Is My Drywall Chinese? - HB Litigation Conferences

clerk in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In 1997, he joined the
firm. During just his first three years, Mr. Ryan was trial counsel and assisted in obtaining over $30
million in trial verdicts and settlements. In 1999, he was honored as one of ten national nominees
for Trial Lawyers of the Year by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. His nomination was based on
his role as trial counsel and the ultimate settlement in the landmark $17.9 million verdict against the
State of Florida for a man suffering from a traumatic brain injury who had been mistreated and
abused in state hospitals. In 2002, Mr. Ryan became a partner with the firm.
William Schuette is a partner in the Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group at Jones
Walker. Since 1983, he has practiced in the areas of commercial, toxic tort, product liability, and
professional liability litigation. He has served as lead counsel and co-counsel in numerous trials in
Louisiana state and federal courts. He has been a seminar speaker on evidentiary issues, architects'
and engineers' liability, insurers' extra-contractual liability, and complex litigation. Mr. Schuette has
represented several Fortune 500® companies in asbestos litigation since 1995. He has personally
handled all phases of litigation from pretrial through appeal. The cases have included single plaintiff
cases, multi-plaintiff consolidations and class actions, and have involved many different products
containing asbestos, including sheetrock, joint compounds, and other building materials. He
represented a major manufacturing defendant in a seven-month trial of a 120-plaintiff consolidation,
resulting in a very favorable verdict. Mr. Schuette has extensive experience examining the medical
and scientific expert witnesses employed by plaintiffs. He has a thorough knowledge of the
epidemiology, medical, and scientific issues raised in asbestos litigation, and has handled many cases
before the United States District Courts' Panel for Multi District Litigation (MDL). Mr. Schuette
served as National Coordinating Counsel for Asbestos Litigation for a Fortune 500® building
materials and paper manufacturer/retailer. Mr. Schuette holds a BS from Louisiana State University
(1980) and a JD from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University (Order of the
Coif, 1983).
Robert Stickley is a partner in the Complex Litigation Group at Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst,
where his practice focuses upon defending insureds and carriers in Toxic Tort, Employment,
Construction, Computer Network Security, Professional Liability, Environmental, Steering and
Fraud claims. He is a frequent lecturer at seminars on the issue of additional insured endorsements
and UM/UIM coverage issues. He has tried numerous cases to verdict and has more than 15 years
of litigation experience. Mr. Stickley is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as
well as several Federal District Circuit and Circuit Courts. In addition, he has represented clients in
New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Mr. Stickley was a member of the Law Review
in his class of 1997 at Widener University School of Law, and also obtained a degree in Litigation
Management from The Philadelphia Institute (1993). Since that time, he has been involved in the
litigation of defense, coverage and other matters, including class action cases.
Hugh Turner is the Chair of Akerman Senterfitt's Products Liability and Mass Torts Practice
Group. Mr. Turner's litigation practice encompasses the areas of products liability, commercial
disputes, class actions, construction, consumer protection class actions and toxic torts. He has
represented clients in complex litigation involving asbestos, silica, mold, lead, benzene,
pharmaceuticals and other toxic substances and serves as Florida regional counsel for a number of
asbestos and silica defendants. He has been a lecturer and published author on topics relating to the
defense of mass torts. Mr. Turner has recently represented retailers of pet food in the successful
defense of claims relating to products that were defectively manufactured in China. Mr. Turner is