Team JLC travels to Miami for American Association for Justice (AAJ) Winter Convention 2025

Paula Bliss, Kim Dougherty, Kelly Guagenty and Laura Yaeger traveled to Miami last week to attend the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Winter Convention 2025 - the largest national gathering of top trial lawyers.

Dougherty and Yaeger were tapped as speakers, to educate and share updates on their areas of expertise including sexual assault litigation and law firm marketing, operations, and growth.

At the start of 2025, Justice Law Collaborative and Yaeger Law announced their merger, joining together two, female-founded and led law practices. The leaders of both firms have successfully collaborted on numerous, nationwide cases and have served on professional committees together for more than a decade.

JLC's newest partner Laura Yaeger also officially announced her interest in becoming the next AAJ parliamentarian. Over the last several weeks, her campaign efforts have intensified - resulting in a bevy of endorsements and vocal support from AAJ members.

As part of her campaign effort, Yaeger hosted a flamingo-fabulous "Cocktails & Conversations" event at AAJ Convention during which she was able to connect with fellow AAJ members and share what she intends to bring to the role of parliamentarian should she earn their vote come July 2025.

Networking with fellow AAJ members was just one piece of the team’s trip. Partner and Justice Law Collaborative co-founder Paula Bliss was named co-chair to the newly-formed AAJ Fertility Litigation Group alongside fellow IVF attorney and advocate Allison Freeman (managing partner of Constable Law) to represent and advocate for patients undergoing fertility treatment.

Last October, Justice Law Collaborative, Constable Law, and Berger Montague filed class action lawsuits against multiple genetic testing companies for misleading consumers about the benefits and capabilities of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A). PGT-A is advertised as a genetic test that purports to analyze the chromosomal makeup of fertilized human embryos by screening for chromosomal abnormalities.

Consumers undergoing IVF treatment are frequently sold PGT-A as an add-on test costing thousands of dollars and not typically covered by insurance. The lawsuits allege that the defendants make certain assertions concerning the accuracy of their respective tests which remain unreliable and inaccurate - information that is not disclosed to vulnerable consumers charged with making critical decisions about which embryos to transfer based on the test results.

Companies that store and work on embryos created during the IVF process have already experienced backlash when storage tanks have broken - ultimately destroying viable embryos. Most recently, litigation was brought against Coastal Fertility Specialists for transferring the wrong embryo to a patient - who birthed another person’s baby after receiving IVF treatment. What made the circumstances even worse for the mother was that the true biological parents of the child she birthed demanded custody, forcing the distraught mother to give up the 5-month-old boy to avoid a legal fight she could not win.

Bliss said, “Given the increased attention on IVF from the incumbent administration, there will no doubt be an increased need for oversight and protections for patients pursuing a family through IVF treatment. The desire to start a family, combined with unexpected, monumental hurdles to achieving that family, creates emotional and financial hardships that cannot be overstated. As attorneys, we must not only be aware of the constantly changing IVF landscape, we may be in a position to create new legislation to protect the very people IVF purports to help.”