MPL Association Names Recipients of 2025 MPL Industry Defender Award
(Rockville, MD, May 16, 2025)—The Medical Professional Liability Association (MPL Association) has awarded its 2025 MPL Industry Defender Award to Walter W. “Billy” Bates, Anna Moore Carulas, Alan J. Fumuso, Kenneth R. Larywon, and Claire Petts. This award is presented annually to defense attorneys in recognition of their exceptional and outstanding lifelong contributions to defending physicians, other healthcare professionals, and institutions while supporting medical professional liability insurers.
Walter W. “Billy” Bates
Bates, a partner at Starnes Davis Florie in Birmingham, Alabama, and practicing attorney for 44 years, has been devoted to the defense of professional liability healthcare cases, including those for physicians, hospitals, and various healthcare individuals and entities. He has tried in excess of 140 complex civil cases to jury verdict. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Diplomate of the American Board of Trial Advocates, where he served as President of the Alabama chapter. He is ranked as a Tier One litigator by Chambers USA in the category of medical malpractice defense and has been regionally selected as the The Best Lawyers in America “Medical Malpractice Defense Lawyer of the Year" on multiple occasions.
Anna Moore Carulas
Carulas is a shareholder and senior trial attorney in the Cleveland office of Roetzel & Andress, LPA and leads the firm’s Medical Defense practice group. Her entire career, beginning in 1986, has been devoted to
defending medical professionals in lawsuits alleging malpractice and wrongful death. She is entrusted to represent Ohio’s leading healthcare systems and liability carriers in their most medically complex and emotionally charged cases. She enjoys a long history of defense verdicts and successful resolutions on behalf of her clients. Carulas is Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy, a Senior Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, and has been recognized as one of Ohio’s top lawyers by Ohio Super Lawyers.
Alan J. Fumuso
Fumuso is the founding partner and senior trial attorney in the firm of Fumuso Christesen LLP in Hauppauge, New York. He is one of the most experienced and successful medical malpractice defense attorneys in the New York Metropolitan Area. He has taken approximately 120 MPL cases to verdict, achieving successful results across a wide spectrum involving every medical and dental specialty. He has been chosen as a Super Lawyer, and listed in the New York Times as one of the Top Attorneys in New York. Fumuso has been honored by OMSNIC as their National Attorney of the Year, and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Kenneth R. Larywon
Larywon is a Senior Trial Partner at Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP in New York State, where he focuses his practice on the defense of professional liability cases and healthcare law matters. For more than 45 years, Larywon has defended physicians and hospitals in claims arising out of the delivery of medical care. He has also represented healthcare professionals in disciplinary proceedings before the Office of Professional Medical Conduct and the Department of Education. In addition, Larywon has extensive experience in counseling and defending hospitals, and in physician and nursing staff credentialing matters.
Claire Petts
Petts leads the Global Healthcare team at Clyde & Co based in London, which includes a team of more than 120 lawyers across the U.K. alone, and chairs the international healthcare group at Clydes, having also served on the firm’s U.K. management board. She has worked in the field of medical defence for 26 years. Petts’ depth and range of technical knowledge, outstanding negotiating skills, and finely honed communications to individual and corporate clients alike shows that she remains the key defense lawyer at Clydes, often requested to lead individual cases personally, working from clients’ premises on occasion.
“We are pleased to honor these outstanding defense attorneys who have served as important partners with medical professional liability organizations,” said Eric R. Anderson, interim president and CEO, MPL Association. “Their successful representation of healthcare professionals and institutions embodies excellence in the claims defense field. On behalf of our members and those they insure, the MPL Association thanks these individuals for their years of dedicated work.”