Navigating Troubled Water: How Unprofessional Conduct Can Complicate Defense of Malpractice and Board Complaints and How to Find Your Way Back to Safe Harbor

Emily Bloch, Esq Related Seminars and Products

Emily Bloch joined Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, LLC in 1997 after practicing at another Portland law firm for seven and a half years. As a member of the professional litigation practice group, she concentrates her practice representing the interests of health care providers statewide before state licensure boards and against medical negligence claims. Her clients include insureds of Maine’s leading medical malpractice insurer as well as the country’s leading provider of professional liability insurance to oral and maxillofacial surgeons. She also provides general advice to health care providers.

Prior to beginning practice, Emily served as Law Clerk to Judge Albert W. Coffrin, Chief Judge for the United States District Court, District of Vermont. Emily is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts in Maine as well as before the United States Supreme Court.

Emily has argued cases before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that have been significant in the course of Maine law including the following:

Despres v. Moyer, 2003 ME 41, 827 A.2d 61.

Clifford A. Dumont et al. v. Fleet Bank of Maine and Michael S. Haenn, 760 A.2d 1049 (Me. 2000).

Camps Newfound/Owatonna Corp. v. Town of Harrison, et al., 1998 ME 20, 705 A.2d 1109; 655 A.2d 876 (Me. 1995); 520 U.S. 564 (1997).

Tri-State Rubbish, Inc., et al. v. Waste Management, Inc., et al., 838 F. Supp. 17 (1993); 998 F.2d 1073 (1st Cir. 1993).

Emily was the 2003 recipient of the Carolyn Dube Glassman Award, named in honor of the first woman to serve on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The award is presented annually by the Maine State Bar Association to a woman who is a member of the Maine Bar and who has worked to remove barriers and advance women in the profession, has educated people on the status of women in the profession or who has acted as a role model for other women attorneys.
Emily is also a current member of the Maine State Bar Association’s Judicial Evaluation Committee and has achieved Martindale Hubbell’s highest peer review rating (A-V).
 
Ms. Bloch has no disclosures.

Mark Lavoie, Esq. Related Seminars and Products

Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, LLC

Mark Lavoie represents businesses and individuals involved in complex, high exposure disputes, including malpractice and other health care litigation, commercial disputes, employment claims, product liability lawsuits, and the full range of professional negligence cases. He also represents health care institutions, physicians, dentists, engineers, lawyers and other professional service providers in administrative and regulatory licensure and credentialing controversies.

What motivates Mark in his representation of clients is the challenge of mastering extremely technical information and advocating for his clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and in trials in state and federal courtrooms. He is admitted to practice before the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, as well as in state and federal courts in Maine and New Hampshire.

Mark was selected to serve as Law Clerk for Maine's distinguished Superior and Supreme Court Justice Harry Glassman following graduation from the University of Maine School of Law in 1978, where he was a member of the law review, a legal writing instructor and recipient of the faculty's annual award to the student who has made the most significant contribution to the school. He subsequently joined Norman Hanson & DeTroy in 1979 where he continues to provide advice and representation in civil case trials before judge and jury– with the same dedication, devotion and energy he first brought to the practice of law.  Mark has been involved as primary counsel for his client in over 300 jury trials and hundreds more administrative hearings.

Committed to continuing education and to improving his skills as an advocate, Mark is a past president of the Maine State Bar Association, and has held officers' and committee positions in a wide variety of professional associations. He has lectured extensively on trial topics and has taught lawyers how to negotiate and try cases in many venues, including the Maine College of Trial Advocacy and University of Maine School of Law. Mark holds an Honorary Membership in the Canadian Bar Association, and he is a Diplomate of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which he also served as State Chair for three years. He has been rated in the highest tier of professional achievement in  leading bar directories, including Chambers (sole “band 1” trial lawyer in medical malpractice), Benchmark Litigation, Martindale-Hubbell and Best Lawyers in America, which named him the best personal injury lawyer in his community in 2011 and the best malpractice defense lawyer in 2012 and 2014. Mark also has been designated one of the top 100 trial lawyers in New England in the Super Lawyers Directory beginning in 2017.

Mark Lavoie, Esq has no actual or potential conflict of interest, financial relationship/arrangement or affiliation with any entity producing, marketing, re-selling or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.