Will Skinner is a partner in the firm of DeForest Koscelnik Yokitis Skinner & Berardinelli. Mr. Skinner opened the Los Angeles office in December 2008. He has litigation experience covering a wide range of substantive areas, including product liability, commercial and contract disputes, employment, intellectual property, unfair competition, personal injury and wrongful death.

Mr. Skinner's aviation litigation experience includes defending general aviation product liability actions, personal injury and wrongful death claims arising out of international transportation, commercial and contract disputes involving general aviation manufacturers and commercial airlines, libel and defamation actions, and sexual harassment and assault claims involving airline personnel. He was a key member of the team that defended Singapore Airlines in the mass air disaster of flight SQ006 on Oct. 31, 2000, involving the crash of a Boeing 747 on take-off from the Chaing Kai Shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. Mr. Skinner recently represented an aviation engine manufacturer as lead trial counsel in a breach of warranty case involving a Cirrus SR22 aircraft. After a five day jury trial in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Mr. Skinner obtained a defense verdict. Mr. Skinner also conducts ongoing in-house product integrity training for a major general aviation manufacturer.

Acting as national and local counsel, Mr. Skinner has defended the pharmaceutical industry in complex mass tort actions in multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States. He also has experience defending medical device manufacturers in product liability actions.

Mr. Skinner's publications include the following:

• Co-Author, DOHSA's Commercial Aviation Exception: How Mass Airline Disasters Influenced Congress On Compensation For Deaths On The High Seas, 75 J. AIR L. & COM. 137, Winter 2010.

•  Preemption In The Ninth Circuit: Martin v. Midwest and the Pervasive Regulation Standard, AVIATION LITIGATION QUARTERLY, Spring 2009 (Vol. 10, No. 1), republished in APPELLATE PRACTICE JOURNAL, Summer 2009 (Vol. 28, No. 3).

• Co-Author, The Preemptive Effect of the Federal Aviation Act: The Question of GARA and Congressional Intent to Occupy the Field of Aviation Safety, ANNALS OF AIR & SPACE LAW, Vol. XXXIV 2009.

•  The Sophisticated Pilot: A New Line of Defense In The Field of General Aviation, 73 J. AIR L. & COM. 527, Summer 2008.

• Contributing author, THE LIABILITY REPORTER (International Air Transport Association and Condon & Forsyth LLP) from 2000 through 2003 (Volumes 3-6).

• Preventing Gray Markets: Is Copyright Law The Solution? 26 SYRACUSE J. INT'L L. & COM. 318, Spring 1999.

He graduated cum laude from Syracuse University College of Law in 1999. During law school, he was Senior Editor of the Syracuse Journal of International Law & Commerce, Senior Editor of The Labor Lawyer (ABA Publication) and one of the founding members and Executive Editor of the Syracuse Law and Technology Journal. He received his undergraduate degree cum laude from Western Washington University in 1996.

Mr. Skinner is a member of the California bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. District Court for the Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of California.

He is also a member of the Lawyers-Pilots Bar Association, the Aviation Insurance Association, the ABA's Aviation Litigation Section and Aviation & Space Law Committee and the Helicopter Association International.