Trial Advocacy Program Faculty
Faculty for the Trial Advocacy Program are experienced litigators who bring of wealth of hard-won knowledge and insights to the classroom.
Gwen Roseman Stern
The Trial Advocacy Program is directed by the Director of Trial Advocacy and Associate Teaching Professor Gwen Roseman Stern, who is both an experienced litigator and a leader in promoting trial advocacy skills and community awareness of legal procedures. A former associate with the Philadelphia law firms Kline and Specter PC, White and Williams LLC, Professor Stern tried numerous medical malpractice cases. As an associate with Harvey, Pennington, Herting and Renneisen, she prepared pleadings, motions, legal briefs and discovery in medical malpractice, pharmaceutical and products liability cases and conducted depositions and arbitrations in defense of personal injury litigation. Professor Stern directs the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which she brought to Philadelphia as a joint undertaking between the Earle Mack School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania Law School to encourage city high-school students to learn about their rights and responsibilities under the Constitution.
Previously, Professor Stern was an adjunct professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law teaching both introduction and advanced trial advocacy. She also directed the trial training program for Temple LEAP (Law, Education, and Participation)’s Philadelphia High School Mock Trial Competition.
She earned her J.D. from Temple University, where she was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society and named the best oral advocate in the I. Herman Stern Moot Court Competition.
The Honorable Mark I. Bernstein
J.D., University of Pennsylvania School of Law
B.A., St. John's College
Judge Bernstein has has served as a judge of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania since April, 1987. Judge Bernstein is the author of the comprehensive commentary on Pennsylvania Evidence published by Gann Press. He is the recipient of the Foundation for the Improvement of Justice, Inc. Award and the Lawdragon Magazine "100 Best Judges in the United States." He has taught judges and lawyers across the U.S., including teaching at the National Judicial College. He designed the Philadelphia case management system, which brings all civil cases to trial within two years and has made the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas a model for state court case management.
Courses: Advanced Evidence; Pennsylvania Practice; Trial Advocacy
Bartholomew J. Dalton
J.D., University of Tulsa College of Law
B.A., St. Joseph's College
Professor Dalton's practice focuses on plaintiff medical malpractice and personal injury. Professor Dalton has been recognized by Best Lawyers as the 2012 Lawyer of the Year in personal injury litigation. He is a current member of the Delaware Bar Association and Delaware Trial Lawyers Association.
Course: Introduction to Trial Advocacy
The Honorable Legrome D. Davis
J.D., Rutgers University School of Law
B.A., Princeton University
Judge Davis was appointed to the U. S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2002. He previously sat in the Court of Common Pleas, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, after serving as an assistant district attorney and later as assistant deputy district attorney in Philadelphia.
Course: Advanced Trial Advocacy: Criminal
The Honorable Mitchell S. Goldberg
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., Ithaca College
Judge Goldberg was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2008, after having been elected to a 10-year term on the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas in 2003. He previously was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a partner with Cozen O'Connor and an assistant district attorney with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
Course: Advanced Trial Advocacy: Civil; Sentencing Law
Sarah L. Grieb
J.D., George Washington University Law School
B.A., Northwestern University
Professor Grieb has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since 1989, investigating and prosecuting violations of federal law, including public corruption, health care fraud, HUD fraud, environmental crimes, bank fraud and credit card fraud. She previously worked as an attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
Course: Advanced Trial Advocacy: Criminal
Brian D. Kent
LL.M., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., University of Delaware
Professor Kent is a partner at Laffey Bucci Kent, LLP where his practice focuses on construction accidents, medical malpractice and products liability. He received numerous accolades as a member of Temple University's National Trial Team. Professor Kent currently serves as chair of the American Ireland Fund - Young Leaders of Philadelphia and is on the board of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
Course: Introduction to Trial Advocacy
Richard Kolb
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., Dickinson College
Professor Kolb is a former partner at White and Williams, LLP, in the firm’s Litigation Department where he was a senior member of the Healthcare Law Group. For several years, he served a chair of that practice group. As an active trial lawyer for 34 years, he prepared hundreds of cases for trial and tried to verdict nearly 100 major cases, primarily representing physicians and healthcare institutions in medical malpractice litigation. He has extensive experience as an instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and has participated as a faculty member in numerous CLE programs teaching trial advocacy skills. From 2005 through 2011, he was selected in a survey of his peers as a Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine.
Course: Pretrial Advocacy
T. Matthew Leckman
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., magna cum laude, University of Pittsburgh
Professor Leckman is a partner at Pogust Braslow & Millrood, where he focuses on mass torts and complex pharmaceutical litigation. Leckman played a lead role in the firm’s antidepressant suicide injury and hormone therapy cases, which have won multi-million dollar awards from juries. He litigates the firm’s cases in federal courts across the country and locally in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas’ Mass Tort Program. Leckman has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2010-2012 and was selected as a member of the National Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 40 Under 40. Leckman is also one of the coaches of the Mock Trial Team, which won three tournaments in two years.
Courses: Introduction to Trial Advocacy; Advanced Trial Advocacy
Jeffrey Marc Lindy
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., Cornell University
Professor Lindy is a well accomplished criminal defense attorney and complex commercial litigator. His firm represents companies and individuals under investigation for, or charged with, white collar crimes and in related civil and administrative litigation. Professor Lindy formerly served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where he prosecuted federal crimes including mail fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and narcotics trafficking. Prior to working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he served as a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in New York.
Course: Introduction to Trial Advocacy - Practice
Patricia A. McKinney
J.D., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law
B.A., West Chester University
Professor McKinney is a partner at McKinney & George, LLP where her practice focuses on complex capital homicides and appeals. She is a former Assistant Defender for the Defender Association of Philadelphia where she was a member of the Special Defense and Homicide Unit.
Course: Introduction to Trial Advocacy
The Honorable Sue L. Robinson
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School
B.A., University of Delaware
Judge Robinson was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and served as chief justice from 2000 to 2007. Previously, she was a U.S. magistrate with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware.
Course: Pretrial Advocacy
Storm Wilkins
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School
B.A., cum laude, American University
Professor Wilkins is the founder of Precedent Corporate Training, LLC, a New Jersey-based company that offers courses on topics of interest to the property casualty insurance industry. Previously, she was an attorney and claims specialist with ACE USA Insurance Company's Long Term Exposure Claims Unit and served as assistant general counsel to the Corporate Legal Department of AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Group.
Course: Introduction to Trial Advocacy - Practice