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Trial attorney, activist Mark J. Geragos to keynote 2015 Annual Dinner

Issue March 2015 By Kelsey Sadoff

The Massachusetts Bar Association is pleased to announce that trial attorney Mark J. Geragos, of Geragos & Geragos, APC, in Los Angeles, will deliver the keynote address at the Annual Dinner on Thursday, May 7, at the Westin Boston Waterfront.

Geragos, the principal at the internationally known law firm of Geragos & Geragos APC, in Los Angeles, is the only lawyer besides Johnnie Cochran ever named "Lawyer of the Year" in both the criminal and civil arenas.

Geragos cemented his national reputation as a trial attorney winning back-to-back state and federal court jury trial acquittals, and a presidential pardon, for renowned Whitewater figure Susan McDougal. In addition, during the last decade, Geragos has won two consecutive dismissals of murder charges against clients by proving flawed eyewitness identification. One of those clients later won a $1.7 million settlement when the Geragos firm sued the City of Glendale for their false arrest of that client.

"I am so excited to announce attorney Mark Geragos as the MBA's keynote speaker for our annual dinner. Attorney Geragos has had an extraordinary career in his representation of so-called celebrity clients, including but not limited to Winona Ryder, Michael Jackson and many more," said MBA President Marsha V. Kazarosian. "Notably, as a proud Armenian, he advocates vigorously for the recognition of the Armenian genocide and for reparations. As an accomplished author and president of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR), Attorney Geragos has pledged a percentage of his earnings from his 2013 book, Mistrial, to the ABMDR. Please join us on May 7 to listen and learn from Attorney Geragos … an extraordinary lawyer, accomplished author, speaker and advocate for human rights."

Geragos was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of groundbreaking federal class action lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the genocide of over 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turk Regime, eventually settling these two cases for more than $37.5 million. He is currently suing the Government of Turkey for reparations arising out of the Armenian genocide.

In addition, his $59 million jury verdict in a trade secrets case against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Corporation was voted a "Top Fifty Verdicts in the United States" by the National Law Journal. He is the immediate past president of the National Trial Lawyers Association.

Mark Geragos has represented some of the most prominent figures in the world. His client list has included former Congressman Gary Condit, former first brother Roger Clinton, Grammy Award-winning artist Chris Brown, platinum-selling artist Kesha Sebert, Nicole Ritchie, hip hop stars Nathaniel "Nate Dogg" Hale and Sean "Diddy" Combs (aka Puff Daddy), Usher Raymond and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

Geragos is a legal analyst for CNN and has regularly appeared as both guest and legal commentator on the "Today Show," "Good Morning America," "Dateline NBC," "Larry King Live," "Greta Van Susteren's On the Record," "60 minutes," and "48 hours," and has lectured extensively and authored numerous articles and law review publications on the subject of media and the law. Geragos authored Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works... and Sometimes Doesn't, which won the grand prize at the 2014 Los Angeles Book Festival and was a bestseller.