YOST LEGAL GROUP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Attorney
- Board Member and Former President of the St. Thomas More Society of Baltimore
Bruce H. Powell has been representing the childhood victims of lead paint poisoning in Baltimore City for over 20 years. After graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Government and Politics, he received his J. D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1994. After working for a year for as a solo practitioner handling a variety of claims, including auto accidents, workers compensation and slip and fall cases, Bruce took a job at a small boutique firm in Baltimore City that exclusively represented the victims of childhood lead paint poisoning. There, he learned the ins and outs of lead paint litigation and had the opportunity to try numerous cases to verdict before Baltimore City juries.
In 2004, Bruce joined a Baltimore personal injury firm to help start a new lead paint poisoning practice. Over the ensuing years, the firm's practice grew to become one of the largest and busiest lead paint practices in Baltimore. Along the way, Bruce obtained tens of millions of dollars in settlements on behalf of his clients. He has also obtained numerous large verdicts for children injured by lead. In 2008, he obtained a $6,000,000 verdict on behalf of an 8-year old boy who had been lead poisoned by a negligent landlord. At that time, it was the largest verdict in a lead poisoning case ever obtained in Maryland. In the years since, Bruce has won numerous additional multi-million dollar verdicts on behalf of lead-poisoned children in Baltimore City.
In May 2019, Bruce came to the Yost Legal Group, where he continues fighting for the rights of seriously injured individuals.
Bruce is a board member and former president of the St. Thomas More Society of Baltimore. He is also an officer and member of the Board of Governors of the Loyola Blakefield Alumni Association. He belongs to the Maryland Association for Justice, the Maryland State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland, Washington, D.C., the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bruce lives in Baltimore with his wife and three sons. When he is not working, he enjoys coaching his sons' lacrosse teams, skiing and cooking.
Education
J. D. - University of Maryland School of Law
B.A. - University of Maryland, College Park
I am driven by the strong desire to provide passionate and compassionate legal representation to deserving victims injured by the wrongdoing of others.
As a manager of the Yost Legal Group's mass tort division, I fight to obtain justice for everyday individuals injured by the defective drugs and medical devices of big companies that care only about profits, not people. I have helped recover millions of dollars for the innocent victims of asbestos exposure, defective hip implants, and other harmful products. I serve in leadership positions in complex cases filed throughout the country to obtain the justice my clients deserve.
Locally, I am active in the Baltimore City and Maryland State Bar Associations. I have served as co-chair of the Baltimore Bar Association's pro bono committee to ensure that low-income members of our community have access to the legal services they need. I was honored to receive the Volunteer of the Year Award from Senior Legal Services for my representation of low-income seniors. I also recently served on the Board of Governors of the Maryland State Bar Association, as a representative for the First District (Baltimore City). My passion is to speak up for people seeking justice who would otherwise not have a voice and not be heard. I share this passion by making presentations to other attorneys so that they will be better equipped to represent those individuals who need help in their fight for the justice they deserve, including refugees and asylum seekers.
I earned my law degree from the University of Virginia, after completing my undergraduate studies at the College of William & Mary, where I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. My practice is nationwide in scope and I am admitted to practice in Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and Texas, as well as several U.S. Federal Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. I reside in Baltimore and enjoy reading, sports, music, traveling and spending time with friends and my family, which now includes an Australian Shepherd. I am a long-time runner and participate in several races every year, including the Baltimore Running Festival.
I am the voice of the injured; holding all manufacturers accountable and demanding the justice each client so rightfully deserves.
Born and raised in Maryland, I am a Baltimore County native. I graduated from Stevenson University (SU) in 2005, with a bachelor's degree in paralegal studies. While attending SU, I worked as a paralegal for one of Baltimore's premier medical malpractice law firms, for which I continued to work while enrolled as an evening student at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Every seriously injured person has a beautiful and compelling story to tell about their life and what was taken from them. When I take a case, I believe it is my responsibility to help my client discover their story and tell it to a jury, judge, or insurance company so that the value of their life and their loss is truly and fully appreciated.
Since joining the Yost Legal Group in 2015 and my practice has focused on catastrophic personal injury cases involving lead poisoning, products liability, serious automobile and truck collisions, professional negligence, police misconduct, premises liability and wrongful death. As a lifelong Marylander, I am passionate about protecting the rights of my fellow citizens and holding accountable those who needlessly put others in danger.
Before joining the Yost Legal Group, I worked in the legal department for a major insurance company where I gained valuable insight into the mechanisms and inner workings of the insurance industry. I now represent those who have been harmed by the individuals the insurance companies seek to protect.
Since joining the Yost Legal Group, I have recovered millions of dollars for people who have been robbed of their health, happiness and God-given potential due to the carelessness and negligence of others.
Outside of my practice, I am an active member of the legal community and have served and/or have been elected for the following positions:
Sharon A. Reece, J.D., is an Attorney at the Yost Legal Group. As a first-generation Caribbean-American, and raised in Bryn Mawr, PA, Sharon completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a Juris Doctorate degree from DePaul University College of Law, with an emphasis in Health Law. She has devoted the majority of her legal career to health-related matters involving physician contracting, medical malpractice, product liability and complex multi-plaintiff toxic tort litigation.
Sharon began her career in healthcare/medical malpractice risk management. As part of a risk management insurance program, she contributed to the review and compliance of various measures to lessen the risk of medical malpractice claims and/or strengthen the facilitation of successful defenses in litigation. Sharon subsequently worked as a civil litigator for a number of years at one of the largest personal injury firms in Maryland. In that capacity, she represented victims of harmful environmental exposure and toxic tort injuries. Her passion and dedication to her work helped lead to the recovery of frequent settlements on behalf of her clients.
Sharon's current practice focuses primarily on the management of personal injury cases stemming from motor vehicle accidents as well as product liability cases consolidated into multi-district litigations - specifically, mass torts involving dangerous medications and defective medical devices.
Sharon has been the recipient of several awards and honors based on her academic excellence and commitment to public service. She is admitted to practice law in both the state and federal courts of Maryland. She is also an active member of the American Health Law Association (AHLA), the American Bar Association (ABA), the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Maryland Association for Justice (MAJ) and the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA).
Education
J. D. - DePaul University College of Law
B.A. - Washington University in St. Louis
Tom Yost is the Principal and Founder of The Yost Legal Group. Tom founded the law firm with the sole purpose of being the voice for those who have been significantly harmed by the wrongful conduct of others. The law firm began work in Baltimore, Maryland in 1988 and expanded to representing people across the country. Since that time, the firm has had the privilege of representing thousands of people injured through no fault of their own in both state and federal court. Tom has also argued many appeals in the Maryland State Appellate Court System.
Tom oversees the management of the day-to-day operation of the law firm. He also personally focuses on cases where there has been injury from toxic exposure, defective medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, and cases involving catastrophic injury. He has successfully resolved over a thousand product liability cases, thousands of personal injury cases, and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients.
Tom believes in protecting the civil justice system from tort reform so that injured people maintain their right to a jury trial. He is the past-President of the Maryland Association for Justice (2015-2016), a 1,300-member trial lawyer association. In addition, Tom has testified before the Maryland legislature to protect consumer rights and access to the courts regularly. He has met with federal legislators to explain the impact of bills and how they would affect consumers. Tom has been recognized as a Super Lawyer and has publicly presented at seminars to educate other lawyers on how to advocate for the injured and vulnerable.
In his spare time, he enjoys riding motorcycles, cooking, travel, and keeping bees. He is happily married with 5 children.