MPL Association Names Recipients of 2026 MPL Industry Defender Award
(Rockville, MD, May 8, 2026)—The Medical Professional Liability Association (MPL Association) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 MPL Industry Defender Award: Raymond L. Blessey, Mariam T. Hopkins, Derek M. Stikeleather, Leigh Ann Smith, and Bobbie S. Sprader. 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.
Raymond L. Blessey
Blessey is a senior partner at Reback, McAndrews & Blessey LLP. He has dedicated his entire legal career to defending healthcare professionals across Southern California with integrity, empathy, and excellence. He has tried to verdict more than 85 cases, spanning medical malpractice, elder abuse, and dependent adult abuse. His courtroom leadership is consistently described as strategic, precise, and highly persuasive. He is routinely selected by multiple carriers as the attorney of choice for the most challenging, catastrophic injury, and high exposure claims. Before entering the legal profession, he spent 18 years as a licensed physical therapist, providing direct patient care and contributing to clinical research on premature atherosclerosis and air pollutant health effects.
Mariam T. Hopkins
Hopkins is a senior partner with Anderson, Murphy & Hopkins, LLP in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since joining private practice in 1991, she has defended physicians, healthcare providers, and healthcare facilities across the state of Arkansas over her 35-year career. She has been instrumental in building the firm’s medical malpractice and nursing home defense team. She has tried more than 50 cases in her career, including her first medical malpractice trial in 1993. Her experience successfully trying even the most difficult cases in Arkansas has made her one of the most sought-after civil defense attorneys in the state.
Derek M. Stikeleather
Stikeleather is a partner with Baltimore’s Goodell DeVries and Chair of the firm's Appellate and Critical Motions Practice Group. He practices primarily in appellate advocacy and complex litigation, often as national appellate counsel for clients responding to nuclear verdicts. He has vast experience in commercial disputes and defending medical malpractice, product liability, and class action claims. He is currently leading the multi-firm appellate team that persuaded Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal to vacate the $213 million judgment that followed a $261 million verdict against a Florida children’s hospital.
Leigh Ann Smith
Smith is a partner at Batten, McLamb and Smith, PLLC, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has tried matters on behalf of both corporate defendants and healthcare providers. Known for thorough case preparation and compelling trial presentations, Smith has built a strong reputation as a formidable defense attorney as she presents in the courtroom with grace and grit. She brings particular depth of experience to cases involving perinatal injury and death, with a record of positive first-chair defense victories. Smith is also recognized as an educator and is always willing to share knowledge with clients and the healthcare risk management profession.
Bobbie S. Sprader
Sprader is a partner at Dinsmore’s Columbus, Ohio, office. She is a healthcare litigator with 30 years of experience defending physicians and hospitals in medical malpractice, wrongful death, and personal injury cases. Recognized as one of the leading medical malpractice defense attorneys in central Ohio, Sprader represents major healthcare
systems and several large professional liability insurance carriers representing various healthcare providers. She has extensive courtroom experience and has conducted numerous jury trials, argued before various appellate courts, and presented cases in Ohio at the local, state, and federal level.
“We are pleased to honor these outstanding defense attorneys who have served as important partners with medical professional liability organizations,” said Eric R. Anderson, President and CEO of the 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.”