Page 67 - ACTL Journal Win24

MICHAEL P. COONEY, Detroit, Michigan, is the youngest of nine siblings, and has a family thick with lawyers, including his father (deceased FACTL Bill Cooney), a brother, a sister, two brother-in-laws, and numerous cousins. Mike uses his engineering degree to help him make complex products simple and understandable for juries in cases that are compelling combinations of science and emotion.
TINOS DIAMANTATOS, Chicago, Illinois, worked two jobs, one at a law firm and another at a restaurant, to become the first in his family to graduate from college. After a clerkship with the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois, Ti- nos joined the U.S. Attorney’s office where he prosecuted serious crimes before going into private practice.
SAM ELBADAWI, Syracuse, New York, is the son of two physicians who emigrat- ed from Egypt in the 1960s. Sam’s favorite activities involve mountains and racket sports; he played squash and tennis in college. When he is not practicing law, he is either skiing, hiking or playing pickleball with his wife. He was president of a youth alpine ski racing team for many years and now dabbles in master ski racing and, much to the embarrassment of his three children, has even donned a race suit to shave a few seconds off his time and help his beer league team win championships.
SHANNON ELKINS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, was born in a small town in Michigan to a truck driver and daycare provider and was the first person in her family to graduate from college. She has always done criminal defense, as a county public defender, a defense attorney in private practice, and now as a federal defender. In college Shannon was a Latin American History major with Poly Sci and Spanish minors; in law school, she helped Spanish speaking clients with immigration cases.
JAMES R. ESTES, JR., Fayetteville, Arkansas, practices law in and is the Official Historian of Fayetteville, Arkansas, often referred to as “the Athens of the Ozarks,” though the true meaning of that sobriquet is Greek to him.
DAVID GONZALES, Austin, Texas, is unaccustomed to public speaking and is not all that good at it, so it is all that more remarkable that he gave what may have been the best ever Inductee Responder remarks on behalf of this class at the San Diego meeting. David wakes up early every morning, goes running, and returns to find that his four kids have made and eaten their breakfasts, cleared their plates and washed their dishes, and are quietly studying while waiting to go to school. [You’re going to think I made that up. I did not. David states it on his website.] [Actually, David made it up. He goes on to admit that most mornings are a scene from Home Alone.] David chose criminal law as his career specialty because that was the only way he could convince Corrine Sumpter to date him in law school. [I didn’t make that up either. Corrine and David, now married with four kids, practice together at Sumpter & Gonzales, and note well the top billing.]
CHAD GRUNANDER, Provo, Utah, prosecuted Utah’s first televised jury trial, in which the defendant was convicted of murdering his wife, covered by national and international media and later featured in the Lifetime Channel movie, The Good Father: The Martin MacNeill Story. Suffice it to say, the movie did NOT receive an Emmy or any other notable awards. Chad has a twin sister named Heath- er and two other sets of twins in his immediate family—his mother is a saint. During law school, Chad worked for a non-profit organization dedicated to judicial reform in Latin America where he was first exposed to trial practice and the importance of the rule of law.
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