January 30, 2004	Contact: Kevin Coluccio 206-448-1777
Trial Advocate Peers Select Whelan as Top Trial Lawyer in State Seattle attorney Paul W. Whelan has been named Trial Lawyer of the Year 2003 by the Washington Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Whelan is a personal injury plaintiff’s attorney at Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Withey Coluccio. Membership in ABOTA is by invitation only and includes the top plaintiff and defense attorneys in the country. Members work together to preserve and promote the civil jury system, and to preserve the civil jury trial right provided by the Seventh Constitutional Amendment. Whelan will accept his award at the annual ABOTA dinner Feb. 6. The group will also honor U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan as its Judge of the Year 2003. “In giving the award we focus on an attorney’s excellence in his or her practice over the years, not just one big trial decision,” says Cheryl Robbins Berg, ABOTA Washington Chapter president. “Paul Whelan has developed a nationwide reputation of excellence, ethics and honor as a trial attorney.” Whelan has practiced law in Washington for more than 30 years. His practice focuses on automobile crashworthiness, product defects, medical negligence and sports injuries. Among Whelan’s notable cases: The State of Washington settled for $8.5 million for negligent supervision of a level 3 sex offender who murdered one woman and attacked another while on parole. A shoulder surgery patient whose anesthesia was improperly administered was left with serious brain injury; the patient won an $8.5 million settlement against the doctor and hospital. A defective seatback and failed occupant restraint system caused a passenger to be thrown from a vehicle, resulting in paralysis for the man and an $8.1 million verdict against the car manufacturer. Lead poisoning affected 46 children in Kellogg, Idaho, and the case against a smelter there led to the nation’s first Ambient Air Lead Standard adopted by Congress. Four of Whelan’s fellow attorneys at Stritmatter Kessler are members of ABOTA’s Washington state chapter – Reed P. Schifferman, chapter president-elect; Paul L. Stritmatter; Michael E. Withey and Keith L. Kessler, chapter president in 1997. Just over 100 of Washington state’s 34,000 attorneys are members of ABOTA, which started in 1958. Plaintiffs and defense attorneys are equally represented, and membership includes many judges. National ABOTA membership includes 6,000 lawyers and judges in all 50 states.
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