George R. Barbour, PE has over 32 years of civil engineering, structural engineering, engineering forensic investigations, and construction observation/administration experience. He has prepared plans, specifications, and bid documents for a variety of projects including bridges, parking decks, commercial and residential buildings as well as cellular communication sites.

Mr. Barbour also provides comprehensive engineering and forensics investigation services for a variety of building systems. He has performed construction/design defect assessments, mold and moisture causation investigations, building condition assessments, building code compliance reviews, insurance damage assessment studies, OSHA and accident reconstruction studies, and has provided expert testimony concerning his investigations. Mr. Barbour is the Founding Principle of George Barbour + Associates, PLLC, and the President of G.R. Barbour, Construction, Inc.

Joel R. Rhine is a nationally recognized trial attorney who chooses to live in Wilmington, North Carolina. Mr. Rhine enjoys the best of both worlds; he leads the Rhine Law Firm’s charge on a host of important North Carolina cases, while also participating in large national cases (primarily class action and mass tort cases with an occasional massive single event matter). Mr. Rhine has decades of experience in complex litigation and is one of the most recognized and respected trial attorneys in North Carolina.

Mr. Rhine is comfortable in the complex trial atmosphere where his fee and advanced expenses are fully dependent on a successful resolution. In many instances his clients have no viable economic future if the case is lost. Often the defense considers the case to be “bet the company” litigation and hires the top lawyers from the largest law firms to defend the case. These lawsuits are tough and expensive- often the advanced costs are in the six and seven figure range. Of course, when the stakes are this high, the lawyers are sharp, skilled and prepared. This is the setting for Mr. Rhine’s contingency-fee caseload.

Mr. Rhine is constantly seeking challenges and thus the types of cases he works on are varied. This variety is exemplified by a sampling of his recent results and pending cases:
• Several seven-figure recoveries in a series of stairway and deck in vacation rental homes in coastal North Carolina,
• $25 million plus settlement in a Pella Window Class Action in the North District of Illinois ((Eubank, et al v. Pella Corporation and Pella Windows and Doors (United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 06 C 44810);
• Co-lead counsel in largest individual Chinese Drywall settlement, which was valued at over $24 million;
• Co-lead counsel in Finerman et al v. Marriott Ownership Resorts, Inc, and International Cruise & Excursion Gallery (United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, 3:14-cv-1154) which settled for over 16.5 (including attorneys’ fees);
• Lead counsel for 3 victims injured in the Florida International University Bridge Collapse cases in Miami (this matter is still pending);
• $3.1 million settlement that occurred during trial in a bus collision case occurring in Virginia;
• $9.0 million wrongful death judgment from a parasailing tragedy in North Carolina;
• 2.0 million recovery related to a motorcycle-truck accident in North Carolina;
• Significant confidential settlements for victims of the Oak Island Bridge Collapse over the ICWW in North Carolina;
• Member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Benicar (Olmesartan) Products Liability Litigation in New Jersey.

Mr. Rhine’s hard work has been recognized by his peers and many publications. Mr. Rhine has been recognized repeatedly as a SuperLawer – Top 100 North Carolina Lawyers; Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite; Best Lawyers; National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers; and has enjoyed an AV rating by Martindale Hubbell since 2002 and more. The Rhine Law Firm has repeatedly been named a “Tier 1 Best Firm” by U.S. News and World Reports.

BACKGROUND:

• Mr. Rhine graduated from Wake Forest University Law School in 1988 as one of the only students ever to be published twice in the Law Review.
• After WFU, Mr. Rhine accepted a “big law” position with Hunton & Williams in their Raleigh office. His work at Hunton & Willams was dominated by 2 nuclear power plant construction cases, one in Dallas/Fort Worth and the other in Raleigh.
• In the early 1990s, Mr. Rhine moved to Wilmington and established a contingency fee construction, product liability and personal injury practice.
• Mr. Rhine achieved his first eight-figure verdict in a federal jury trial at age 30.
• Mr. Rhine filed the first lawsuit in what became the multi-decade, multi-state synthetic stucco (EIFS) litigation, where he represented thousands of homeowners against a variety of constructions participants and manufacturers. When this mass tort litigation bogged down, Mr. Rhine began taking the cases to trial. The first trial ended in a settlement after six weeks of testimony. Later, Mr. Rhine obtained the nation’s first verdict against an EIFS manufacturer. This multimillion-dollar verdict was a catalyst for a national EIFS settlement against this EIFS manufacturer.
• Mr. Rhine sought new challenges after the EIFS litigation, including class actions of many types, business dispute litigation, catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases, product liability actions and data breach cases. He is regularly invited to participate in interesting, important, and complex litigation by attorneys who know his trial talents, integrity, and work ethic. He has been counsel, lead counsel, or a member of the Plaintiff Steering Committee in dozens of class actions and national mass tort cases.

As a frequently requested speaker on legal topics for trial lawyers and judges, Mr. Rhine speaks at continuing education seminars on topics ranging from trial skills, class actions, ethics, and more. Mr. Rhine has presented on multiple occasions throughout the United States for, among others, Mass Torts Made Perfect, North Carolina Advocates of Justice, North Carolina Bar Association, Mealeys, Lorman, and the AEI-Brookings Joint Center Judicial Education Program.

Finally, and above all, Mr. Rhine is a devoted family man. He and Alice Rhine will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in May 2020. Their son, Michael, graduated from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill and is an investment banker in Charlotte. Their daughter, Julia is a student at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Jamie has been a critical care/trauma/flight nurse over the past 11 years and working as a legal nurse consultant for the past 10 years. She was initially involved in defense personal injury and transitioned to plaintiff-focused reviews 6 years ago. She has been involved in all aspects of medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and negligence, birth injury, pharmaceutical and device litigation.

Ryan has worked with plaintiff attorneys for over the past 11 years helping to assist with medical record retrieval and analysis, along with helping to protect claimants’ current and future public benefits.

He developed the operational process for the company’s Medical Record Retrieval department, successfully navigating the hurdle of dealing with the HITECH Act as a third party requestor. He now primarily focuses on cultivating strong business relationships with attorney customers to drive business development.

J. Joaquin Fraxedas is founder and president of Fraxedas Mediation Firm, a full-service alternative dispute resolution (ADR) firm.

Mr. Fraxedas was first certified as a Circuit-Civil Mediator by the Florida Supreme Court in 1991, and in the past twenty nine years has mediated more than eight thousand complex multi-party actions in state and federal courts, including but not limited to multi-party commercial, construction, admiralty, aviation, railroad, actions against taxing authorities, employment, telecommunications, environmental, franchise, licensing, intellectual property, medical, legal and other professional malpractice, nursing home, catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death, toxic tort, bad faith, class action, multi-district, as well as appellate mediation. Prior to his ADR practice, Mr. Fraxedas’ practice focused on the trial of medical, products liability, and other complex cases.

He has lectured numerous bar and judicial conferences on dispute resolution, including the FJA annual “Workhorse Seminar” for the past eleven years and has served on the faculty of the University of Florida Levin College of Law as an adjunct professor teaching negotiation. He is a Founding Fellow of The American College of Civil Trial Mediators –a national organization of pre-eminent dispute resolution professionals. He is also a Charter Member of The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He was also appointed and served as an appellate judge in the panels reviewing claims for the BP-Deep Horizon Gulf Oil Spill Claims program.

EDUCATION

J.D. University of Florida College of Law, 1975
B.A. University of Florida, 1972

COURT ADMISSIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Florida Supreme Court (1975)
The Florida Bar (1975)
Orange County Bar Association (1975) (Executive Committee 1992-94)
United States Supreme Court (1981)
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (1976)
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (1976)
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida (1976)
Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator (1991)
Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal Certified Appellate Mediator (2006)
U.S. District Courts, Middle & Southern District of Florida Certified Mediator (1992)
Fellow, American College of Civil Trial Mediators (1995) (Serves on the editorial board). Membership is by invitation only and limited to a small fraction (less than 1%) of practicing mediators in each U.S. state. Voted Distinguished Fellow 2009.
American Board of Trial Advocates (1989) – Charter Member
National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (Advisory Committee) – (2007). Membership in the National Academy is also by invitation only and limited to less than 1% of practicing mediators in each U.S. state.

• Charter Member of the Orlando Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (nominated by the executive committee of American Board of Trial Advocates) (1989)
• The Best Lawyers in America (recognized by peers for inclusion)
• Florida Trend’s Legal Elite (recognized by peers for inclusion)
• Florida Super Lawyers – Corporate Counsel Edition (recognized by peers for inclusion)
• Orlando’s Best Lawyers (recognized by peers for inclusion)

PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES

• Article: Mixed Blessings: The Damage Dilemma in Birth Related Actions, Trial Advocate Quarterly (1989)

• Novel: The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera, St. Martin’s Press, N.Y., (1993)

• Commencement Speaker at Georgia College and State University, (2004)

• Numerous CLE Seminar Presentations to bar and judicial conferences as well as fortune 500 companies and educational institutions (1983 – present).

• Numerous CLE presentations to the “Florida Justice Association Annual Workhorse Seminar”.

Billie-Marie is one of only a few attorneys formally recognized by the State Bar of Nevada, as an attorney “Specialized in the area of Workers’ Compensation.” This recognition and certification is not easy to come by as it takes many years of practice in the area of Workers’ Compensation, a specific number of cases managed and taken to the Appeals level, as well as the Nevada District and Supreme Courts. On top of that, it requires passing a very difficult written and oral examination.

Billie-Marie grew up in Massachusetts and moved to Nevada in 1989. She received her MBA from UNLV and was admitted to the William S. Boyd School of Law Charter Class in 1998. During law school, Billie-Marie interned at the United States District Court, District of Nevada for the Honorable Johnnie B. Rawlinson, followed by a second internship and then continued with Judge Rawlinson serving 2 clerkships when Judge Rawlinson was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After her clerkships, Billie-Marie’s legal career was focused on complex litigation, focusing on mass torts, primarily in the area of products liability.

In 2007 Billie-Marie joined our law firm, and while continuing to practice products liability and personal injury, her passion to help people turned into an amazing career representing people injured on the job and now manages the firm’s workers’ compensation department.

Some of Billie-Marie’s many accomplishments include co-teaching a Workers’ Compensation class at William S. Boyd School of Law, teaching Administrative Law at the College of Southern Nevada for a number of years, served as a Board Member for the Nevada Justice Association, served as a Board member for the Southern Nevada Association for Women Attorneys, served as a Board member for the national Work Injury Law Group (WILG), and is continually rated Top 100 Work Comp lawyers in the country, amongst many other distinctions.

Billie-Marie continually teaches seminars, webinars and continuing educations classes for attorneys in the areas of Workers’ Compensation, social media, and ethics. She was the editor for the American Justice Associates Workers’ Compensation Division Newsletter editor and continues to assist locally and nationally in advancing the rights and benefits for injured workers and their families. Billie-Marie has also authored countless legal journal articles, authored a chapter in a trial practice book as well as a legal practice manual. Billie-Marie is involved with Women Heart, a cause that strikes a personal chord with her, and has lobbied locally and nationally for women with heart disease. As a result of her volunteer efforts, she hosted the radio show “Double Take.”

Billie-Marie is licensed to practice law in the state of Nevada, as well as in the United Stated District Court for the District of Nevada and the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Shayla Reed concentrates her practice in the area of nursing home litigation. Ms. Reed serves on American Association for Justice’s National College of Advocacy (NCA) Board of Trustees and has taught trial advocacy skills at several AAJ continuing legal education programs including AAJ’s Ultimate Trial Advocacy Course: The Art of Persuasion held at Harvard Law School.

Ms. Reed also serves as the current vice president of the AAJ Nursing Home Litigation Group. She is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College and was commended by the International Academy of Trial Lawyers for distinguished achievement in the art and science of advocacy. Ms. Reed is a member of the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys and the American Association for Justice. Reed Law Offices, PC, LLO is located in Omaha, Nebraska.

Kenneth H. Levinson is the founding partner of Levinson and Stefani, a Chicago firm concentrating in representing families in wrongful death and serious injury matters. Ken co-authored the current edition of Litigating Major Automobile Injury and Death Cases, published by AAJ Press/Thomson-Reuters. He is a graduate of the prestigious Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College. Ken was named by Illinois Super Lawyers magazine as one of the top attorneys in Illinois for 2010 – 2019 and made the list of the Super Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers in Illinois in 2012, 2016 and 2019.

He is currently the Vice-Chair for AAJ’s Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, the Co-Chair of AAJ’s Jury Bias Litigation Group, and the past Chair of AAJ’s Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway and Premises Liability Section. Ken currently serves on the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Board of Managers and is one of Illinois’ Board of Governors to AAJ. Ken is a Co-Chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Solo/Small Firm Committee. He is also an invited speaker and faculty member at various trial lawyer programs throughout the country.

Sara L. Williams is the Managing Attorney for Alexander Shunnarah Personal Injury Attorneys, one of the largest personal injury firms in the southeast. In addition to managing the firm, she also practices in the areas of trucking, premises liability, motor vehicle negligence and wrongful death litigation. Sara has collected over $20 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients. Most recently she was responsible for a $12 million dollar verdict against the Birmingham Max Bus system.

She has been named a “Rising Star” by Alabama Super Lawyers Magazine since 2011. In 2017 she was recognized by the Birmingham Business Journal as one of Birmingham’s “Top 40 Under 40” and in 2018 that same publication honored Sara as one of Birmingham’s Women to Watch. In 2018 Sara was awarded the prestigious Stetson University College of Law Edward D. Ohlbaum Professionalism Award for 2018. The Edward D. Ohlbaum Award honors an individual whose life and practice display sterling character and integrity, coupled with a dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law.

Sara is an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy at Cumberland School of Law and also serves as a coach for Cumberland School of Law’s nationally ranked mock trial teams. She is a 2003 graduate of Florida State University and a 2006 graduate of Cumberland School of Law.

Attorney Travis Mohler concentrates his practice on representing individuals who have been catastrophically injured or killed by the negligence or carelessness of others. The primary focus of his practice is helping those who have been injured or killed in truck crashes; however, he has extensive experience in litigating claims involving all types of catastrophic injuries and wrongful death, including workplace accidents, construction accidents, industrial accidents, and oil and gas explosions. Travis also represents consumers injured by defective products in product liability actions.

Since joining Colombo Law in 2007, Travis has served as first chair and co-counsel on many wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases. Mr. Mohler has successfully achieved many multi-million dollar settlements on behalf of clients who were catastrophically injured or killed by the negligence of others.

In 2012, Travis was selected for membership into The National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40. This membership is by invitation only and is extended exclusively to those trial lawyers who exemplify superior qualifications, trial results, and leadership as a young lawyer under the age of 40. He has been selected to the Top 40 Under 40 every year since and currently serves on the executive committee.

In 2015 – and every year since – Travis was nominated by his peers and selected as a Super Lawyers’ Rising Star in both Ohio and West Virginia; an award limited to the top 2 1/2 percent of lawyers under 40 in each state. Mr. Mohler is Lead Counsel Rated.

Mr. Mohler is a member of the National Trial Lawyers Association (NTLA), The Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (ATAA), and the American Association for Justice (AAJ).

Travis attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, in 2003. Travis received his law degree from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio where he graduated summa cum laude. While in law school, Mr. Mohler served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Gregory L. Frost of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Travis currently resides in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio with his wife, daughter, and son.