David Samani is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois and a member of Lewis Brisbois' Professional Liability Practice. Mr. Samani defends a variety of professionals in civil actions and disciplinary proceedings, with a particular focus on defending attorneys against claims of legal malpractice and malicious prosecution. Mr. Samani is presently the Young Lawyers Division Liaison to the ABA's Standing Committee on Lawyers Professional Liability.
Martha Amrine is a senior claims attorney working at ALPS Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Inc. In this role, she adjusts legal malpractice claims in jurisdictions nationwide. Before working for ALPS, she practiced law in Washington State, concentrating in trial court litigation. She obtained her B.A. from Seattle University and J.D. from Gonzaga University School of Law. She is a member of the Washington State Bar Association.
Darren Goodson currently serves as senior claims counsel at Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society (“ALAS”). ALAS is the country’s largest-owned mutual insurance company, insuring more than 200 premier law firms (and over 62,000 lawyers) across the world. In this role, Darren manages and reserves claims asserted against member firms arising under ALAS's professional liability, employment, and management policies. Darren works cooperatively with ALAS's insured firms and defense counsel to defend and resolve claims on their merits. He is actively involved with the claims he manages, working closely with member firms and defense counsel to evaluate risk, develop strategy, and assess liability.
Before joining ALAS, Darren spent eight years with Holland & Knight LLP in Chicago, Illinois. He was a general litigation practitioner specializing in business and commercial litigation. Darren’s practice areas included real estate, financial services, insurance coverage, entertainment, and shareholders’ rights matters. As a general commercial litigator, he conducted all phases of litigation, including discovery, settlement negotiation, and trial for matters in both state and federal courts.
Darren grew up in the South Suburbs of Chicago and received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Illinois. Darren attended DePaul University College of Law and graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif (top 5% of his class).
A particular focus of Sachin Java's practice involves professional liability litigation. His experience in a wide variety of legal practice areas including commercial finance, corporate formation, governance and compliance, mergers and acquisitions and divestitures complex commercial litigation, general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, mass torts (asbestos), FDA, and health law affords him a distinct outlook in defending attorneys in legal malpractice actions. Prior to joining the legal profession, Sachin served in several clinical research and healthcare administration operational roles at the Cleveland Clinic and as an engineer for DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson and Johnson Company, that gave him experience in financial negotiation, accounting, project management, grant writing, business plan creation, engineering, clinical research, and medical innovation.
Trisha Rich is a partner in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight where she practices in commercial litigation and legal ethics and professional responsibility matters.
In her legal ethics practice, Ms. Rich advises lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel on a variety of issues related to professional responsibility and legal ethics, including professional responsibility, malpractice, partnership and corporate structuring, law firm management and employment issues, fee disputes, conflicts, confidentiality, and privilege, as well as all areas of legal ethics. Ms. Rich is active in the legal ethics community, is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and is a frequent speaker and author on a variety of issues related to ethics and risk management. Prior to practicing law, Ms. Rich taught practical and theoretical ethics at two universities.
Ms. Rich has received a number of accolades for her work in the legal ethics field, including being included as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2018 Notable Women Attorneys, being named in the Law Bulletin's 2017 40 Illinois Lawyers to Watch, being awarded the 2017 Chicago Bar Foundation Maurice Weigle Exceptional Young Lawyer Award, and being included in Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2018 40 Under 40 list. Ms. Rich is also a member of the Chicago Bar Association, a volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois, and sits by appointment of the Illinois Supreme Court as a Commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.
