The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program | Panel Discussion

Brian Corcoran Related Seminars and Products

Chief Special Master

United States Court of Federal Claims

Brian H. Corcoran was appointed as a Special Master of the United States Court of Federal Claims on January 13, 2014. He graduated cum laude, with high honors in his major, from Dartmouth College in 1988, and received his J.D. in 1991 from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was designated Chief Special Master on October 1, 2019. Before becoming a special master, Chief Special Master Corcoran was a seasoned trial attorney with experience in a wide variety of legal matters, including intellectual property, general commercial disputes, tax matters, and pro bono civil rights and employment discrimination actions. Until 2008, he was employed in the private sector, working in New York City and Washington, D.C., where he became a partner at his law firm. He thereafter worked for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, as a trial attorney, where he obtained numerous permanent injunctions against fraudulent tax preparers and the promoters of illegal tax schemes across the United States. As Chief Special Master, he is responsible for overseeing and managing the work of the Office of Special Masters, presiding over cases designated for OSM’s “special processing unit” (or cases deemed likely to settle), while also handling his own docket of cases comparable to those managed by his colleague special masters.

Ed Kraus Related Seminars and Products

Attorney

Kraus Law Group

For the past 15 years, Ed Kraus has focused his legal practice on representing clients seeking compensation for injuries caused by vaccines. As a vaccine injury attorney representing both children and adults throughout the United States, Ed has seen the life-changing effects vaccine injuries can cause. Ed views the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) as an important piece of our national vaccine policy.

Ed also has a unique perspective on the way the vaccine injury program is administered. From 2011 to 2016, he served on the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV), a nine-person commission that provides input to the Secretary of Health & Human Services regarding the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Vaccine Injured Petitioner’s Bar Association.

Earlier this year, Ed started his own private vaccine injury law firm. Before that, for over 20 years, Ed was a Clinical Professor of Law here at Chicago-Kent where he directed the Vaccine Injury Litigation clinic and prior to that, the Health and Disability Law Clinic. 

Before joining the faculty at Chicago-Kent, he was an attorney at the law firm of Plotkin, Jacobs & Orlofksy, where he focused on complex civil litigation and consumer class actions and an attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin where he represented low-income clients in various civil matters. Ed received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Heather Pearlman Related Seminars and Products

Deputy Director of the Constitutional and Specialized Torts Branch

U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division

Heather Pearlman is Deputy Director of the Constitutional and Specialized Torts Branch in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where her primary responsibility is managing litigation arising under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Her entire professional career has been dedicated to public service; following law school, she spent several years working as a legislative counsel on Capitol Hill, moving to the Department of Justice’s Office of Legislative Affairs in 1999 to serve as an Attorney Advisor. In June 2001, she began working as a Trial Attorney defending Vaccine Act cases. She has handled all aspects of Vaccine Act litigation at the Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. From 2001 through 2008, she also oversaw the adjudication of thousands of claims brought under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, by individuals who became ill while living downwind of the Nevada Test Site during periods of atmospheric nuclear testing. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993, and her Juris Doctor from Roger Williams University School of Law in 1996. She is admitted to practice law in New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia.

Timothy Tomasik Related Seminars and Products

Attorney

Tomasik Kotin Kasserman, LLC

Timothy Tomasik is a founding member of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman LLC where he has distinguished himself as one of Chicago’s elite trial attorneys. Prior to joining the firm, Tim practiced for 15 years at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and also served as a member of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office Bureau of Special Prosecutions.

Mr. Tomasik has tried over 100 jury and bench trials to verdict and has handled and successfully resolved hundreds of millions of dollars in claims in a variety of practice areas, including complex premises liability, aviation litigation, medical negligence, medical liability, hospital liability, and mass disasters. 

As a trial attorney, Mr. Tomasik has handled significantly complex and high profile and cases including serving as a lead counsel of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the World Trade Center litigation against the airlines industry for security breaches that led to the tragic 9/11 hijackings and air crashes in which he helped to secure a $1.2 billion settlement.

Mr. Tomasik is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including being inducted by his peers into the International Society of Barristers, an honor society of outstanding trial lawyers. He has also been inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates and in 2018 became a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America. Mr. Tomasik is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, American Bar Association Torts Committee, and chair of the Sub-Committee on Experts and Evidence. He has served in CBA leadership for a number of years, perhaps most notably as Chair of the Judicial Evaluation Committee for 15 years and currently serves as President.. He is a former Chair of Lawyers Lend-A-Hand, a foundation that provides grants to Chicago’s underprivileged youth. 

Mr. Tomasik received his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Colorado and his J.D. from the University of Denver.