YOUR HOUSE COUNSEL® NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Each Your House Counsel® National Leader has decades of experience in the practice of insurance and corporate liability defense. And each has helped to build Your House Counsel® into a premier resource for Claims Professionals.
YHC President and Founder
Howard S. Shafer
Partner, Shafer Partners, LLP
hshafer@shaferpartners.com
Howard Shafer has over 30 years of experience in the Insurance and Corporate Liability Defense field. He is the Managing Partner of Shafer Partners, LLP in the Downstate New York and New Jersey area. Howard is a Past Chair of the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association and a Past New York State Chair of CLM. He founded Your House Counsel in 2010, and serves as its President.
YHC Group Chair
Joseph F. Nicholas, Jr.
President and Managing Partner
Mazanec, Raskin & Ryder Co., L.P.A.
jnicholas@mrrlaw.com
Joe Nicholas focuses his practice on the defense of professional liability matters. He has defended professionals including lawyers, accountants, doctors, dentists, architects and insurance agents and brokers throughout his career. His practice also includes litigation of first and third party claims with regard to personal lines, various general liability matters and construction defects.
Industry Events Chair
Broderick L. Young
Partner, Arnett, Draper & Hagood, LLP
byoung@adhknox.com
Broderick Young has served as lead counsel in jury trials involving matters related to breach of contract, insurance defense, employment discrimination, and personal injury. Broderick is listed in this year’s edition of Best Lawyers in America, and has achieved the Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent rating in the areas of Civil Litigation, Defense Litigation, and Tort Defense. He was inducted as a fellow of the Knoxville Bar Foundation in 2019.
Client Engagement Chair
Timothy D. Crawley
Partner, Anderson Crawley and
Burke, pllc
tcrawley@acblaw.com
Tim Crawley has been a faculty member for many seminars, recently presenting on “The Drones: They Are Coming!” to the XChanging Claims group in London and at the ACE Annual Conference. He is a member of the American Bar Association; Mississippi Bar Association; Madison County Bar Association; Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit; and Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association.
Education Chair
Marcus “Marc” L. Tolliver
Partner, Touchstone Bernays
marc.tolliver@tbjbs.com
Marc is a trial lawyer who focuses his practice on insurance defense litigation, personal injury, products liability, premises liability, wrongful death and construction defects. He has a diverse practice that serves manufacturers, athletic facilities, schools, restaurants, retailers, construction companies and individuals. He has experience handling cases from intake to evaluation and discovery, including expert and fact witness depositions, and eventually all the way through resolution.
Special Projects Chair
Debbie S. Champion
Partner, Rynearson, Suess,
Schnurbusch & Champion, LLC
dchampion@rssclaw.com
Debbie Champion has argued before the Missouri Supreme Court, Eastern, Western and Southern District Missouri Courts of Appeals, Illinois Court of Appeals, the federal court of the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the Eighth Circuit and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
NextGen Engagement Chair
Thomas M. Wright, Jr.
Partner, Anderson, Crawley & Burke, pllc
twright@acblaw.com
Thomas M. Wright, Jr. practices in Mississippi, Northeastern Louisiana and Western Tennessee. He earned his JD from the University of Mississippi in 2009. His practice includes general civil defense litigation, including personal injury, commercial claims, construction defect and liability, and workers’ compensation. He is a member of the Mississippi and Louisiana Bar Associations, Defense Research Institute and Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, among others.
Chairs are neither Officers nor Directors of Counsel Holdings, Inc.