Robert L. Pottroff
Professional Information
Robert L. Pottroff is the managing partner of Pottroff Law Office, P.A. in Manhattan, Kansas where he has practiced law since 1979. Though he is well qualified to practice law in many fields, Mr. Pottroff has chosen to limit his practice to railroad law. His leadership and perseverance over the last two decades has had an immeasurable impact on railroad safety in the United States.
Mr. Pottroff is an outspoken advocate for the rights of victims and a proponent of railroad safety. He has been invited to speak throughout the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Pottroff is an active member of the American Association for Justice and the Kansas Association for Justice. He has been inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Million-Dollar Advocates Forum, and recognized in Super Lawyers magazine for his excellence in litigation. Mr. Pottroff’s involvement in railroad litigation dates back to the mid-1980s, but space does not permit an exhaustive account of all his contributions in this area of law. Since the millennium alone, his accomplishments are unparalleled. In March 2000, Bob appeared on CNN in a Charles Bierbauer interview “Railroad Safety at a Crossroads.” Later that year, at the International Symposium on Railroad-Highway Grade Crossing Research and Safety, he warned states of their accountability for public safety in his presentation entitled “States Beware: Shanklin Places Responsibility on You.” In that same year, Bob organized the National Railroad Safety Coalition by bringing together victims of railroad accidents and transforming them into a survivors’ network with a unified voice promoting rail safety.
In 2001, he was appointed to chair the Railroad Legislative Action Committee for the American Association for Justice. In that role, he drafted model legislation and began a long term commitment to fight for legislative change on a national level.
During 2001 and 2002, Mr. Pottroff took aim at the railroad industry’s long standing practice of systematically destroying evidence in accidents where members of the public suffered serious injuries or death. Three verdicts in the span of just over one year resulted in courts condemning this practice and juries awarding verdicts in excess of $40 Million: Stevenson v. Union Pacific Railroad ($2M); Barber v. Union Pacific Railroad ($30+M); and Morris v. Union Pacific Railroad ($8M). This series of cases caught the attention of Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times, who was doing research for a series of stories on railroad safety. The series ultimately won Walt Bogdanich the Pulitizer Prize and Mr. Pottroff the satisfaction of knowing his work in the courtroom and with Mr. Bogdanich would bring about change in the railroad industry.
In 2003, Lewis Laska, publisher and editor of the FELA Reporter and Railroad Liability Monitor, wrote that “[Mr. Pottroff] is simply the best railroad crossing lawyer in the United States.” In a 2004 brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Union Pacific Railroad advised that Mr. Pottroff’s verdict against them in Barber v. UPRR “is by far the largest punitive damages award ever upheld by an American court in a railroad grade crossing case.” In late 2004, the New York Times and The Discovery Channel joint ventured a one-hour documentary called “Trouble on the Tracks.” This documentary featured Mr. Pottroff in his battle for public safety at railroad crossings. In 2005, Mr. Pottroff was presented the Consumer Advocate Award for the landmark case of Ryan vs. Koehler International, Inc.
In 2006 through 2007, he served as president of the Kansas Association for Justice. Most recently, an Anoka, Minnesota jury handed down a $24 Million verdict against the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad on June 13, 2008. Mr. Pottroff was brought into this case to represent the families of four young adults killed in a railroad accident.
Currently Mr. Pottroff is working with Congressman James Oberstar, the Chairman of the Transportation Committee, concerning extensive rail safety legislation in the House and Senate.
Mr. Pottroff has worked tirelessly to unveil the wrongdoings of railroad companies from coast to coast by lecturing frequently and co-counseling with other attorneys who need his help. He has worked on cases in a number of states, including California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota and Arizona.
Professional Goals
Robert L. Pottroff is a firm believer that trial lawyers have a unique opportunity to improve the world around us. His lectures challenge every trial lawyer to take this duty seriously. His most gratifying work as a trial lawyer involves representation of injured people and fighting to protect their rights. Over the last two decades, he has been engaged in a protracted battle with the railroad industry over issues of public safety. One such public safety issue is the needless occurrence of death and disabling injuries suffered in preventable accidents. A vast majority of Mr. Pottroff's time is spent representing victims of these tragedies and their families. His battle with railroads will persist as long as the rail industry continues to ignore its responsibility for public safety.
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Mary E. Alexander, M.P.H., J.D., is principal in the firm of Mary Alexander and Associates in San Francisco. She is an experienced trial lawyer in personal injury, products liability, and business litigation. She obtained her law degree at the University of Santa Clara, Master of Public Health degree at the University of California Berkeley, and Bachelors of Arts at the University of Iowa. Prior to her legal career, she was engaged in scientific research in medical toxicology areas and was director in environmental health at Stanford Research Institute.
She has had a record verdict of $13.3 million in a bicycle products liability case. She won a $2.2 million jury verdict that was a record award in California for cases involving from asbestos. She achieved $4 million for a pedestrian hit by a city bus, and a $4 million settlement for an 87 year old couple struck in a cross walk.
Ms. Alexander is former President of the American Association for Justice, past President of Roscoe Pound Institute, and past President of the Consumer Attorneys of California. She is past Chair of ATLA State Delegates, and of ATLA Council of State Presidents. She is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and has served on numerous committees for the Judicial Council of California. Ms. Alexander is Senior Counsel with the College of Master Advocates & Barristers.
Ms. Alexander was the 2001 recipient of “Trial Lawyer of the Year”, awarded by Themis Capital Corporation. She was also named one of the top ten trial lawyers in the Bay Area in 1990 by the San Francisco Chronicle. The California Daily Journal named her one of the Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California from 2001-2003, one of the Top 30 Women Litigators in 2002, and one of the Top 50 Women Litigators in 2003 and 2004. ATLA’s Minority Caucus awarded Ms. Alexander with the Trailblazer award in 2002. She was also the award recipient of the Consumer Attorneys of California’s Marvin E. Lewis award in 1998. Mary Alexander received an Honorary Doctor of Laws in May 2003 from Santa Clara University and Santa Clara School of Law’s Alumni Association awarded her their Special Achievement Award. She received the Pursuit of Justice Award from the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section in 2005, and in 2006 & 2007 was named a Northern California Super Lawyer. In 2007, LawDragon named Ms. Alexander one of the 500 Leading Plaintiff Lawyers in America. Also that year, Law Finance Group, Inc. presented her with an award for "exemplifying the highest standards of the legal profession". The national award, which is named for Ms. Alexander, will be bestowed annually.
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C. Michael Bee a Partner in the Law Firm of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler, obtained his B.A. Marietta College, 1971. J.D., West Virginia University College of Law, 1976. Admitted to West Virginia Bar 1976. Also admitted to U.S. District Court, Southern and Northern Districts of West Virginia. Member, West Virginia State Bar. Member, Law School and Admissions Committee, 1988. Member, The Association of Trial Lawyers of America and West Virginia Association for Justice. President, South Charleston Chamber of Commerce, 1987 and 1988. Served on the Board of Directors South Charleston Area Development Corporation; Board of Directors, South Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau; served on the Board of Directors, West Virginia Brain Injury Association; Past President West Virginia Brain Injury Association; served on the Board of Directors of the National Brain Injury Association; President's Council for National Brain Injury Association; Past Chairman of the Development Committee for the National Head Injury Foundation. Served on the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Litigation Group of the American Association of Justice. Elected to Outstanding Young Men of America.
Mr. Bee speaks throughout the country on legal issues and funding issues confronting the traumatically brain injured individuals and their families. Mr. Bee has also taught at the University of Florida as an adjunct professor in their professional certification programs. In addition, he teaches throughout the country on issues relating to brain injuries and other serious injuries.
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James C. Peterson a Partner in the Law Firm of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler, graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota in 1976. Since graduation, he has been involved in a variety of legal pursuits, including acting as a law clerk for a Minnesota state trial court judge, serving as chief corporate counsel for a worldwide non-profit organization, and for the past twenty years, concentrating his efforts in litigating severe personal injury, medical and legal malpractice and insurance bad faith cases, as well as mass tort/class action litigation involving defective products, pharmaceuticals, and insurance products. He has been a member/partner of the law firm of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler, P.L.L.C. since 1983.
Representative cases settled and/or tried to jury verdict include multi-million dollar medical and legal malpractice cases, recoveries in excess of $1 million in product liability cases, numerous million dollar verdicts and/or settlements involving serious motor vehicle accidents, as well as serving as co-lead counsel on the settlement of the largest pharmaceutical class action litigation in the history of the state of West Virginia, involving the diet drug fen-phen.
In recent years, Mr. Peterson has devoted the majority of his time to major medical malpractice and mass tort/class action litigation. Representative mass tort/class action litigation includes Burch, et al. v. American Home Products Corporation, et al., (Fen-Phen diet drug); Deitzler, et al. v. Bridgestone-Firestone, Inc., et al. (tire tread separation/rollover); Martin, et al. v. Allstate Insurance Company (nationwide insurance fraud); Sprouse, et al. v. Johnson & Johnson Corporation, et al., (Propulsid acid reflux medication); (Baycol, a cholesterol lowering drug); McCaffery, et al. v. Warner Lambert Company, et al. (Rezulin - type II diabetes drug); McCallister, et al. v. Purdue-Pharma, Inc., et al. (Oxycontin - potent pain killer drug); and most recently Community Health Ass'n., et al. v. Lucent Technologies, Inc., et al. (a certified nationwide class action involving allegedly defective telecommunications products).
Mr. Peterson has been board-certified as a civil trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) since 1990. He has served in a variety of positions with both state and national trial lawyer organizations, including president of the West Virginia Trial Lawyers' Association (1996-1997). He is presently certified to practice in the states of Minnesota, Ohio, and West Virginia, and has been admitted pro hac vice in over a dozen other jurisdictions. While serving as chief corporate counsel for an international non-profit organization in the late 1970's, Mr. Peterson argued cases before several foreign jurisdictions.
Since 1987, Mr. Peterson has presented over 40 papers and articles nationwide on various legal topics in over two dozen states. Other legal publications include a chapter in a book published by the National Brain Injury Association involving hedonic damages; an article on the same topic appearing in the monthly publication Trial for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (American Association for Justice), and a law review article entitled "Trial Techniques – Selecting and Using Expert Witnesses in Bad Faith Cases," 19 Am. Jour. Trial Adv., 543, (Spring 1996), Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.
Mr. Peterson is recognized as a life member of American Association for Justice, an honor bestowed on approximately 50 lawyers out of a nationwide trial organization consisting of over 50,000 members.
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Steven C. Glickman
Born in 1957 – two months before his father took the California Bar Exam - Steven Glickman was raised in the Los Angeles area and was greatly influenced by his father’s legal path.
Steven graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1979. He then graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1982 where he was honored with a special award for “excellence in preparation for trial practice of the law.”
Since that time, Steven Glickman has done more than live up to that award. His most notable accomplishments include:
- serving as president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 2007 and also serving on the National Board of Directors for ABOTA
- recognized in 2006 by the state’s leading legal newspaper as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California and has also been repeatedly recognized as a Los Angeles “Super Lawyer”
- served as an officer of the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) and served as president in 2006
- served as Vice-President of the Consumer Attorneys of California
- One of the youngest members ever admitted to ABOTA.
Steven Glickman has spoken at numerous seminars for CAALA, Consumer Attorneys of California, and the California Continuing Education of the Bar. He has published many articles in legal literature and is the editor of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles “Medical Malpractice Guide.”
He has also been active with the UCLA School of Law, serving as a member of the Board of Governors for two years and serving on the Dean’s Committee for ten years.
Steven Glickman has served as an arbitrator or mediator in numerous cases for the Los Angeles Superior Court and has also served as a special judicial settlement officer at numerous branch courthouses throughout Los Angeles County.
Steven Glickman is admitted to practice before all California state courts as well as:
- The United States Supreme Court
- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
- The Federal District Courts in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego
Along with his activities with CAALA, CAOC and ABOTA, Steven Glickman is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the American Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
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Thomas M. Dempsey is a nationally recognized, AV-rated trial lawyer who has tried more than one hundred cases, obtaining numerous million dollar verdicts and settlements.
Although his practice emphasizes the areas of spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, he has successfully handled all categories of personal injury and wrongful death cases, in both federal and state courts, during his over 33 year career.
Since establishing his own firm in 1995, he has worked closely with the Law Offices of Masry and Vititoe (the firm featured in the movie Erin Brockovitch). He believes that getting the best results for your clients requires preparing every case as if it were going to trial. Thoroughness, imagination and efficiency are the necessary ingredients of this preparation.
A major part of the Dempsey firms’ practice involves accepting the referral of a case at the “eleventh hour,” and bringing it to a successful conclusion by way of trial or significant settlement . This ability to make a quick study of the facts and the law, assemble the necessary team of expert witnesses, and cultivate a meaningful rapport with the client has prevented numerous people victimized by another from going uncompensated from the harm done to them.
Yearly names as a “Superlawyer” since 2004, his commitment to prosecuting socially just cases is emphasized by his recent presidency of the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (2005-2006), a national public interest law firm dedicated to using trial lawyer skills and resources to achieve the public good.
Mr. Dempsey currently is on the Executive Committee, the Board of Governors, and the Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. He is a past President of Consumer Attorney Association of Los Angeles (1993), received its Ted Horn Memorial Award(1994), and has twice been its Trial Lawyer of the Year nominee. He was Vice- President of Consumer Attorneys of California and received its Outstanding Chapter President award (1993). He has been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates since 1978 and is a member of United States Supreme Court Bar, as well as, the California Bar. He is a former adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School. Finally, he has served on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Litigation Section and is a member of its Bench and Bar Committee.