Deposition Strategies in Coverage and Bad Faith Litigation: Best Practices Explored

Michelle Burton is the Managing Partner of Shoecraft ♦ Burton LLP, a boutique civil litigation firm specializing in complex insurance coverage, bad faith defense, insurance defense, professional liability, and regulatory compliance. Ms. Burton has obtained numerous jury trial defense verdicts for her clients against multi-million dollar claims throughout California. In addition to her trial practice, Ms. Burton is a Certified Appellate Specialist and has authored and argued numerous appeals addressing insurance-related matters including the leading case on rescission in California.

She has served as the President of the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (2018) and has been recognized as a Lawyer of Distinction in Civil Litigation (2015-2020), Super Lawyer (2018-2020), Avvo Top-Rated Lawyer (2018) and in Lawyer Monthly’s Women in Law Awards (2018). She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honor open to only one percent of lawyers, for her commitment to the legal profession and her community.

David Berwin is a Member in the Civil Litigation Department of Evans & Dixon, LLC. Mr. Berwin has handled a multitude of complex litigation at the trial and appellate Level, in the state and federal courts of Missouri and Illinois. He has lead and co-chaired multiple trials to verdict throughout his 11 years of practice. He currently represents BMA Management, Ltd. now known as Gardant Management, the largest provider of Supportive Living Facilities in the state of Illinois.

He specializes in the areas of insurance defense, construction law, trucking law, employment law, products liability, premises liability and other complex litigation in Missouri and Illinois. He is known as an aggressive lawyer who thinks “outside of the box” by focusing on the early evaluation of claims which empowers his clients to assess risk and determine a strategic course of action at the early stages of litigation. He works to maximize the efficiency of his client’s time and resources to navigate an inefficient legal process.

Mr. Berwin is an active member, in good-standing, of the Missouri Bar, the Illinois Bar, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

He is a current member of the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce.