J. Ric Gass Gass Weber Mullins LLC Milwaukee, Wisconsin 414-223-3300

The 2011-2012 President of the Litigation Counsel of America is J. Ric Gass, a founding member and senior shareholder in the Milwaukee law firm of Gass Weber Mullins LLC.

Ric is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a Diplomat in the American Board of Trial Advocates, and a Fellow in the International Society of Barristers. He has been selected as a Master of the Bench for the American Inns of Court and as Senior Counsel in The College of Master Advocates and Barristers and to the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He is Board Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Along with being President of the LCA, Ric has also served as President of the Order of Centurions and is a Co-Founder of The Trial Law Institute, both of which were created under the auspices of the LCA.

Ric formerly served on DRI’s Board of Directors and is a past president of both the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel and Lawyers for Civil Justice and will be president of the Litigation Counsel of America in 2011. Approximately 75% of his practice is for corporations and insurance carriers with 25% of his practice representing corporations and insurers as plaintiffs. Representing a corporation and municipality as clients Ric won the largest verdict in the history of the State of Wisconsin: $104.4 million.

In addition to his active trial practice Mr. Gass has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School and has been regularly invited to do ten or more presentations a year at national legal conferences in his specialty area of trial presentation. He has spoken to the annual conventions of more than 25 state and local defense organizations, he is regularly the highest rated speaker at DRI seminars and has presented at the annual conventions of all national defense and insurance organizations. He frequently is the featured speaker at such events. He has authored more than 30 articles and book chapters and holds an AV rating from Martindale. He has been selected for inclusion in Leading American Attorneys and Who’s Who in American Law. Milwaukee Magazine described him as “The man who can speak to juries”.

Mr. Gass’ practice is national in scope, and he has taken almost 300 cases to verdict, winning ninety-five percent of them. His areas of specialty are catastrophic injury, bad faith, products liability and punitive damages. Mr. Gass has been listed in The Best Lawyers of America for over a decade and has been selected for inclusion in the listing of the top 50 Wisconsin SuperLawyers and in “The Best Lawyers in Milwaukee.” He is also a member of the IADC.  Mr. Gass’ practice includes serving as lead trial counsel, supervising national counsel, trial strategy consultant and as an expert witness for bad faith, legal malpractice and insurance litigation. Articles about his trial work have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post.