HarrisMartin's National Opioid Litigation Conference Speaker Profiles

As a named shareholder of Simmons Hanly Conroy, Mr. Hanly is an experienced trial lawyer and litigator who has litigated, managed and tried numerous complex jury cases throughout the United States in virtually all areas of civil litigation for more than 30 years. He is renowned for his exhaustive trial preparation, imaginative trial strategies, nearly photographic memory of the contents of documents and tightly controlled and disarmingly-effective cross-examinations.

For the first 20 years of his career, Mr. Hanly was a national trial counsel and coordinating and settlement counsel to the world’s largest, vertically-integrated asbestos company in its asbestos products liability cases; in that capacity he oversaw more than 100 local law firms and handled hundreds of thousands of cases.

In the last decade, Mr. Hanly has represented plaintiffs exclusively in a variety of mass tort and other complex civil cases and played a leading role in the settlement of thousands of pharmaceutical cases, resulting in recoveries for the firm’s clients in excess of $300 million. Between 2008 and 2010, Mr. Hanly was lead counsel to a small, publicly-traded company in its antitrust suit against an industry giant, resulting in a settlement of $32 million for the company and a $10.5 million contingency fee for counsel.

Shelly Sanford attended the University of Texas at Austin where she received a degree in journalism before attending St. Mary’s University School of Law. During her time at law school, Ms. Sanford was the President of the St. Thomas Moore Society and attended UT Law School while she completed a judicial internship with the Hon. Raul Gonzales on the Supreme Court of Texas.

After law school, Ms. Sanford worked as an associate attorney at Bernsen, Jamail & Goodson in Austin, and then at the O’Quinn Law Firm in Houston, Texas. In 2001, she joined the partnership of Goforth Lewis Sanford LLP before founding her own law firm, Shelly A. Sanford PLLC in 2007.

Ms. Sanford evaluates and handles cases involving commercial disputes, complex arbitration proceedings, real estate development losses and delays, finance and mortgage industry disputes, medical devices, dangerous pharmaceutical products, serious injuries or death, and mass actions.

Ms. Sanford has served as outside litigation counsel to governmental entities such as the State of Texas, the State of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Public Employees Health and Welfare Trust, and the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board. She has also appeared as counsel in state and federal courts across the United States and has participated in depositions, discovery, and arbitration proceedings throughout Europe.