AAJ 2008-2009 Executive Officers
President: Les Weisbrod of Miller, Curtis & Weisbrod in Dallas, TX
President-Elect: Anthony Tarricone of Kreindler & Kreindler, LLP in Boston, MA
Vice President: C. Gibson Vance of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, PC in Montgomery, AL
Secretary: Gary M. Paul of Water & Kraus, LLP in El Segundo, CA
Treasurer: Richard M. Golomb of Golomb & Honik, PC in Philadelphia, PA
Parliamentarian: J. Burton LeBlanc IV of Baron & Budd, PC in Baton Rouge, LA
President:
Les Weisbrod of Miller, Curtis & Weisbrod in Dallas, TX
An active member of AAJ for over 25 years, Weisbrod most recently was President-Elect. He served as Director of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association for over 20 years and has been a member of the Board of Governors since 1998. He served as founding Co-Chairman for AAJ's Birth Trauma Litigation Group from 1991-93. Weisbrod is also the founder and first co-chair of the Medical Negligence Information Exchange Litigation Group of AAJ.
Weisbrod is a partner in the Dallas law firm of Miller, Curtis & Weisbrod. He has successfully tried multiple medical malpractice cases and has obtained more medical malpractice punitive damage jury verdicts for his clients than any other attorney in the United States, according to Professor Michael Rustad, a nationally recognized expert on punitive damages. Weisbrod’s verdict against Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas was reported as one of the 100 most important verdicts in the United States by National Law Journal in 2003. He was featured in Dallas’ “D” Magazine as one the best lawyers in Dallas for 2003-2005, and as “a Texas Super Lawyer” for 2003-2004 in Texas Monthly.
Weisbrod received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University Law School in 1978 and his B.A. from Claremont Men's College in 1975.
President-Elect:
Anthony Tarricone of Kreindler & Kreindler, LLP in Boston, MA
A partner with Kreindler & Kreindler, LLP at its Boston office, Tarricone served as AAJ Vice President in 2007-2008, Secretary in 2006-2007, Treasurer in 2005-06, and Parliamentarian in 2004-05. He was a member of the Executive Committee from 2000 to 2004 and the Board of Governors from 1988 to 2004. A trustee of the Roscoe Pound Institute and the AAJ PAC Board of Trustees, he has chaired the National Finance Council and the Public Affairs, Exchange Advisory, and Publications committees.
Tarricone graduated from Suffolk University in Boston in 1975 and earned his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1977.
As a result of his experience and active involvement in legal issues, Tarricone is frequently asked to lecture and write for various bar and professional associations. He has published articles in various legal journals and has presented well over 50 lectures and papers for various seminars, continuing education programs, and university courses. He has also served for two years as a law instructor at the Boston University School of Law.
Vice President:
C. Gibson Vance of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, PC in Montgomery, AL
Vance, a trial attorney from Montgomery, Alabama, is a specialist in the Consumer Fraud division of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, PC. He acts in behalf of individuals and small businesses against insurance companies and various other entities within the insurance industry.
Before coming to Beasley Allen, Vance was a partner at the Montgomery-based firm of Hawthorne, Hawthorne & Vance.
At AAJ, Vance serves on the Public Affairs Committee and formerly served a two-year term as a member of the Board of Directors for the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, a national organization designed to promote a fair and impartial judicial system for all.
Vance has served as Vice President of the Montgomery County Bar Association and Treasurer of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association. He was the president of the Young Lawyer's section of the Montgomery County Bar Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the Montgomery County Bar Association.
Vance attended the Jones School of Law at Faulkner University where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association and received the Advocacy Award as the outstanding graduate of his class in 1992. He also helped found the Jones School of Law Future Trial Lawyers Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Troy State University in 1987.
Secretary:
Gary M. Paul of Water & Kraus, LLP in El Segundo, CA
Gary M. Paul, a counsel with the law firm of Water & Kraus, LLP in El Segundo, California, has successfully litigated cases ranging from products liability to construction negligence over the past 30 years. He has handled more than 100 jury trials and currently focuses on the trial of mesothelioma asbestos cases. Waters & Kraus, LLP, is a national plaintiffs’ firm concentrating on complex product liability and personal injury/wrongful death cases, particularly toxic tort litigation and pharmaceutical product liability.
Paul graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1974. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Science degree in Engineering from UCLA.
Prior to beginning his law career in 1975, Paul was a missile and space engineer, working in electronic design and systems engineering for aerospace companies, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As an engineer, he was involved in the design of spacecraft that both orbited and landed on Mars.
Paul has dedicated time and energy to improve the field of law and was cited as the Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles in 1981. In 1996 he received the Edward I. Pollock Award for his "dedication, efforts, and effectiveness" in consumer matters. He has also held such prestigious positions as the President of both the Los Angeles Consumer Attorneys and the California Consumer Attorneys and is an elected member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Treasurer:
Richard M. Golomb of Golomb & Honik, PC in Philadelphia, PA
A Philadelphia environmental, mass tort and personal injury lawyer, Richard M. Golomb is the managing shareholder of the eight-attorney firm of Golomb & Honik, PC. The firm's concentration is in toxic exposure, consumer class action, and individual catastrophic personal injury claims.
In his sixth year as a member of the AAJ Board of Governors, Golomb is also serving his second term on AAJ’s Executive Committee and serves as a trustee of the AAJ Political Action Committee. He has also served as the Mid-Atlantic regional chair on AAJ’s National Finance Counsel and was recently asked to serve as vice-chair of AAJ’s Leaders Forum.
Parliamentarian:
J. Burton LeBlanc IV of Baron & Budd, PC in Baton Rouge, LA
Upon graduation from Loyola University School of Law (New Orleans) in 1990, Burton LeBlanc had a chance encounter with a man suffering from mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos, that ignited what would become the driving passion behind his career: to help people who had been harmed by exposure to dangerous workplace and environmental contaminants. Ultimately, Burton’s namesake law firm (LeBlanc & Waddell) was designated by both the Louisiana AFL-CIO and the Louisiana NAACP as occupational disease counsel.
In addition to litigating cases, beginning in 1996, Burton became an outspoken advocate for consumers’ rights before the Louisiana legislature and the United States Congress. In these capacities, he found that, while it was important and gratifying to help craft legislation to protect consumers against corporate misconduct, litigation played a critical role in enforcing these laws and regulations.
Burton has since served as president of the Louisiana Association for Justice (Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association) and has been appointed to numerous committees by federal courts and the Louisiana Supreme Court. He has testified before the Louisiana legislature, appeared on radio and television shows, and spoken at many legal seminars about consumers’ rights and misguided tort reform efforts.
Burton is active in the American Association for Justice where he serves currently as its Parliamentarian and previously, on the Board of Governors, National Finance Committee, PAC Committee and the Leaders Forum. Recently, Burton received the Wiedemann Wysocki National Finance Council Award. He also served as Vice-President of the Council of Presidents for State Trial Lawyer Associations and more locally, as the immediate past president of Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge.
In 2004, LeBlanc & Waddell joined forces with Dallas-based Baron & Budd, PC, one of the country’s top plaintiffs’ firms, and with the consolidation of the two firms in 2008, Burton became a shareholder at Baron & Budd.
On a personal level, Burton resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is married with four daughters and serves on various leadership committees at both his church and his children’s schools.
