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Twelve Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder Attorneys Selected: Connecticut Super Lawyers™ Or Rising Stars

BRIDGEPORT Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder attorneys have been named Connecticut Super Lawyers TM and Rising Stars TM for 2011. Several were also named to the Top 10 and Top 50 lists.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder attorneys have been honored by their peers.

Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder attorneys were chosen as Connecticut Super Lawyers TM in the following categories:

  • Michael P. Koskoff – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • Richard A. Bieder – Personal Injury Plaintiff: General
  • Joel H. Lichtenstein – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • Christopher D. Bernard – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • James D. Horwitz – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • Joshua D. Koskoff – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • William M. Bloss – Personal Injury Plaintiff: General
  • Kathleen L. Nastri – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical
  • Antonio Ponvert III – Civil Rights/First Amendment
  • Carey B. Reilly – Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical

Michael Koskoff and Chris Bernard also were selected by Connecticut Super Lawyers TM in the categories Top 10 and Top 50, Connecticut and Top 100, New England. Richard Bieder was also selected in the categories Top 50, Connecticut and Top 100, New England, and Kathleen Nastri was also selected in the categories Top 50, Connecticut, Top 25 Women, Connecticut, and Top 50 Women, New England, and Top 100, New England.

Additionally, Sean K. McElligott and J. Craig Smith were chosen as Connecticut Rising Stars TM in the primary practice areas of Class Action/Mass Torts and Personal Injury Plaintiff: General, respectively.

Connecticut Super Lawyers TM are named by their peers through independent research conducted by Law & Politics. Law & Politics uses a rigorous selection process that includes requested evaluations from more than 13,000 active lawyers in Connecticut. The selected individuals represent the top 5% of Connecticut attorneys in more than 50 practice areas.

Michael Koskoff is nationally recognized for his numerous successful trials and settlements. He was selected by Best Lawyer, a peer review journal, as Lawyer of the Year for the region in the area of malpractice. He is currently serving a three-year term as a commissioner of Connecticut’s Judicial Selection Commission and is president and Connecticut’s only member of The Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization limited to the top 100 trial lawyers in the nation. Michael is currently consulting for the legal team of Michael Jackson’s family.

Richard Bieder is known for handling high-profile class actions resulting from mass disasters, personal injuries, consumer rights, and more. He has represented victims and their families in high-profile cases nationwide including the Oklahoma City bombings, the Mianus River bridge collapse, and helped create Trial Lawyers Care to aid victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He has lectured abroad extensively, served on numerous committees and was awarded a citation by the Connecticut State Legislature.

Joel Lichtenstein leads Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder‘s medical malpractice investigation team, reviewing complex medical records and consulting with medical experts throughout the U.S. and abroad. He served as an examiner for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, which certifies civil and criminal trial lawyers. In addition, he is a past chair of both the birth trauma litigation group and the professional negligence section of the American Association for Justice.

Christopher Bernard’s practice is primarily devoted to medical negligence, such as birth injuries, surgical errors, hospital negligence, and physician medical malpractice. In a case against Hartford Hospital, Bernard won $36.5 million, which was, at the time, the largest jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in Connecticut history. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America and in Connecticut Magazine as one of the Best Lawyers in Connecticut.

Jim Horwitz handles medical malpractice cases and is known for matters involving obstetrics, cardiology, neurology and pediatric medicine in addition to a wide range of other medical specialties. He has written articles and lectured nationally about birth injuries as well as the use of technology in the courtroom. Horwitz serves on the board of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. Earlier in 2011, Horwitz, with Kathleen Nastri, won the highest medical malpractice award in Connecticut history — $58 million – for a birth injury that resulted in cerebral palsy.

Joshua Koskoff also serves clients harmed or killed because of medical malpractice. Koskoff has won several major courtroom cases, including many cases where insurance companies refused to settle — including a record-setting wrongful death verdict of $22.5 million in 2007. He serves on the board of Connecticut Legal Services, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the legal needs of Connecticut’s poor and low income citizens. In 2004, the Connecticut Law Tribune named Koskoff a “new leader of the law” for his achievements.

In addition to handling personal injury and products liability cases, Bill Bloss litigates complex civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts. He is a member of the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is listed in Best Lawyers in America.

Kathleen Nastri focuses on medical malpractice and personal injury and has brought to trial a number of precedent-setting cases. She is currently serving a term as State Governor of the American Association for Justice, and she was the first female president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. Nastri, with Jim Horwitz, won the highest medical malpractice award in Connecticut history — $58 million – for a birth injury that resulted in cerebral palsy.

Prisoners’ rights, police misconduct and civil rights figure prominently in Antonio Ponvert’s work. He has achieved record-breaking verdicts and settlements on behalf of inmates and victims of police abuse. For more than a decade, Ponvert has represented the Guardians Black Police Officers Association against the Bridgeport Police Department in one of the longest-running employment discrimination suits in the nation. In 2010 he achieved a ground-breaking settlement ($5 million) against a chewing tobacco manufacturer on behalf of the wife of a tongue cancer victim.

Carey Reilly has had numerous courtroom victories in cases concerning medical malpractice, negligence and aviation. Her landmark appellate case of Ely v. Murphy changed Connecticut law, for the first time holding a person legally responsible for supplying liquor to a minor. In another precedent-setting case, a court permitted an AIDS-infected client to sue long after the state’s Statute of Limitations had expired. For the past several years, Carey has lectured on Supreme and Appellate Court decisions at the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association annual meeting.

For his work on class actions and mass torts, Sean McElligott was named a Connecticut Rising Star for 2011. He is an experienced litigator with emphasis on complex litigation, class action and civil rights. McElligott received a Commitment to Justice Award from an organization that provides free legal services to low-income women and children.

J. Craig Smith is a personal injury plaintiff attorney and a Connecticut Rising Star for 2011. He has handled numerous complex cases that have resulted in settlements in excess of $1 million. As co-counsel, he brought a case before the United States Supreme Court. Smith tried dozens of cases to verdict, ranging from personal injury and product liability to antitrust, eminent domain and fraud.

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About Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.

Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, is a nationally known law firm that has achieved record verdicts for people who suffer catastrophic personal injuries or economic harm from medical malpractice, violation of their civil rights, dangerous products, negligence, drunk drivers, corporate or governmental abuse and commercial misconduct. www.koskoff.com .