HarrisMartin’s Webinar Series: Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Litigation Speaker Profiles

Brian Barr is a shareholder at Levin Papantonio Rafferty. He litigates pharmaceutical, environmental, mass tort and personal injury cases throughout the country. Mr. Barr has been appointed to leadership in many of the largest mass tort cases in the country. Mr. Barr is presently serving as co-liaison counsel and a member of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the 3M Combat Arms Earplugs Litigation (MDL 2885) presently pending in the Northern District of Florida before the Honorable Casey Rodgers. The 3M Combat Arms Earplug MDL is the largest MDL in history with over 240,000 pending claims. Mr. Barr recently served as trial counsel in the first bellwether trial in the 3M MDL resulting in a verdict for three plaintiffs in excess of $7 million in both compensatory and punitive damages.

Sara Papantonio is an associate attorney at Levin Papantonio and focuses her practice on mass torts. She graduated from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Journalism. Ms. Papantonio then received her Juris Doctorate from Stetson University College of Law in 2020, graduating cum laude. While in law school, Ms. Papantonio was a member of Stetson’s #1 nationally ranked Trial Team, competing in three regional, and four national competitions. In 2019, she was a Regional Champion and a National Finalist at the National Trial Competition. The following year, Ms. Papantonio was a Regional Champion at the National Trial Competition. Additionally, she excelled at the Tournament of Champions and Top Gun trial competition.

Gabrielle is a South Carolina attorney focusing on medical malpractice and products liability. She earned her law degree, magna cum laude, from the Charleston School of Law, where she served as Student Works Editor for the Charleston Law Review and was named to the Presidential Honors Society. She also earned a B.A. from the University of Maryland with a minor in Philosophy.

While attending law school, Gabrielle was a member of the Moot Court team, a legal research and writing fellow, a MUSC Presidential Scholar, President of the Health Law Society, and intern in General Counsel’s office at the Medical University of South Carolina.

South Carolina attorney George C. Kosko was in private practice from 1975-2000, and he has over 51 years of ex-perience in Aviation Law. He served on the South Carolina Supreme Court, United States Custom Court, and United States District Court of District of Columbia and South Carolina.

In addition to being selected for inclusion in the first Who’s Who in American Law, Judge Kosko also lectured at the University of South Carolina School of Law on trial issues and ethics. He has published in the South Carolina Bar Magazine on Trial Advocacy, American Association of Airport Executives, South Eastern Aviation Managers Association, and South Carolina Aeronautics Commission.

Judge Kosko most notable distinctions include being a Founder of the Charleston School of Law, Founding Pro-fessor of Law at the Charleston School of Law, Vice Pres-ident of Federal Magistrate Judges’ Association, First Family Court Solicitor in South Carolina, and Assistant Solicitor for Richland County.

South Carolina native J. Edward Bell III, founder and senior partner of Bell Legal Group in Georgetown is an attorney, businessman, and entrepreneur. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has distinguished himself as a top litigation attorney at local, state and national levels and has tried more than 300 major cases throughout the United States. He is the Chairman of the Board of Garden & Gun magazine, The Litchfield Company and The Charleston City Paper and serves as President of the Charleston School of Law.

J. Edward Bell III., has led the charge to pass the Camp Lejeune Justice Act for more than 15 years. He championed it along with other elite attorneys and victims alike including Jerry Ensminger and Mike Partain. They worked together to make it law of the land.

His legal career continues to bring him national recognition in the fields of environmental law, auto safety, auto defects and product liability. He is a member of the Bars of South Carolina, United States District Court, District of South Carolina; United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals; United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, United States Supreme Court, and the Inner Circle of Advocates - an invitation only group with membership limited to 100 of the best plaintiff trial lawyers in the United States.

Susan Barfield is the Founder and Chair of the Board at Case Works. Susan has an extensive career in nursing and operations.