Executive and General Board
Executive Board
Photo by Tina Christensen
The current PEOPIL Executive Board was formally appointed at the Annual General Meeting in Copenhagen on 16 September 2022.
The Executive Board is responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the organisation.
The Administrator assists the Executive Board in the operations. Each Board member has his or her specific role. The Board meet on average once per 6 weeks (remotely).
Ana Romero Porro
President
Ana is a recognised litigator specialising in personal injury claims and has over twenty years of experience representing Spanish and International victims. She is one of the founding partners of Astrom Legal, based in Malaga.
Her work involves several different backgrounds including travel related claims, clinical negligence, product liability and industrial illness.
Ana has also been a Governor of the American Association for Justice and currently co-chairs the International Practice Section. Furthermore, she is an Associate Lecturer in Tort Law at the International University of Andalucía and the University of Málaga. Ana is fluent in English and French.
Liam Moloney
Vice-President
Liam is the Managing Partner of Moloney Solicitors based in Dublin, Ireland and was the first appointed Revitalisation Officer on the Executive Board.
When Ana was appointed President, Liam took over her task of treasurer and he has been appointed Vice-President at the AGM in Copenhagen in 2022.
Liam specialises in Plaintiff personal injury and medical negligence claims. He is a former Chairman of the American Association of Justice International Practice Section and is a current member of its Board of Governors.
Liam also chairs the Covid Litigation EEG of PEOPIL and organises webinars.
Mirella Hartman
Treasurer
Mirella is partner at Beer advocaten in Amsterdam and has been the General Board member for The Netherlands for many years.
Admitted to the bar in 1990, Mirella has been a partner at the well known Dutch firm of Beer advocaten, Amsterdam www.beeradvocaten.nl since 1998.
Mirella’s particular expertise lies in personal injury, in particular in medical negligence and RTA cases, catastrophic injury and cross-border litigation.
Mirella is a fan of PEOPIL, because being a member broadens your view on personal injury issues and it's educational.
But above all, the foreign colleagues are pleasant Europeans with whom it is good to work.
Stefano Dangel
Secretary
Dr Stefano Dangel, a Partner at Dolce Lauda Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB, has been appointed to the PEOPIL Executive Board for a two-year period. Stefano will serve as its Revitalisation Officer and will have as his main focus new membership recruitment, marketing and strategic planning.
Dr Dangel is a prominent German lawyer and mediator and is also a Board Member of the Society for the Exchange of Ideas of German-Italian Lawyers, a member of the Institute for European Traffic Law, the American Association of Justice (AAJ) and as a trusted lawyer of the ADAC (German Automobile Club). He is fluent in German, Italian, English and French and is licenced to practice law at the Bar in Frankfurt am Main.
Cheryl Palmer-Hughes
Revitalisation Officer
Cheryl is a Partner in Irwin Mitchell’s International Personal Injury department. She acts for clients who have been injured in incidents abroad.
She deals with complex, high value claims including brain and spinal injuries, multiple fractures, psychological trauma and fatal accidents and clinical negligence cases. She deals exclusively with cases which involve a cross-border element and specialise in conflicts of law issues.
Cheryl has been involved in PEOPIL since many years as co-chair of the Young Lawyers Group and with her wide experience, she brings new, valuable ideas to the Board .
General Board
The PEOPIL General Board members (GBMs) represent the different jurisdictions.
They are the visible and active representatives of PEOPIL in their national jurisdictions and have a formal role in the organisation, next to the Executive Board.
The GBMs liaise with the local and national Bar Associations and introduce PEOPIL to them with a view to promoting the organisation and establishing areas of common interest.
The GBM is expected to actively recruit new PEOPIL members by recommending the organisation to colleagues who deal with cross border cases.
The General Board meets twice a year and GBMs are required to attend at least one Annual Conference every 2 years
There are currently 24 General Board members.
Peter de Maeyer
Belgium
PEOPIL’s Belgian representative Peter De Maeyer has been practising as a lawyer since 1991 and is a Partner with the Antwerp based Law Firm HBSV. Peter specialises in liability and insurance law (victims support), assessing human suffering (on National and International levels), traffic accidents, medical and product liability claims, damage caused by animals and sexual offence cases. Peter is also Board Member of the Antwerp Bar Insurance Work Group and a member of the Commission for Financial Assistance to Victims of Deliberate Acts of Violence and persons who assist them.
Ana Sihtar
Croatia
Ana Sihtar founded her own law firm, SIHTAR Attorneys at Law, in 1992. and it is based in Rijeka, Croatia, providing a comprehensive range of legal services for the business community not only in Croatia but also in the South-East European region (ex-Yugoslavia). Over almost three decades she has developed a consolidated experience in representing personal injury claims ranging from transport of passengers by sea and road to claims involving tour operators and hotels. Her broad involvement in matters of international private law build up her considerable experience in the implementation of conflict of laws principles as well as EU law to cross-borders accidents. In addition to acting as an attorney in personal injury cases Ana also provides legal insights and advice on Croatian law as well as opinions on applicable law and quantum for foreign lawyers. Ana was admitted to the Croatian Bar in 1992 and speaks Croatian, English and Italian. Apart from being a member of PEOPIL since 2004 and one of its board members since 2006, Ana is also the former Secretary of the IBA’s Women Lawyers’ Interest Group.
Klara Dvorakova
Czech Republic
Klara is a partner of Holubova advokati s.r.o., which provides legal services in the Czech Republic since 1991 and is particularly known for its expertise in travel business law, personal injury, private clients, multi-generation planning in the Czech Republic and education law. Klara is an experienced personal injury lawyer acting for claimants. She deals with all types of cases including MedNeg and RTA, but she has a special interest in cases involving accidents during traveling, and sports. In addition, Klara is a leading travel business law advisor in the Czech Republic. Her travel law clients are predominantly tour operators, travel agents, guides, hotels and other travel businesses, whom she advises on how to get started or realize new projects and how to overcome problems which travel business brings.
Julie Harder
Denmark
Julie Harder is PEOPIL’s Danish Board Member. She works as an attorney at Elmer Advokater in Copenhagen (www.elmer-adv.dk). Julie works with all types of personal injury cases, including injuries in cases of violence, medical negligence and road traffic accidents which she handles both inside and outside of court. Furthermore, Julie is particularly skilled in the calculation of claims for compensation in accordance with the Danish Liability for Damages Act. Along with her work at Elmer Advokater, Julie has taught at the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen.
Ian Denham
England & Wales
Ian is a barrister at Outer Temple Chambers in London. He specialises in personal injury claims with a cross-border element, claims with features of fraud, dishonesty and exaggeration and wrongful death claims. His cross-border practice covers advising on jurisdiction, applicable law, direct rights of action against insurers, claims against the MIB, holiday claims including claims under the Package Travel Regulations covering local standards, accidents in the air and on sea, and claims involving a cross-border employment aspect. He regularly advises European insurers on cross-border issues. He also acts for tour operators in defending suspected fraudulent holiday claims. Ian lectures extensively on cross-border personal injury law topics both domestically and abroad, such as at PEOPIL Conferences. He is the Secretary of the PEOPIL RTA & Whiplash EEG.
Sebastian Van Teslaar
France
Sebastian studied International tax law and business law and began working in a business law firm in Paris. When he set up his own offices in 1996, he became interested in personal injury law, which now is his sole field of activity.
He handles cases in medical malpractice, road traffic accidents, victims of assaults and terrorism, accidents involving tourists.
He has obtained university degrees on the assessment of traumatic brain injury victims (including the shaken baby syndrome), and published various articles in French legal magazines, in particular relating to the use of capitalisation tables, as well as the scaling system used by French doctors to assess permanent sequela.
His law firm comprises 4 lawyers and 2 paralegals, all specialised in PI law.
Sebastian is dedicated to helping disabled men and women. He is a Board member of ‘AFTC Ile de France-Paris’, a French association of relatives of brain-injured victims, and a member of local regional body that provides funds and support to the disabled.
Wolfgang Frese
Germany
Wolfgang Frese has been a member of the PEOPIL General Board since 2009. Wolfgang attended the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel where he graduated in 1981. He founded his own Law Firm in 1985 which is based in Kiel.
In 2006 Wolfgang completed special training programmes in labour and traffic law and is an accredited certified specialist in these areas.
Wolfgang mainly represents personal injury victims and is an expert in cross-border personal injury litigation.
Wolfgang is a regular contributor to law books concerning European traffic law and cross – border litigation. He often speaks at conferences about traffic law and writes periodic articles concerning recent developments in this area. He is also a member of the German Traffic Court Forum.
Wolfgang is happy to assist any foreign colleagues who need opinions on quantum or applicable law in Germany and is happy to act as co-counsel in any injury claims.
George Moschos
Greece
George Moschos is PEOPIL’s General Board Member for Greece, having taken over this role from his mother Silina after many years of dedicated service. Born in 1984, George graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens Greece and obtained a post-graduate LL.M diploma from the Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK (2009) in the subjects of maritime law, commercial law and conflict of laws. He has been a member of the Athens Bar Association since 2007, being licensed to practice as an attorney before all Civil and Penal Courts of Greece, as well as before the Supreme Court of Greece. He mainly specializes in personal injury cases, with particular experience in Greek and foreign seafarers’ accidents, transport accidents, tourists’ accidents, aviation accidents, asbestos exposure, medical malpractice and product liability cases.
Dr. Tibor Pataky
Hungary
Dr Tibor Pataky has been practising as a Hungarian Attorney since April 2011 and in 2014 he obtained the professional qualification of Lawyer specialising in insurance law.
In October 2010, Tibor was elected to the Executive Board of the Institute for European Traffic Law and has been re-elected to that prestigious body twice, in 2014 and in 2017. In September 2012, he was also elected to the General Board of PEOPIL. Since September 2013 Tibor has been a co-chair of the Young Lawyers Group within the framework of PEOPIL.
In 2017 Tibor completed a PhD (summa cum laude) with his field of research being compulsory motor vehicle liability insurance, with special regard to the European motor insurance directives. Tibor’s special fields of activity are civil law, with special regard to tort law, insurance law, company law, real estate law, private international law and traffic (criminal) law www.drpataky.hu.
If you are a Hungarian based lawyer and wish to become a member of PEOPIL www.peopil.com to network with other European Personal Injury Lawyers, to exchange information about EU Law and get case referrals please feel free to click on this link to become a PEOPIL member.
Marco Bona
Italy
PEOPIL’s General Board Member for Italy is the international Personal Injury Expert and author Marco Bona. Marco is the co-founder and a Senior Partner at the Turin based law firm Bona Olivia & Associati (MB.O law, www.mbolaw.it).
Marco is internationally recognised as a leading author and lawyer expert in personal injury law and cross-border claims, European law, consumer law, maritime disasters, holiday and sport accidents.
Marco has successfully represented hundreds of foreign clients in connection with injury claims either in Italy and abroad. He has extensive experience in mass tort cases like maritime cases (Al Salam Boccaccio, Costa Concordia and Norman Atlantic), aviation disasters (Air France flight AF 447, Valle Argentera helicopter disaster), railway accidents (Val Venosta, Viareggio), industrial disasters (Ali Enterprise Baldia fire, Turin Thyssen Krupp fire), virus outbreaks (in particular salmonella and Legionnaire diseases), terrorist attacks (Bardo Museum in Tunis) and Volkswagen dieselgate. He has also successfully acted for plaintiffs involving road traffic accidents, medical malpractice, accidents at work places, asbestos claims, product liability, damages caused tripping and slipping cases, skiing and sport accidents.
Clara Tilanus
The Netherlands
Clara graduated in 2016 and and joined Van Wassenaer Wytema (www.vanww.nl) in September 2019.
She started her career at a large Amsterdam-based law firm, where she focused on healthcare related issues and liability cases. However, for the last years she has been committed to “the other side”: the side of victims. She represents claimants with various types of damages, including (international) traffic accidents, medical negligence, employer liability etc.
She regularly gives guest lectures on medical liability law at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
Clara is also a certified mediator. if a conflict between the insurer and the victim cannot be resolved out of court, she can persuade the parties to come closer together through mediation.
Oonagh McClure
Northern Ireland
Oonagh Mc Clure is the Managing Partner of Thompsons N.I and is a serious injury and medical negligence Solicitor. Oonagh is a leader in the personal injury field in the North of Ireland and also deals with medical negligence cases including birth defect, serious spinal and head trauma injury claims.
Oonagh is also an expert in handling compensation claims for asbestos – related diseases. Her expertise was acknowledged when she was invited to attend before a committee of the Northern Ireland Parliament to give evidence regarding the impact of living with a diagnosis of pleural plaques. These efforts lead to the introduction of the Damages (asbestos related conditions) N.I (Act 2011) which secured the right for people diagnosed with pleural plaques to be compensated for bodily injury.
Oonagh also serves on the Executive Board of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), is a member of the Belfast Solicitors Association, the Spinal Injuries Association and AVMA (Action against Medical Accidents).
Cecilie Haukalid
Norway
Cecilie Haukalid is a lawyer at Haver Advokatfirma AS, with law offices in Stavanger and Bryne. She graduated from the University of Bergen in June 2018 and obtained the professional qualification to practice as a lawyer in October 2020.
Cecilie specializes in tort law and has significant experience assisting clients - usually claimants - with different kinds of personal injury cases. In addition to tort law, Cecilie works with contract law, in which she provides legal advice to both private parties and enterprises. She has useful experience in dispute resolution/litigation, both from her work in Haver Advokatfirma, and from her work as a deputy judge in the district court in Sandnes from September 2020 to March 2022. Cecilie has written two published articles within the fields of personal injury and human rights.
Along with her work as a lawyer, Cecilie often participates as an external examiner at the University of Bergen, the University of Stavanger and the University of Tromsø.
Jolanta Budzowska
Poland
Jolanta Budzowska – attorney-at-law with over 25 years’ experience, founding partner of the BFP law firm based in Kraków, Poland. Jolanta is a specialist in the field of medical negligence and patient rights. She has recorded the highest winnings in the history of the Polish judicature, representing patients in approximately 600 high profile civil cases, including appearances before the Polish Supreme Court. Jolanta boasts extensive experience in handling cases with cross-border elements, e.g., aviation and road traffic accident cases. Jolanta often provides legal advice on Polish law to foreign law firms, which includes pre-trial advice, preparing expert reports for the courts, and testifying in court as an expert witness. Notably, her testimony has repeatedly been relied upon in the High Court of Justice in England. She has been PEOPIL’s Board Member since 2009 as well as an active member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), the Institute for European Traffic Law (IETL) and the American Association for Justice (AAJ).
António da Costa Basto
Portugal
Antonio da Costa Basto is the founder partner of the law firm António da Costa Basto – Advogados.
He has been practicing law since 1975 and is an expert in personal injury law. The law firm has its central offices in Lisbon. Antonio regularly assists international courts giving evidence of legal procedures in Portugal and the amount of damages that injured victims can recover under Portuguese law.
Antonio can be contacted via email at geral@acbasto.pt or can be contacted by phone 00351 21 590 3825.
If you are Portuguese based personal injury lawyer and wish to become a member of PEOPIL (www.peopil.com) please feel free to click on this link to become a PEOPIL member.
Loredana Dumbrava
Romania
Loredana is a Senior Lawyer at the Jercan, Gheorghe, Vlad & Associates Law firm. Her practice is focused on complex civil litigation – especially personal injury and criminal cases. She graduated from the Law School of Babeș-Bolyai University with the final thesis entitled “The theory of imprevision” (Théorie de l’imprévision), in the field of civil law under the guidance of Liviu Pop. She was admitted in the Romanian Bar Association, in 2014 and in her first years as a lawyer, she was in charge of representing a company of VIENNA INSURANCE GROUP in the area of Cluj County. She joined JERCAN, GHEORGHE, VLAD & ASSOCIATES law firm in 2020, where she manages various cases regarding jurisdiction and applicable law for accidents abroad, personal injury and liabilities incurred from road traffic accidents and a few aviation incidents which happened in Romania. She started writing articles, which will help other colleagues. The first one was published in July and was entitled “Opinion on the jurisdiction of Romanian courts in the case of accidents in the EU territory”.
Mark Gibson
Scotland
Mark graduated from Glasgow University in 2002 with an LLB (Hons) degree with Spanish Language. Mark is also a former tutor of private, company, commercial and mercantile law at the University of Glasgow. He is a former director of a charitable company limited by guarantee.
He is based in Digby Brown's Glasgow and Edinburgh offices and is the head of their Foreign & Travel and Product Liability teams. He specialises in road traffic, occupier's liability, aviation, product liability and general personal injury litigation with a foreign element. Mark has a particular interest and specialism in product liability, food product liability and defective medical product claims.
Mark is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Personal Injury Law. He is accredited as a Senior Litigator by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and is the only APIL accredited Accident and Illnesses Abroad Specialist in Scotland. Mark is also a Revitalization Governor of the American Association for Justice.
Natalia Astigarraga
Spain
Natalia’s professional career started in 2008 when she joined the Personal Injury Department of Irwin Mitchell Abogados in Spain. She then moved to Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Abogados in 2013.
Natalia is regularly instructed as an expert in Spanish Law injury cases. She has extensive experience in holiday claims resulting from accidents abroad involving Hotels, tour operators as well as claims against public bodies such as Local Authorities and hospitals. Her wide-ranging experience also includes claims resulting from the transport of passengers by road, air and sea and medical negligence, specifically in relation to birth injuries.
She is a member of the Malaga Bar Association, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers UK) and the Spanish Association of Lawyers who specialise in Civil Liability and insurance matters.
In 2023, Natalia joined Ana Romero in founding their own firm Astrom Legal.
Joakim Jäderström
Sweden
Joakim Jäderström is PEOPIL Board member for Sweden and is an expert in Personal Injury and insurance law. His main areas of expertise are claims involving road traffic accidents, medical negligence and claims with a cross-border dimension. He is a Partner at Legare Advokatbyrå www.legare.se with law offices in Stockholm, Umeå and Västerås joakim.jaderstrom@legare.se.
Joakim represents claimants and acts regularly on behalf of claimants in Swedish courts. He is also a lecturer in Insurance law at the Institute of Business Administration in Stockholm and is often engaged as a speaker on personal injury law topics.
His legal career started, after a law degree at the University of Stockholm, at the District Court in Västervik and thereafter at the Swedish Road Traffic Injuries Commission in Stockholm. Joakim Jäderström joined Legare Advokatbyrå in 2007.
Martin Hablützel
Switzerland
Martin Hablützel is a board member of PEOPIL since 2012 representing Switzerland in the organisation and he is the founder and managingPartner in the Zurich Law Firm Schadenanwälte.
He has a strong reputation for representing asbestos victims, victims of road and work accidents or as a result of mountaineering or other risk activities. Since 2005 Martin has also been Chair of „fragile Zurich“, a victims’s organisation for people with brain injuries.
Martin attended the University of Zurich, where he graduated in 1992. He qualified as a solicitor in 1995 and since 1998 has specialised in Personal Injury law. He acquired the Fachanwalt in Haftpflicht- und Versicherungsrecht“ in 2009, the first year the title was awarded to specialist lawyers in liability and insurance law.
From 2011 to 2014 Martin was an expert in the Panel of Judges at the insurance law department of the Commercial Court of Zurich (Fachrichter am Handelsgericht des Kantons Zürich).
Oleg Fedotov
Ukraine
Oleg Fedotov is PEOPIL’s Ukrainian Board Member and is the founding partner of the “Jurinter Law Firm” based in Mariupol, Ukraine www.jurinter.org.
Oleg and his team specialise in personal injury claims with a particular expertise in handling complex maritime, aviation, road traffic and cross-border personal injury claims.
Oleg started his legal practice in 1993 and headed the legal department of a major marine insurance company in Ukraine “ Azov Insurance Company”. In 1999 he co-founded and took charge of the Jurinter Law Firm which was one of the first Ukrainian Law Firms after the declaration of independence to provide personal injury legal services.
Oleg is also a member of IBA, the Ukrainian Bar Association, IR Global and winner of national and international awards in the field of personal injury.
Oleg is happy to work as co-counsel with foreign law firms and can provide expert opinions on quantum and applicable law for any Ukrainian associated cases.
Anthony Tarricone
USA
Anthony Tarricone is PEOPIL’s first representative from the USA and was elected in 2022.
He is past president of the American Association for Justice, and partner at Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, where he concentrates his practice in aviation accidents and disasters, products liability, civil rights and other complex injury and death cases. He has a special interest and extensive experience in international, cross-border death and injury claims.
Anthony is currently serving on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee for the Boeing 737 MAX lawsuit arising from the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 - in which all 157 passengers and crew from 35 countries perished.
Leonardo Amarante
Balance of the World
Leonardo Amarante is a Brazilian lawyer who represents the "Balance of the World" at PEOPIL, he acts for the countries without a General Board member.
He is the founding partner of Leonardo Amarante Advogados Associados and has over 35 years of experience in civil liability litigation, focusing mainly on the defense of victims of
(i) work-related accidents;
(ii) major aviation crashes;
(iii) medical and pharmaceutical negligence;
(iv) consumer law cases.
As a consumer law advisor, he is a member of the Brazilian Lawyers Institute (Instituto dos Advogados Brasileiros - IAB).
Leonardo is also a Civil Law college professor.
