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Agenda

Registration

Registration for this event is $275 for IDC and MODL Members and $375 for non-members. Registration includes CLE, seminar materials, lunch, refreshment breaks, Party Suite Reception & Dinner (Special Thanks to our MVP Sponsor: Sikich) and one ticket to the St. Louis Cardinals v. Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

Attention MODL Members

To receive the MODL Membership registration fee of $275, please use Promo Code MODL when entering your Payment Information. Any questions? Please contact the IDC office at 800-232-0169.

Continuing Legal Education Credit

Application will be made for the following credit hours:

• Illinois, Indiana and Iowa 4.0 CLE Credit Hours, including 2.0 hour of Professionalism Credit
• Missouri and Wisconsin 4.8 CLE Credit Hours, including 2.4 hours of Professionalism Credit 

Our MVP Sponsor

We would like to thank the Sikich for their generous sponsorship of this event.

Featured Speakers

John "Mo” Mozeliak was named the St. Louis Cardinals Senior Vice President and General Manager in October 2007 after being promoted from Assistant General Manager – a position he had held for six seasons. Mo is the 12th general manager in the over 100‐year history of the Cardinals.	Paul M. Brown is a partner at Thompson Coburn LLP where he focuses his practice on the trial of civil lawsuits in state and federal courts in Missouri and Illinois. Paul is a graduate of the University of Missouri Law School where he was Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Law Review, Chairman of the Board of Advocates, and a member of the Order of the Coif and Order of the Barristers. He is a member of the American Assn of Trial Advocates and a past board member of the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers.
Debbie Champion is a founding partner in the firm Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch and Champion. Ms. Champion actively practices in Missouri and Southern Illinois state and federal courts. She has argued before the Missouri Supreme Court and the Eastern, Western and Southern District Missouri Courts of Appeals, and the Illinois Court of Appeals. She has also argued in the federal court of the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the Eighth Circuit and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. She is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Champion is a member of the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, and serves as the Secretary of the St. Louis CLM chapter. She is on the Board of Directors for the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers. She is a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation.	Clark H. Cole is a partner in the St. Louis office of Armstrong Teasdale LLP and is a former President (2002-2003) of MODL and a member of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel since 1990. His defense practice is equally divided between Missouri (admitted 1980) and Illinois (1981). He defends a wide range of litigation matters with emphasis on insurance-oriented litigation. He is a Fellow in the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel and 2016 St. Louis Lawyer of the Year for Litigation-Insurance (The Best Lawyers in America®).
Hon. Noelle C. Collins began her service as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri in 2013 in St. Louis. Judge Collins received both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1993 and 1994, respectively. After working in New York City as a magazine editor for several years, Judge Collins returned to Illinois for law school at the University of Illinois College of Law, where she graduated in 2001, having served as an associate editor of The Elder Law Journal. She began her legal career as a civil litigation associate with a large law firm in St. Louis. In 2004, Judge Collins joined the United States Attorney’s Office in St. Louis as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. In 2005, she was named an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the same office where she served until the appointment to the federal bench.	Hon. Audrey Fleissig was nominated for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri by President Obama in January 2010, and was sworn in on June 11, 2010. She served as a United States Magistrate Judge, from August 2001 until her appointment to the district court. She was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, from January 2000 through April 30, 2001, the first woman to be appointed to the position. Judge Fleissig graduated from Washington University School of Law, Order of the Coif, in 1980. After graduating from law school, Ms. Fleissig was in private practice for eleven years at Peper, Martin, Jensen, Maichel and Hetlage (now Husch Blackwell LLP), where she was a partner in litigation, concentrating in business and commercial litigation and class actions, mostly in the federal courts. From 1991-1999, Ms. Fleissig served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of MO, where she primarily prosecuted white collar criminal cases.
Richard Hunsaker is a shareholder with Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, P.C., Edwardsville. Mr. Hunsaker focuses his practice in the areas of professional liability, medical malpractice defense and pharmaceutical and medical devices. Mr. Hunsaker earned his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 1986 and has spent his entire career with Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, P.C.	Hon. Vincent Lopinot is a Circuit Judge of the Illinois Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court. He was appointed as an Associate Judge in 2002 and elected as a Circuit Judge in 2012. Judge Lopinot earned his B.A. from Illinois State University and his J.D. from St. Louis University. Judge Lopinot was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve on the Education Committee that presents seminars and training for other Judges around Illinois. Judge Lopinot has taught Torts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Evidence and Courtroom Presentation in local universities since 2003.
Hon. Maura B. McShane was appointed Circuit Judge for St. Louis County in 1994. Prior to her appointment, she was an assistant prosecutor for St. Louis County for 10 years. Judge McShane received her Juris Doctorate degree from South Texas College of Law and a Bachelor of Science in physical therapy from Saint Louis University. She is a member of the St. Louis County Bar Association and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.	Hon. William Mudge graduated from St. Louis University School of Law in 1985. He practiced law for 16 years in an Edwardsville general practice firm that was founded in the early 1900s by former judge D.H. Mudge. He then began his public service in 2002 as Madison County State’s Attorney. He served as state’s attorney for eight years. He was elected Circuit Judge in 2010 and is currently assigned to the Civil Law Division.  He is a past chair of the U.S. Senate Judicial Nominating Commission for the Southern District of Illinois, having been appointed to the position by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. He also served by appointment of the Governor on the Board of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority in Chicago.
Hon. Steven R. Ohmer is a Circuit Judge in the Missouri 22nd Judicial Circuit. Judge Ohmer earned his J.D. from Creighton University. He has served as an Assistant Circuit Attorney, City of St. Louis and was in private practice with the firm of Ohmer & Ohmer, P.C. Judge Ohmer is a member of the Missouri Supreme Court Circuit Court Budget Committee, Chair; Missouri Supreme Court Family Court Committee; American Judges Association Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; Lawyers Assoc. of St. Louis; Missouri and Illinois Bar Associations.	Steven M. Puiszis is a partner with Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP. He serves as the Firm’s Deputy General Counsel and is a member of the Hinshaw’s Lawyers for the Professions Practice Group, counseling and defending both lawyers and law firms in ethics, disciplinary and professional liability matters. He is a former President of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel. Steve currently serves as the Vice Chair of DRI’s Center for Law and Public Policy, and formerly served on DRI’s Board of Directors, as its Secretary-Treasurer, on its Amicus Committee, and as Chair of DRI’s Judicial Task Force. He served as editor of DRI’s whitepaper, Without Fear or Favor in 2011—A New Decade of Challenges to Judicial Independence and Accountability and was one of the authors of another DRI whitepaper, The Economics of Justice. Steve has written book chapters on law firm risk management, data protection and privacy in the U.S., mitigating law firm cyber risk, ethics, and ediscovery. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago’s School of Law and began his career as a prosecutor in the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney. Steve was one of the authors of the American Bar Association’s amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court of the United States in Williams–Yulee v. The Florida Bar.
Hon. Stephen C. Williams, Southern District of Illinois, began his term on the bench in January of 2011 and sits in East St. Louis. One of his primary duties is handling discovery disputes in civil cases to which he is assigned. Prior to becoming a magistrate judge, he was an assistant federal public defender in the Southern District beginning in 2004. Before that, he worked as a state public defender in the City of St. Louis and as a plaintiff's attorney at a personal injury firm in Southern Illinois. Magistrate Judge Williams is a 1997 graduate of Southern Illinois University School of Law.  He served from 1990 to 1994 as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.	Hon. Staci M. Yandle received a Bachelor of Science degree in political science in 1983 from the University of Illinois. She received a Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. From 1987-2003, she was an associate with the law firm of Carr, Korein, Tillery , Kunin, Montroy & Glass. From 2003-2007, she was a partner with The Rex Carr Law Firm LLC. From 2007-2014, she was the owner of The Law Offices of Staci M. Yandle, LLC in Belleville and O’Fallon, Illinois. She is the former president of the Metro East Bar Association and has served on the Executive Committee and Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice, the board of directors for the Illinois Bar Foundation and the Board of Directors for the St. Clair County Bar Association. Yandle was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 16, 2014 and invested as a Member of the Court on August 21, 2014.

Volunteers

We would like to thank the following members of the IDC and MODL for their countless hours of work on this program:

Jennifer Baumann, Thompson Coburn, LLP
Laura K. Beasley, Joley, Oliver & Beasley, P.C.

Kevin M. Birkenmeier, HeplerBroom LLC
Nicole C. Behnen, Polsinelli LLP
Ann E. Buckley, Buckley & Buckley, LLP
Debbie S. Champion, Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch and Champion
Justin S. Chapell, Brown & James, P.C.
Patrick Cloud, Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, P.C.
James Craney, Craney Law Group LLP
John S. Farmer, Thompson Coburn, LLP
Seth Gausnell, Pitzer Snodgrass, P.C.
Michael E. Harriss, HeplerBroom LLC
Thomas J. Hayek, Behr, McCarter & Potter, P.C.
Kurt A. Hentz, HeplerBroom, LLC
Tara W. Kuchar, HeplerBroom LLC
Stephen Murphy, Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard, P.C.
Mary L. Reitz, Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.
Patrick W. Stufflebeam, HeplerBroom LLC
John R. Suermann, Jr., HeplerBroom LLC
Jill Sundberg, HeplerBroom LLC
Richard C. Wuestling, Wuestling & James
 

Refund Policy

Registrations may be transferred to another registrant with notice. Registration fee refunds must be requested in writing and will be made according to the following schedule: 100% Refund: 30 or more days before seminar; 50% Refund: 15-29 days before seminar; No Refund: 0-14 days before seminar

Questions?

Please contact us at idc@iadtc.org or 800-232-0169.