting, Fall Retreat and Awards Committee. She is also a Past Chancellor of the Louis D. Brandeis Law Society.