Speaker Biographies

October 3, 2005

Joanne Doroshow is President and Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy and is also co-founder of Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR), a coalition of 100 consumer groups from around the country working to strengthen oversight of insurance industry practices.   Ms. Doroshow is an attorney who has worked on civil justice issues since 1986, when she first directed a project for Ralph Nader on liability and the insurance industry. In that capacity, she developed some of the first educational materials used to fight tort reform around the country. She was also selected by the Stern Family Fund as the Public Interest Pioneer for 1999.  Ms. Doroshow is a nationally-recognized civil justice expert and a frequent guest on TV and radio, and has testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures around the country.

Martin F. Grace is associate director and research associate of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Dr. Grace's research has been published in various journals in economics and insurance concerning the economics and public policy aspects of insurance regulation and taxation. In particular, Dr. Grace has undertaken various studies of the efficiency of insurance firms, insurance taxation, optimal regulation of insurance in a federal system, and solvency regulation. Dr. Grace is a former President of The Risk Theory Society and he is a current associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance. In 2002, Professor Grace was named the James S. Kemper Professor of Risk Management.

Robert W. Klein is director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research at Georgia State University in Atlanta and a senior fellow with the Wharton Financial Institutions Center. Dr. Klein is an expert on the economics of insurance markets and public policy and regulatory issues in insurance, having written a number of monographs and articles on various topics in the field, including insuring catastrophe risk. He has testified frequently at legislative and regulatory hearings on significant issues affecting insurance consumers and the industry.  Prior to joining Georgia State University in 1996, Dr. Klein was the director of research and chief economist for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He currently serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Insurance Regulation and Risk Management and Insurance Review.
     
Adam Scales is an Associate Professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut. His work on torts and insurance law has been published in the Iowa Law Review and most recently in the Wisconsin Law Review. He is the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Insurance Law.  Before joining the Faculty of Washington and Lee in 1997, Professor Scales spent two years as an associate at the Minneapolis law firm of Faegre & Benson and then served as law clerk to three U.S. District Judges, Judge Michael J. Davis, Judge David S. Doty and Senior Judge Robert G. Renner, all in the District of Minnesota.

Ted Frank is a resident fellow at AEI and director of the AEI Liability Project, managing the institute's research about liability reform proposals, tort law, class actions and civil procedure, and other related issues. Before joining AEI, Mr. Frank worked at law firms in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook. His litigation work included Vioxx and automobile product liability cases; class action defense; and antitrust and patent cases. Since 2003, he has been a regular contributor to the tort reform weblog Overlawyered.com.

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