JPJPC.NET - Key Persons
In practice since 2003, Eric P. Conn has nearly 20 years experience as a litigator, trial attorney and appellate advocate. Prior to joining Jacobs and Diemer, Mr. Conn served as an assistant attorney general and was a partner at a large, national law firm, where he and the lawyers of Jacobs and Diemer developed a strong relationship while they worked together on a number of significant, high exposure cases.
With his background as both a litigator in the trial and appellate courts, Mr. Conn brings his unique skill set to round out the appellate practice group of Jacobs and Diemer. At times trial court litigation skills are necessary, including insurance coverage declaratory judgment matters, a burgeoning practice area of the firm. Where necessary to meet the needs of existing firm clients, Mr. Conn will employ his litigation skills on coverage matters, during post-judgment proceedings, or in the appellate court system.
Licensed in Michigan and Florida, Mr. Conn has been relied on by a variety of clients in the corporate, insurance, employment, and construction industries. Mr. Conn has successfully represented his clients in state and federal court, including in the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court, the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan, the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida, and the District of Minnesota.
During his professional career, Mr. Conn has handled several large value, complex insurance coverage matters. Mr. Conn`s clients also rely on him to assist in contract interpretation matters involving multi-million dollar commercial and construction litigation. He also has experience in class action litigation, section 1983 cases, wrongful death litigation, and wrongful termination, hostile work environment and discrimination cases, among many others. In addition to serving as first and second chair at numerous trials, Mr. Conn has extensive experience arguing in the Court of Appeals and has also argued before the Michigan Supreme Court.
Numerous industry groups have recognized Mr. Conn for his legal skill. Mr. Conn was named as a 2018, 2019, and 2020 Leading Lawyer, was named a Super Lawyer in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and was previously AV rated by Martindale Hubble. He received his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he graduated in the top 25% of his class in 2003. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2000.
John P. Jacobs has spent over forty years exclusively practicing appellate law in the courts of the state and federal system. Very few other lawyers in Michigan have the length of his specialized experience, dedicated exclusively to civil appellate work. And even fewer have the depth of his A to Z, Antitrust to Zoning, experience which comes with briefing, arguing, or supervising the 1000 civil cases he is estimated to have handled on appeal.
Whether it is his authoring Petitions for Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States, or his making appearances in a thousand or so lower courts for the direct arguments as to Post Trial Motions, or his acting in the dozens of "Second Chair" litigation support cases to assist Trial Counsel, designed to preserve legal error, or his personally handling appeals by the hundreds since 1970, Mr. Jacobs is frequently the "go to" attorney first called after a large, adverse verdict has blown up.
John P. Jacobs has been honored repeatedly by groups whose very function it is to know who the very best appellate lawyers really are. Mr. Jacobs has been a Life Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers since 1993, among the very first to be selected from Michigan. He has also been a biographee of the Best Lawyers in America for years. Crain's "dbusiness Magazine" has also profiled him for its selection of Best Lawyers in Detroit for every single year that collection has run. In 2014, Mr. Jacobs was designated as a "Leader in the Law" by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
In addition, he has been lauded in Super Lawyers Magazine as one of the top 100 lawyers who practice law in this state. He was also honored in 2004 for the Excellence in Defense (Lawyer of The Year) Award by the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel Group, the only appellate specialist ever so recognized by these Trial Lawyers. He was also the 2004 Lawyer of the Year selected by Michigan Lawyers Weekly Newspaper for a $38 Million Reversal of a Medical Malpractice verdict. Named by the Archdiocese of Detroit's Monsignor Malloy (Catholic Lawyer of the Year) Awardee for his ethics, Mr. Jacobs was further recognized by the Robert E. Dice Lawyer of the Year citation for his medical malpractice work on appeal for overturning a number of multi million dollar verdicts.
Does he lose cases as well as win them? Of course, since he and his team take on the most difficult cases in the State, no result can ever be guaranteed, and some cases will be lost no matter what efforts are undertaken. But prospective clients should rest assured that, if selected, John Jacobs and his team will devote the utmost of his and their time, energy, and talents, for the corporate client which desperately needs the best result achievable within ethical and record constraints.
Prior to starting law school in 2014, Thamara "Tammy" Sordo-Vieira worked as a licensed property and casualty sales producer for a national insurance company. In her role, Tammy studied policies of insurance and made coverage recommendations for her clients. This knowledge provided Tammy with a foundation in insurance defense that would be useful in her eventual legal practice, including her position during law school as a law clerk for an insurance defense law firm.
After being admitted to practice law in the fall of 2017, Tammy joined a private plaintiff's law firm as an associate attorney, where she assisted the firm's partners with legal and mediation briefing, client relations, research, and oral advocacy in out-of-court, litigation, and appellate medical malpractice, products liability, and negligence cases. After a year, Tammy returned to the defense side.
Mr. Diemer is a frequent author and speaker on appellate practice. Click on the Media tab above to read his articles and opinion columns and learn about the awards he has received.