2026 Annual Winter Meeting
Registration: Register Here
Join us for the 2026 Winter Meeting—an engaging day of insightful discussions, dynamic speakers, and valuable networking opportunities you won’t want to miss! Secure your spot and be part of a program designed to elevate your practice.
Title: Meeting The Challenge: A New Defense Model
Vendor Networking + Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome
9:00 – 9:10 a.m.
[Opening Session] Defending Healthcare Heroes
9:10 – 10:10 a.m.
Runaway verdicts are no longer anomalies. They are a structural risk driven by psychology, narrative control, and early-case missteps that compound long before trial. John will teach us that “we don’t just try cases, we need to craft narratives that connect with juries, grounded in credibility, fairness and respect for the civil justice system.” Controlling the Uncontrollable teaches defense counsel, how to address increasingly aggressive plaintiff tactics and regain control. John also will emphasis the need for stronger defense cooperation and presentation to help avoid run-away verdicts, and describe practical tools to identify severity trajectories, establish credible defense anchors, and manage risk before exposure hardens.
presented by John E. Hall, Jr., Esq. – Hall Booth Smith, P.C
Vendor Networking + Refreshment Break
10:10 – 10:30 a.m.
[Keynote] Telling the Defense Story
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
David Mann shows lawyers how to simplify, clarify, and organize their case material to have lasting persuasive impact. All defense practice areas will benefit from this presentation, with a particular emphasis on medical malpractice cases. Going beyond basic presentation skills, David teaches defense lawyers of any experience level how to build on the facts to add a dynamic narrative arc that grabs attention and keeps it. He shares how to make a defense story resonate by unfolding it strategically, while using vocal inflection and body language to make it come alive.
Key areas of focus:
• Finding the most persuasive narrative angle on a case
• Efficiently re-focusing the jury on “the story they’re not telling you”
• Organizing the flow of spoken material for persuasive impact
• Translating complex legal jargon into plain language
• Using body language and simple staging to illustrate key case story aspects
• Creating written material that sounds right when spoken
• Projecting confidence and power in the space”
presented by David Mann
Lunch + Presentations
12:00 – 1:10 p.m.
MDTC/MAJ Respected Advocate Award: presented by Rik Joppich – Joppich Law, PLLC
Every year, MDTC and MAJ each present a “Respected Advocate Award.” The MDTC annually gives the award to a member of the plaintiff’s bar for the purpose of recognizing and honoring the individual’s history of successful representation of clients and adherence to the highest standards of ethics. The MAJ does the same annually for a defense practitioner. In doing so, we promote mutual respect and civility.
Best Article Award:
For its annual Best Article Award, the MDTC selects an article from each volume of Michigan Defense Quarterly to recognize as the best.
Unsubstantiated Anchoring: Paintings and Jets and Baseball Contracts, Oh My!
1:15 – 2:00 p.m.
The multi-million-dollar cost of famous paintings, jets, and sports contracts has nothing to do with personal-injury damages awards. Yet, plaintiffs frequently reference them during closing arguments. Why? It’s anchoring—the exploitation of bias in numerical estimates based on exposure to arbitrary numbers. In this session, you’ll learn what anchoring is, how it works, and how defendants can address it.
presented by Mike Cook – Collins Einhorn Farrell PC