Mike Papantonio | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | October 24, 1953
Education | University of Florida Cumberland School of Law |
Occupation(s) | Torts lawyer TV and radio host Writer |
James Michael Papantonio (born October 24, 1953) is an American torts lawyer, television presenter, radio talk show host and writer. He has been inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. [1]
As a trial lawyer, Papantonio co-hosts Ring of Fire , a nationally syndicated progressive weekly radio program, with Farron Cousins, where he is referenced as America's Lawyer. [2] [3] In December 2016, Papantonio began hosting a program on YouTube called America's Lawyer. [4]
Papantonio graduated from DeSoto County High School, Arcadia, Florida. [1] He subsequently graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in advertising, and received his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1982 and the bar of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 1983.
Papantonio is a senior partner in the Pensacola, Florida-based Levin Papantonio Law Firm, a mass torts firm. [5] [6] Within the lawyer community, Mike Papantonio is known for his work in mass torts, product liability, personal injury, and wrongful death cases, and has returned numerous verdicts of multi-million dollar damages. [3] [7]
He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1999, [7] and has written several books, including the legal thriller Law and Disorder; Resurrecting Aesop: Fables Lawyers Should Remember; Clarence Darrow, the Journeyman; and In Search of Atticus Finch, A Motivational Book for Lawyers, as well as Defenses You Can Count on in an Asbestosis Case and How to Prove a Sick Building Case. He also co-authored Closing Arguments–The Last Battle with Fred Levin. [8]
In 2004, Papantonio helped launch a nationwide organization called Mass Torts Made Perfect, an organization for injury attorneys. [9]
The radio broadcast Ring of Fire began in 2004 and was syndicated by the now defunct Air America Radio until January 2010. Papantonio was also involved at Air America as a member of the Board of Directors, and as a co-contributor to the New York Times bestseller, Air America, the Playbook, a collection of essays, transcripts, and interviews by network personalities released in the run-up to the 2006 congressional elections. [10] Papantonio has appeared regularly as a contributor on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.
His role on Ring of Fire was featured in the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp , in which he offers commentary on many of the scenes depicted. [3] [11] According to DVD commentary by the film's directors, Papantonio was added to the film later on because they felt there wasn't any "tension" in it, and they wanted another viewpoint. [12]
On the weekly show America's Lawyer, Papantonio, a Methodist, often criticizes the Christian right. He has said that "I come from a pretty strong spiritual center, but it doesn't change the way I judge people. Simply put, the Sermon on the Mount makes much more sense to me than the frenzied rantings of America's new 'religious right'. They have become an element of American politics that threatens our sense of decency as well as our democracy." Papantonio has called Republican politicians "an entire collection of ass clowns."
In March 2024, Papantonio, who is an organizer and founder of the conference Mass Torts Made Perfect, walked back on decision to invite actor Mark Ruffalo as a speaker due to the fact that at the 96th Academy Awards Ruffalo expressed support for ceasefire after Israel's invasion of the Gaza a few months earlier. [13] [14]
Cumberland School of Law is an ABA-accredited law school at Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law school in the United States. The school has more than 11,000 graduates, and its alumni include two United States Supreme Court Justices, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Cordell Hull, "the father of the United Nations", over 50 U.S. representatives, and numerous senators, governors, and judges.
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor. He began acting in the early 1990s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth (1996) and drama film You Can Count on Me (2000). He went on to star in the romantic comedies 13 Going on 30 (2004), Just like Heaven (2005) and the thrillers In the Cut (2003), Zodiac (2007), and Shutter Island (2010). He received a Tony Award nomination for his supporting role in the Broadway revival of Awake and Sing! in 2006. Ruffalo gained international recognition for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fredric Gerson Levin was an American plaintiffs' lawyer who served as chairman of Levin, Papantonio, Rafferty, Proctor, Buchanan, O'Brien, Barr, Mougey, P.A., a law firm in Northwest Florida. The Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida is named for him because of a monetary donation he made to the school in 1999.
Ring of Fire is a progressive syndicated American talk radio program hosted by Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder and Farron Cousins. The three hosts focus on: "exposing Wall Street thugs, environmental criminality, corporate media failure and political backstories rarely found in the mainstream media". The show has been on the air since 2004 and is currently aired on 43 radio stations across the United States.
Mark Reed Levin is an American broadcast news analyst, columnist, lawyer, political commentator, radio personality, and writer. Nicknamed The Great One, he is the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is the former president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a New York Times best-selling author of seven books and contributes commentary to media outlets such as National Review Online. Since 2015, Levin has been editor-in-chief of the Conservative Review and is known for his incendiary commentary.
The University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law is the law school of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest operating public law school in Florida and second oldest overall in the state.
Melvin Mouron Belli was a United States lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Maureen Connolly, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. During his legal career, he won over $600 million in damages for his clients. He was also the attorney for Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
David S. Shrager (1935–2005) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a United States trial lawyer, author, speaker, and philanthropist. A former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, he specialized in major and complex civil litigation representing consumers, injured healthcare workers and individuals, and appeared before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Jesus Camp is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a charismatic Christian summer camp, where children spend their summers being taught that they have "prophetic gifts" and can "take back America for Christ". According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and attempts to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community".
Glenn Scott Cameron is an American former college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Cameron played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.
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Robert Ernest Keeton was an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar. As a law professor at Harvard Law School and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts he was known for his work on torts, insurance law, and practical courtroom tactics. Keeton, with Jeffrey O'Connell of the University of Virginia School of Law, played a key role in the advancement of no-fault automobile insurance.
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James Louis Ferraro is an American litigation attorney and author best known for representing thousands of blue collar workers in mass tort cases against major chemical companies such as DuPont. In 1996, he successfully prosecuted the first case in American history against a chemical company for causing a birth defect. The following year, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice named Ferraro a finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year, for his work on the landmark case. In 2017, he wrote a book about his experience with the case titled Blindsided. The book became a bestseller the same year, appearing on the USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.
Mark Matthew O'Mara is an American criminal defense lawyer in Orlando, Florida, known for being the attorney for George Zimmerman. He is a former prosecutor.
Levin Papantonio Rafferty Proctor Buchanan O'Brien Barr & Mougey, P.A. is an American law firm based in Pensacola, Florida, founded in 1955 by David Levin, Reubin Askew, and Fred Levin, originally under the name Levin & Askew. It is best known for its prominent role in the field of mass tort litigation, where it started and continues to host the biannual conference called Mass Torts Made Perfect. In 2016, the National Law Journal recognized Levin Papantonio as one of America's Elite Trial Law Firms.
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Robert Bilott is an American environmental attorney from Cincinnati, Ohio. Bilott is known for the lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of plaintiffs injured by waste dumped in rural communities in West Virginia. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).
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