Solo Practice University

Joe Dane is a criminal defense attorney and he will teach a course entitled “Criminal Law From an (Ex-)Prosecutor’s Perspective” at Solo Practice University™.

Joe is a criminal defense attorney and solo practitioner in Southern California. He was a prosecutor for twelve years, handling all types of criminal cases ranging from misdemeanor driving under the influence, theft and assault cases to felony sex offenses, major drug trafficking organizations, three strikes and homicide cases. Joe focused on sex crimes, including rape, child molestation and child pornography cases for six years.

Before attending law school, Joe was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff, working uniformed patrol for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. With his law enforcement background and having been named Prosecutor of the Year twice, Joe has taught extensively. He currently teaches all aspects of criminal law, including laws of arrest, search and seizure (Fourth Amendment) law and the law of Miranda at a California state-approved police academy. He has also has instructed for the California District Attorney’s Association on the topics of jury selection, trial tactics and crimes against children. He has written training manuals and conducted in-house training for two DA’s offices.

To learn more, visit Joe’s website or read his blog.

Craig is an attorney focusing on complex litigation, products liability and pharmaceutical litigation. He will teach a course about e-discovery and products liability at Solo Practice University™.

Craig received both his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from Tulane University. He was accepted into an honor’s combined BA-JD program at Tulane which allowed him to complete both his undergraduate degree and his law degree in a total of 6 years. He graduated from undergraduate and law school at Tulane with honors.

For the initial 18 years of his legal career, Craig worked as a lawyer representing automotive manufacturers such as Nissan, Honda and General Motors throughout the country in products liability litigation. Upon realizing his true calling was in helping those who had been injured and wronged, Craig began handling products liability cases and other complex litigation on behalf of plaintiffs. This has included cases against automotive manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. The ability to fight for someone who has had significant tragedy in their life and be able to provide them some hope for the future has been an incredible gift of this journey. Craig has had the privilege of representing parents who lost their child due to suicide caused by an anti-depressants, husbands and children who lost their mother due to the taking of a “bad drug”, and in one case, an entire family who lost 3 family members and were left with 2 family members severely brain damaged all in one car crash due to the complete lack of care shown by a corporation in accepting responsibility for dangerous conditions it was causing to the roadway.

Craig brings a different perspective to cases because he has handled cases from “the other side”. He knows how they view cases, what strategies they may try, and how they evaluate cases. It permits him to anticipate how they will react to certain claims and know the potential moves before they even happen. This experience on both sides also provides Craig with different thoughts on issues than other attorneys representing the injured and wronged because for the first 18 years of his practice, he handled complex litigation on behalf of corporate America.

Craig is licensed to practice in both Alabama and Florida. He has given seminars and presentations throughout the country on issues ranging from how to pursue a products claim against a pharmaceutical company to how to address issues of production of electronic discovery in complex litigation.

To learn more, visit the Niedenthal Law Firm website or read the Alabama Product Injury Lawyer Blog.

(This is a rather long post so if you can’t give your undivided attention now, please read this fully when you can.)

As more time passes I’m realizing Solo Practice University™ is going to become something much greater than even I envisioned.  While I anticipated a certain synergy with the whole being much greater than the sum of its parts, I never fully appreciated the incredible intellectual capital of all those participating.  Not just the faculty, but the students.  I also knew SPU was a going to fill a void but I never truly understood the depth and breadth of that void. (more…)

D. Todd Smith is a certified specialist in civil appellate law. He will teach a course about appellate practice and procedure at Solo Practice University™.

Todd opened his solo practice in 2006 after spending nearly a decade with the international law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., where he was a member of the appellate and litigation practice groups. Before joining Fulbright, Todd served a two-year clerkship with Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul A. Gonzalez (ret.).

Todd represents plaintiffs and defendants in all phases of civil appeals and original proceedings, including preparation of written briefs and presentation of oral argument. He has handled matters before many of the Texas appellate courts, the Texas Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

A significant part of Todd’s practice takes place at the trial-court level, where he serves as counsel of record in a variety of commercial and tort cases and as a consultant to other lawyers and their clients. When engaged in a litigation support role, he assists trial counsel with strategic analysis and briefing, jury charges, and potentially dispositive motions, all with a focus on preserving error and positioning cases for appellate review.

Todd is the creator and publisher of the Texas Appellate Law Blog, an online resource for trial lawyers, in-house counsel, solo and small firm practitioners, and others who may have matters pending before Texas appellate courts. He is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and currently serves as editor of the State Bar Appellate Section publication, The Appellate Advocate.

Victor Medina is the managing partner of a small law firm run entirely on Mac computers and Apple products. He will teach a course entitled “Macs In the Law Office” at Solo Practice University™.

Victor focuses his practice on representing public school districts and families in crisis. He serves as general counsel for many families, handling the gamut of special education, estate planning and closely-held company matters. He is also assists many young families with protecting their kids and their family’s wealth.

Victor has professional training in psychology and law. He served as a full law clerk with The Hon. Alvin W. Thompson of the United States District Court in Hartford, CT. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked with two multi-national law firms in Boston and Princeton, handling business transactions.

A self-described technophile, Victor serves as the host and moderator of MILO Chat Weekly, a semi-regular podcast for Mac-using lawyers and other folks interested in the business application of Macs and Apple products.

Victor also maintains several blogs, substantive and not. His personal blog is Another Thing To Do. He maintains legal-related blogs at New Jersey Estate Planning, New Jersey Divorce & Family Law and New Jersey Education Law.

Patti is a trusts and estates attorney. Nationally recognized as an author and educator, she will teach a course on trust and estate planning, administration, and settlement, and how to leverage technology to build this practice area.

Ms. Spencer assists clients with federal estate, gift and generation-skipping tax planning; estate and trust administration; business succession planning; tax planning for qualified plan distributions; fiduciary income tax; and corporate tax planning. She serves as a Private Trustee and/or Executor, as well as an expert witness in estate tax, estate planning, and fiduciary matters. Her clients include consumers, accountants and other attorneys.

As a peer-nominated fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel  Ms. Spencer has been recognized by the legal profession for her educational commitment and her work with families, individuals, businesses, attorneys and accountants she serves.

Before founding Spencer Law Firm , Ms. Spencer managed a regional bank’s Personal Trust Department made up of 1,500 accounts and $400 million in assets. In this capacity, she supervised a department of nine Trust Officers and six Assistant Administrators in three line functions: Trust Administration, Trust Tax and Estate Settlement. She was accountable for trust department budgets, profitability, regulatory compliance, trust real estate, personnel issues, and estate-related legal matters.

Books and Publications by Patti S. Spencer, Esq.

Ms. Spencer is a prolific writer on trust and estate matters. Her major publications are listed below.

“Pennsylvania Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts Library: Forms and Practice Manual,” 2-volume set published by Data Trace, 2007. Topics covered include estate planning, simple wills, generation-skipping transfer tax, revocable living trusts, credit shelter/bypass trusts, irrevocable trusts, and charitable gift planning. 

“Your Estate Matters,” AuthorHouse, 2005, 476 pages. This book serves as an authoritative guide to estate planning, tax matters and financial strategies for long-term management of personal, family and closely-held business assets.

Ms. Spencer also writes “Taxing Matters,” a weekly column on tax and estate planning issues published in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, from October 1999 to the present.

She maintains two active blogs on trust and estate topics: Pennsylvania Fiduciary Litigation and Pennsylvania Estate Planning and Administration. Additionally, she has published a number of journal and magazine articles on trust and estate topics.

Education and Accreditations

Ms. Spencer holds a J.D. and an LL.M in Taxation from Boston University School of Law, and a B.A. from Dickinson College. She is licensed to practice law in the states of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Jim has practiced personal injury and malpractice law in the state and federal courts of both New York and Pennsylvania for more than twenty years. He will teach a course entitled “Personal Injury 101: The Nuts and Bolts of Handling Accident Cases” at Solo Practice University™.

Jim is a member of the prestigious Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Forum membership is limited to trial lawyers who have demonstrated exceptional skill, experience and excellence in advocacy by achieving a trial verdict, award or settlement of Two Million Dollars or more. Jim has also been honored as a New York “Super Lawyer”.  Lawyers are selected after a rigorous research process based on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement.

Jim is admitted to practice in both New York and Pennsylvania where he regularly handles all types of injury cases,  car & truck crash cases, construction cases, and medical negligence cases. Jim limits his practice to the representation of injured persons only and does not do any insurance defense work.

Jim is the Managing Partner of the Ziff Law Firm, Elmira, NY located in the scenic Finger Lakes area of Upstate NY. Jim publishes the New York Injury Law Blog

Jim is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, the New York Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American Association for Justice. Jim has lectured frequently on law-related topics and has been published in the New York State Bar Journal, which is the largest and most prestigious legal publication in New York State. In 2008, Jim was selected to author a chapter in the New York State Bar Association treatise: Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Actions in New York.

Jim is a lifelong resident of Elmira where he lives with his wife and three children. When he’s not working, Jim can often be found on his bicycle as he is an avid bicycle racer having competed in races all over the country including a 508 mile team race through Death Valley (The Furnace Creek 508) and a 540 mile race through the Cascade Mountains of Oregon (The Race Across Oregon).

Theresa M. Erickson is one of the few attorneys in the United States with a boutique practice exclusively in the area of Family Formation Law and will teach a course entitled “Creating a Niche Practice in Reproductive Law” at Solo Practice University™.

During law school, Theresa gained a passion for Family Formation Law. She initially discovered this area of family planning by choosing to become an egg donor for several couples who desperately wanted a child. In doing so, Theresa M. Erickson helped create numerous children for these families. In addition to her own personal experiences with egg donation, she witnessed a more personal fertility situation - her sister was unable to maintain a successful pregnancy to term. It is through both of these very personal experiences that Theresa M. Erickson’s passion developed to become a Reproductive Lawyer. Theresa M. Erickson’s legal practice is dedicated to exclusively provide legal services in the area of creating families. Theresa M. Erickson’s passion has not gone unnoticed; she is a nationally recognized expert in this specialized and unique area of law.

Known for her expertise she has discussed issues surrounding Reproductive Law on The Today Show, Nightline with Ted Koppel, CNN, The O-Reilly Factor and The Record with Greta Van Sustern

Ms. Erickson is an Executive Member of the ABA Family Committee, as well as an Executive Member of the ABA Reproductive Law and Technologies Committee. In addition, Ms. Erickson is an advisory board member of the Parents Via Egg Donation and INCIID and maintains membership with ASRM, AFA, and the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society. She has also written the book on the subject, Assisted Reproduction, the Complete Guide to Having a Baby with the Help of a Third Party.

Visit her firm website and read the Surrogancy and Egg Donation Blog.

Anne Reed is a trial lawyer and jury consultant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She will teach a course about jury selection at Solo Practice University™.

Anne has practiced for 27 years at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, SC, where she is a shareholder co-chairing the financial litigation group. Anne has consulted with lawyers from many different firms to assist in trial preparation both in Wisconsin (using Reinhart’s specialized courtroom, the Trial Science Institute) and elsewhere. Working closely with these lawyers, Anne designs and conducts mock trials to help lawyers and clients see their disputes through jurors’ eyes.

Anne writes about juries and jury trials at her blog, Deliberations — “a smart, captivating blog,” in the words of the ABA Journal.

Anne’s work has been published in TRIAL Magazine and the Wisconsin Law Journal, and she has been quoted on jury issues in, among others, the ABA Journal and the Los Angeles Times. She speaks to legal groups in Wisconsin and nationally about various aspects of jury trials.

In her trial practice, Anne is regularly lead trial counsel in disputes over business fraud and malpractice, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, corporate and shareholder disputes, ERISA rights and responsibilities, and other business and financial issues. Anne received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her law degree, cum laude, from Cornell University Law School in 1981. She serves on the Communication Committee of the American Society of Trial Consultants and as a neutral on the commercial arbitration panel of the American Arbitration Association.

Want to join the Faculty? Contact us.

Mr. Schaefer is a seasoned trial attorney practicing internet, domain and trademark, class action and mass tort law on a global basis. He will teach a course entitled “The Perfect Law Firm Model: Deploying Out of the Box Process and Technology for Innovation, Client Service and Efficiency” at Solo Practice University™.

Mr. Schaefer has first chair trial experience in a wide variety of litigation matters, including class action litigation, mass accident, internet and domain law, cybersquatting actions, intellectual property, commercial and fiduciary litigation, UDRP and IP licensing. He has represented some of the largest companies in the world in litigation, domain name, trademark and related matters. He has multiple million dollar plus verdicts to his name. He is a frequent author and presenter on issues related to protecting business interests in a global internet economy. Mr. Schaefer represents personal, company and business interests from around the world.

Mr. Schaefer is the Founder of Traverse Legal, PLC, a law firm focused on global protection of business interests, mass tort litigation and class actions specializing in internet law, intellectual property issues, domain disputes, complex litigation, technology company representation and general counsel services.  He is also the author of the very popular blog The Greatest American Lawyer focused on innovative approaches to the practice of law.
Want to join the Faculty? Contact us.