Board of Directors
Steve Rich is a graduate of the University of Utah, receiving his BS in 1975 and his JD in 1980. Steve is with the firm Aiken Schenk and focuses his practice in the areas of complex commercial litigation – including construction disputes – and corporate law. Steve has been a member of the Center's Board of Directors since 2011.
Bruce is a partner at Lewis and Roca, where he handles disputes involving trade secrets, trademarks, unfair competition, and other business litigation. Bruce graduated from Occidental College and NYU School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of The Review of Law and Social Change. He interned with ACLPI as a law student in 1993, and has been a member of ACLPI's board for 15 years.
Michelle Johnson recently opened her own firm, The Law Offices of Michelle Johnson. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona, and graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Following her clerkship with the Arizona Court of Appeals, Michelle has practiced exclusively in the area of representing individuals and their families of those seriously injured or who lose a family member at the hands of someone else’s wrongdoing. She has served on the Center’s Board since 2003.
Sue McAleavey is a faculty member at Mesa Community College, where she teaches sociology and social work and is director of both the Women and Gender Studies and Social Work programs. She is a licensed clinical social worker, with twenty years of direct practice experience both in London and in Arizona. Sue has been a board member of ACLPI since 2004.
Gene has represented clients in real estate, business and related matters for over 30 years in Arizona. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Gene has served on many non-profit boards, including Arizona Civil Liberties Union and Recovery Innovations of Arizona, Inc. He currently serves as a member of the University of Chicago Schools Committee and on the Centennial Theatre Foundation Board of Directors. He has been an ACLPI board member since 2007.
Danny is a founding partner of Adelman German, PLC. Danny has focused his practice on medical malpractice and other catastrophic personal injury litigation for most of the past 20 years. He graduated from the University of Arizona and the Arizona State University College of Law, where he also served as Editor-in-Chief of the ASU Law Journal. He has served on the ACLPI Board of Directors for over 15 years, and is a past president of the Board.
Bob Bartels is a Stanford Law School graduate who has been a professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University since 1982. He has litigated several hundred civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts in Michigan, California, Iowa, and Arizona. Since he returned to the College of Law in 1996, following a two-year stint as an Assistant United States Attorney, he has spent much of his time handling cases for the Arizona Justice Project. He has been a member of the Center’s Board of Directors since for many years.
Mike Brown practiced law in Tucson for 22 years, specializing in trials and appeals; He has argued appeals in both Div I and II of the AZ Court of Appeals, the New Mexico Court of Appeals, the Arizona Supreme court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed to the Superior Court in 1980 and served as Presiding Civil Judge, Associate Presiding Judge and the Presiding Judge of that Court. Mike retired in 2000 and has been on the Center's Board since 2008.
Garry Bryant is a graduate of Purdue University and University of Toledo law school. He worked in legal services representing migrant farmworkers. In private practice he worked in the field of plaintiff's personal injury focusing on insurance bad faith, F.E.L.A. and products liability. He was president of the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association and is listed in the Best Lawyers In America. He is currently retired.
Ms. Desai practices with the law firm of Coppersmith Schermer & Brockelman in Phoenix, Arizona. Her practice focuses in the areas of election and political law, and commercial litigation. Ms. Desai has represented political parties, candidates, local governments, political committees, professional associations, and non-profit organizations in election and constitutional challenges in state and federal court. She has also represented national health care systems, hospitals, and physician practices in commercial disputes, as well as in investigations of fraud and abuse. Ms. Desai has served on the ACLPI Board since 2008.
Stanley is of counsel to the firm of Haralson, Miller, Pitt, Feldman & McAnally, P.L.C. His practice involves serious personal injury cases as well as insurance coverage and bad-faith litigation. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator in cases involving diverse areas of the law. Mr. Feldman served on the Arizona Supreme Court from January 1982 through December 2002, including a five-year term as Chief Justice (1992-1996), and authored hundreds of opinions dealing with all aspects of law. In addition to the ACLPI board, Mr. Feldman is on the board of the Arizona Association for Justice (formerly Arizona Trial Lawyers Association) and United Policyholders.
Dorothy is Administrative Director of the St. Joseph’s Medical Group. She has over 15 years experience as an administrator for both private practice and hospital faculty physician groups. Her experience includes business development, strategic planning, contract negotiating and marketing strategy. She has given presentations on practice management and coding. Dorothy graduated from Arizona State University and has been active in various community organizations for over 20 years.
Peter is an attorney at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he represents clients in media/First Amendment, intellectual property and business disputes. He grew up in Phoenix, and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge Roslyn O. Silver, and has been a member of ACLPI's board for 8 years.
Linda is a partner at Lewis and Roca where she specializes in real estate, commercial leasing, business transactions and related business areas. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard M. Bilby for the American Continental Corporation/Lincoln Savings, Charles M. Keating Multi-District Litigation. She has been active in environmental and natural resources issues for many years, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Wilderness Land Trust. She has been on ACLPI's board for many years.
Shefali has been a member of the ACLPI Board of Directors since 2008. Shefali graduated from the University of Arizona College of Law in 2001, and then spent a year clerking for Vice Chief Justice Ruth McGregor at the Arizona Supreme Court. From 2002 to 2008, Shefali practiced education law, employment law and litigation at the DeConcini McDonald Yetwin and Lacy law firm in Tucson, Arizona. During that time, Shefali worked closely with ACLPI on Flores v. Arizona, an important case in Arizona’s educational landscape. Currently, Shefali is working on raising her young sons, and on writing essays, articles and a work of historical fiction.
Joel is Office Managing Partner of Perkins Coie Brown & Bain, and has practiced in the areas of appellate and complex commercial litigation since joining the firm in 1987. Joel has served as Chair of Perkins Coie’s national Appellate Practice Group, and has briefed and argued appeals throughout the federal appellate system and in Arizona appellate courts. Before joining Perkins Coie, Joel was a member of the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, and a trial attorney in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. Joel attended Georgetown University Law Center and served as a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson, III.
David is a member of the Phoenix law firm Mariscal Weeks McIntyre & Friedlander, where he has a commercial litigation practice. David has been practicing law in Arizona since 1980, after graduating from Stanford Law School in 1979 and teaching for a year at the University of Oregon Law School, in Eugene. He is also a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Claremont Graduate School. Prior to joining the ACLPI Board in 1999, David served for seven years on the Board of Community Legal Services, and as its Chair in 1996. David’s wife of 35 years, Diane Mote, is a Phoenix native. Her father, Ted Mote, was the first executive director of the fledgling Arizona chapter of the ACLU.
Emeritus professor of chemistry from the University of Arizona. Former consultant to the City of Tucson on water quality and pollution chemistry, as well as consultant on air pollution chemistry to environmental agencies, ADEQ and ACLPI. One of the founders of the ACLU of Arizona in 1959, and long time board member since then.
Kristina is currently a trial attorney at the Federal Defender's Office for the District of Arizona. She handles all aspects of federal criminal cases. Kristina obtained her law degree in 2004 from Arizona State University and has been on the board of ACLPI since 2009. In her spare time, Kristina enjoys long-distance running and spending time with her husband, Eric, and their three children.
Lee is Chair of the Investigations and White Colar Defense group at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain. He previously was an Assistant United States Attorney and Special Assistant Arizona Attorney General. Lee is a past president of the Center Board.
Sharon is a shareholder at Sacks Tierney P.A. in Scottsdale, Arizona. She focuses her law practice in construction and real estate related litigation. Sharon also serves on the American Arbitration Association's Commercial and Construction Panels as an Arbitrator and serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Maricopa County Superior Court. Sharon graduated from the Arizona State University College of Law in 1983 where she was Managing Editor of the ASU Law Journal. She interned with the ACLPI as a student in 1982 and is Past President of the ACLPI Board on which she has served for the last 16 years.
Geoffrey Sturr is a member of Osborn Maledon, P.A. in Phoenix. His practice primarily involves commercial litigation, professional liability defense, and internal corporate and governmental investigations. A graduate of Haverford College and the UCLA School of Law, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Cynthia Holcomb Hall, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, before entering private practice.
Barry is a member of Holden Willits PLC. His practice focuses on commercial, construction and surety litigation. He has and continues to represent a wide range of construction industry clients, including owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and sureties. From 1994 through 1996, Mr. Willits clerked for the Honorable Sarah Evans Barker, Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana. He is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and American Bar Association (Construction Forum) and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts for Arizona and Southern Indiana. Mr. Willits is currently the Chair of the State Bar of Arizona’s Construction Section.