TRIAL ADVOCACY Conference

Judge Hayes is currently sitting in a Family Law assignment, handling custody, domestic violence and dissolution cases. Prior to his appointment to the bench in 2021, Judge Hayes was a trial lawyer with the law firm Dreyer, Babich, Buccola, Wood and Campora. His work with DBBWC began in 2000 while he was still a student at McGeorge; after graduating, he began his practice.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lauri Damrell ’05 has been appointed to serve as an associate justice on the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District.

A Superior Court judge since 2018, Damrell has presided over various civil and criminal trials and other proceedings, including misdemeanor arraignments and sentencing, civil harassment and domestic violence restraining order hearings, and family court proceedings.

From 2006 to 2018, Damrell practiced at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, where she provided legal advice to leading national and international corporations on a full range of business decisions, agreements, investigations, and litigation, with a focus on employment matters.

Casey Hultin is a trial partner at Morgan and Morgan, handling catastrophic personal injury cases across the state of California.

Casey frequently speaks at legal conferences across the nation and loves teaching others about trial advocacy. She is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and was named a finalist for the Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles (CAALA) Rising Star Award in 2022.

A former elite athlete, Casey decided to become a lawyer after competing in her first mock trial tournament in high school. She found the same satisfaction in a courtroom that she thought she could only find on the soccer field. She brings her competitive spirit and dedication to every trial.

Outside of the courtroom, Casey fosters pugs for the rescue organization Bay Area Pug Project. She is a lifelong member of Raider Nation.

Judge Weng-Gutierrez has over 28 years of legal practice experience before state and federal trial, appellate, and supreme courts. Before her judicial appointment, she served as Chief Prosecuting Counsel of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and spent 18.5 years with the California Attorney General’s Office in health, education, and social welfare law. She also served as staff counsel for the Department of Health Services and, early in her career, maintained a family-law practice.

Judge Weng-Gutierrez is a Certified Instructor with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and served as faculty with the California Attorney General’s Continuing Legal Education Program. Her professional and community service has included the Judicial Council of California, the State Bar Legal Services Trust Fund Commission, the Schwartz/Levi Inn of Court, Operation Protect and Defend, and several Asian/Pacific bar and legal-service organizations.

John N. Demas is the founding partner of Demas Law Group, P.C., an 8-attorney Sacramento personal injury law firm. A respected trial attorney, John has dedicated his career to advocating for injured individuals and families throughout California. Known for his strategic approach and powerful courtroom advocacy, he has secured landmark trial verdicts and significant settlements, earning recognition among California’s leading personal injury attorneys. He is a member and past President of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and past President of the Capital City Trial Lawyers Association (CCTLA).

Judge Davis has been a judicial officer since 2017. He has taught jury selection to attorneys across the State of California for almost 20 years. Prior to becoming a Superior Court Judge he was a Deputy District Attorney in Riverside and Sacramento County. He tried over 100 trials as a prosecutor. He also worked in civil law. As a judge he has presided over traffic, family, juvenile dependency, civil, and criminal cases. He currently works in a criminal assignment handling serious felonies such as rape, murder, and child molestation.

Bob Bale is a partner at Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP. He specializes in representing plaintiffs in catastrophic injury/wrongful death claims. Over the past 25 years Bob has lectured extensively on a broad range of topics related to discovery, trial, and mediation. Bob is a proud member of ABOTA. Together with partner Roger Dreyer, Bob has tried a series of high-profile cases to verdict, including some that drew national attention, against manufacturers like Ford Motor Company, Mastercraft, Nissan, and the infamous “Win a Wii for a Wee” wrongful death radio contest case in Sacramento County. In March of 2026, Roger and Bob obtained an $18.6M verdict against California Department of Parks and Recreation for their negligent supervision of a Docent before a Monterey County jury.

A long-time member of the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Legislative Committee, Bob has played a key role in legislative efforts to protect the citizens of this state against legislative limitations on their right to seek just recovery for tort damages. In 2017, Bob authored and was actively engaged in the passage of Evidence Code Section 352.1, which negates evidence of a litigant’s immigration status for any purpose in a personal injury lawsuit. He continues to draft and fight for legislation on behalf of injured persons.

For more than 15 years, Judge Goodman served on the Sacramento County Superior Court bench as an active and assigned judge. For most of his judicial career, he was in a general trial assignment, presiding over all types of complex civil and criminal matters, retiring from the bench in 2022. He then served on an assignment basis for two years as the court’s Supervising Civil Settlement Judge whereby he conducted hundreds of settlement conferences and supervised attorneys acting as judges pro tem, before joining Judicate West as a full-time neutral.

Justice Shama Mesiwala has devoted her legal career to public service. She represented indigent criminal defendants with the Federal Public Defender and the Central California Appellate Program, arguing cases before the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal. She later served as a staff and chambers attorney at the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, before becoming a commissioner and then a Sacramento County Superior Court judge, where she presided over a wide range of criminal, civil, juvenile, collaborative-court, and other matters.

In 2023, Justice Mesiwala was unanimously confirmed as an associate justice on the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District. She has taught Appellate Advocacy at UC Davis School of Law, served as president of the Schwartz/Levi American Inn of Court, co-founded the South Asian Bar Association of Sacramento, and participated in numerous judicial, legal, and community organizations.

Hon. Russell L. Hom (Ret.) served on the Sacramento Superior Court from 2002 until his retirement, including as Presiding Judge from 2020–2021. He handled a wide range of civil and criminal assignments and held numerous judicial leadership and education roles statewide. Before taking the bench, he served as a Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney and was in private practice. Judge Hom is now a Neutral with Judicate West, serving as a mediator, discovery referee, and arbitrator.