NJ Attorneys on New Jersey Cross Examination

Presenters

William E. Staehle, Esq.

Leary Bride Mergner & Bongiovanni P.A., Cedar Knolls

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is counsel to Leary Bride Mergner & Bongiovanni, P.A. in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey. He has conducted more than 50 jury trials and 35 bench trials, and argued more than 25 state and federal appeals, including Kimmelman v. Morrison before the United States Supreme Court, a case in which he prevailed. He was appointed by the New Jersey Superior Court as a personal injury arbitrator, serving for ten years, and since 1987 has been certified continuously by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Civil Trial Attorney.

Mr. Staehle served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Board on Attorney Certification, becoming Chair of its Civil Committee (2003-2008) and the Chair of the Board (2008-2012). He Is Past Chair of and has served on the New Jersey State Bar Association's Certified Attorneys Section and is also a charter member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Board on Continuing Legal Education, for which he served as Chair from 2011 through 2021. In 2010, Mr. Staehle was appointed by the Disciplinary Oversight Committee to a 4-year term as an outside ethics investigator for the Office of Attorney Ethics, attached to the District XIII Ethics Committee. The Supreme Court appointed him to its Special Committee on Attorney Ethics and Admissions in 2013 to study ethics rules changes proposed by the American Bar Association.

For 22 years Mr. Staehle guest lectured on “Legal Aspects of Advanced Trauma Life Support” at the University of Medicine and Dentistry. He is the recipient of the Travelers Joseph P. Stabnick Claim Legal Award for Career Achievement and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Professional Excellence bestowed by the New Jersey Law Journal.

Mr. Staehle is a graduate of Cornell University. Following graduation, he served three years as an officer with the U.S. Army, including a one-year tour of duty as a Company Commander in the Republic of South Vietnam. He resigned from the Army to attend Seton Hall Law School where he earned his law degree.
(8/23)

Gerald H. Baker, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, P.C.

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is Counsel to Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, P.C. with offices in Springfield, Jersey City, Hackensack, Newark, Freehold, Elizabeth and Mt. Laurel, New Jersey; and New York City. He represents plaintiffs in personal injury and wrongful death cases including automobile, premises, aviation, railroad, construction, products liability and medical malpractice, and was formerly the Managing Partner of Baker, Pedersen & Robbins in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Mr. Baker is admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third and Fourth Circuits; and the United States Supreme Court. He is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Automobile Reparations Committee, a past Chair of the Legislative Committee and a former member of the NJSBA Board of Trustees. Mr. Baker has been Treasurer of the Hudson County Bar Foundation for many years and is a past President and member of the Board of Trustees of the Hudson County Bar Association. He has served on the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ, formerly ATLA-NJ) and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

Mr. Baker is a frequent lecturer on automobile insurance, premises liability and practice for ICLE, NJAJ, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and the New Jersey Law Journal, as well as bar associations and other professional organizations. His articles on automobile insurance, premises liability and trial practice have appeared in many newspapers and professional periodicals. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2000 ICLE Alfred C. Clapp Award, the 1994 ATLA-NJ Gold Medal, the 1998 NJSBA Distinguished Legislative Service Award, the Trial Lawyers of New Jersey Trial Lawyer Award and the NJAJ O’Connor Trial Award.

Mr. Baker received his B.A. from Cornell University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He was Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert Matthews, Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Hudson County.
(8/23)

Hon. James P. Savio, JSC (Ret.)

Savio R & D

is a part-time mediator/arbitrator in Margate, New Jersey, and retired as a Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Civil Part, Vicinage 1, Atlantic and Cape May Counties, in 2022. He sat in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He has also served in the Chancery Division, Family Part, in Atlantic County, and as a municipal court judge in Margate City and several other Atlantic County municipalities.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Savio was in private practice in Margate and Atlantic City, Managing Partner of Savio Reynolds & Drake and Gormley & Savio in Absecon, and an associate with Lloyd, Megargee, Steedle & Connor in Egg Harbor Township. He was a member of the Atlantic County Bar Association, where he served as Chair of the Judicial & Prosecutorial Selection and Appointment Committee and as a Trustee. He has lectured for ICLE, bar associations and the New Jersey Defense Association and has been a Barrister of the Vincent S. Haneman American Inn of Court.

Judge Savio received his B.A. from Seton Hall University and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.
(8/23)

Diana C. Manning, Esq.

Bressler Amery & Ross, PC, Florham Park

Certified as a Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is a Principal of Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. in the firm’s Florham Park, New Jersey, office. She concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation and appellate advocacy, and has represented clients in those matters for more than 25 years.

Ms. Manning is admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern District of New York, the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States Bankruptcy Court and the United States Supreme Court. Past President of the Morris County Bar Association and Foundation, and Trial Attorneys of New Jersey (TANJ), she has served on TANJ’s Amicus Committee and is Secretary of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Ms. Manning has also been appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court as Chair of the District XA Ethics Committee and has been Vice Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Amicus Committee. Because of her depth of experience in the area of legal malpractice, she was also appointed to the NJSBA Blue Ribbon Panel Committee in Professional Malpractice.

Ms. Manning authored the “State of New Jersey” chapter of The Law of Lawyers’ Liability: Fifty-State Survey of Legal Malpractice (ABA/First Chair Press, 2012), which gives an overview of the laws governing attorney wrongdoing in each state, written by lawyers who practice in that state. She is a frequent lecturer for ICLE on legal malpractice and professional responsibility topics and the recipient of several honors.

Ms. Manning received her B.A. from Rutgers College and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
(8/23)