Speaker

Joe Barnett is an experienced litigator with nearly 20 years of experience representing clients in both Minnesota and North Dakota. He joined Hellmuth & Johnson’s litigation practice in 2012 and has focused his practice in real estate, construction, probate, and business law. Joe assists his clients with a variety of legal issues including: 

Neda Ghomeshi is an Associate General Counsel at Ryder System, Inc.  She manages all of Ryder's commercial litigation and large disputes, and she oversees the customer bankruptcy process.  Additionally, she works closely with Ryder's Risk Management and Claims teams, providing legal guidance on accident-related claims and liability matters.  In her role, she collaborates with and provides strategic legal counsel to Finance, Operations, Real Estate, Environmental, Safety, Security, and Audit. 

Steve Schukraft is the Chief Legal Officer of McCollister’s Global Services, a national transportation, logistics, warehousing, and specialized services company. As a member of the company’s executive leadership team, Steve oversees its legal, regulatory, compliance, litigation, and enterprise risk functions. He regularly advises company leadership on transportation operations, workplace safety, commercial agreements, employment matters, corporate governance, and strategic business initiatives.

Allyson Boyd assists clients with an array of transportation issues with a focus on independent contractor issues, contracting issues, and regulatory and licensing compliance. Boyd regularly assists clients on matters involving: 

Prasad Sharma’s practice focuses on state and federal legislative and regulatory advocacy work and an array of regulatory compliance issues. From the Firm’s D.C. office, Sharma leads legislative support initiatives and provides a legal liaison function to Firm clients seeking transportation and logistics industry national and state association outreach. He spearheads outreach efforts within the Firm’s network of industry leaders to align efforts to achieve legislative outcomes that protect the future of the transportation industry.

Kelli Block’s practice is devoted to assisting clients with a variety of legal issues, concentrating on independent contractor issues facing the transportation industry. She counsels transportation carriers, freight forwarders, and logistics companies on owner-operator, regulatory compliance, transportation contract review, insurance, alternative risk management, employment tax, and unclaimed property matters. She also defends transportation companies in various investigation and enforcement matters, including IRS audits, U.S.

Shannon Cohen primarily practices in emerging technologies, independent contractor issues, and legislative services. 

Cohen focuses on forthcoming and active legislation and regulation pertaining to issues affecting motor carriers, particularly on legislation touching on the independent contractor status of owner-operators. She has extensive experience counseling clients on owner-operator programs and issues attendant to the design of a successful owner-operator model. These services include: 

Monica Jordan is a co-founder of Akana Claims Management and serves as its President of Empathic Adjusting. She is also a distinguished investigative professional with over 30 years of legal experience in criminal defense, civil litigation, and independent claims adjusting focused on empathy and immediate outreach. Throughout her career, Monica has developed a reputation for rigorous fact-finding, strategic case analysis, and unwavering commitment to justice.

Tom Schulte is a co-founder and the Chief Claims Officer of Akana Claims Management. He is also the founder of Schulte Law Office, LLC, a transportation-focused litigation firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he serves as National Counsel for KLB Services. He brings more than two decades of front-line experience defending motor carriers, freight brokers, freight forwarders, third-party logistics providers, and transportation companies in complex, high-exposure litigation throughout the United States. 

Lacey Breeden is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Akana Claims Management. Lacey also serves as General Counsel at KLB Services, which is part of a fourth-generation family-owned and operated trucking company based in Fort Worth, Texas.