Trial Advocacy Program Faculty

Faculty for the Trial Advocacy Program are experienced litigators who bring of wealth of hard-won knowledge and insights to the classroom.

Gwen Roseman Stern

Professor Gwen Roseman Stern The Trial Advocacy Program is directed by the Director of Trial Advocacy and Professor of Law Gwen Roseman Stern, who is both an experienced litigator and a leader in promoting trial advocacy skills and community awareness of legal procedures. A former associate with the Philadelphia law firms Kline and Specter PC, White and Williams LLC, Professor Stern tried numerous medical malpractice cases. As an associate with Harvey, Pennington, Herting and Renneisen, she prepared pleadings, motions, legal briefs and discovery in medical malpractice, pharmaceutical and products liability cases and conducted depositions and arbitrations in defense of personal injury litigation. Professor Stern directs the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which she brought to Philadelphia as a joint undertaking between the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania Law School to encourage city high-school students to learn about their rights and responsibilities under the Constitution.

Previously, Professor Stern was an adjunct professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law teaching both introduction and advanced trial advocacy. She also directed the trial training program for Temple LEAP (Law, Education, and Participation)’s Philadelphia High School Mock Trial Competition.

She earned her JD from Temple University, where she was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society and named the best oral advocate in the I. Herman Stern Moot Court Competition.

Philip Pasquarello

Phil Pasquarello is a Director of Trial Advocacy at the Drexel Kline School of Law and a trial attorney at Kline & Specter in Philadelphia. He was the 2018 Top Gun champion. At Kline & Specter, Phil's verdicts exceed $100 million. His teams have won multiple regional and national tournaments.

Michael S. Berger

JD, George Washington University
BA, Indiana University

Professor Michael Berger is an award-winning medical malpractice attorney. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been listed by numerous publications, including Super Lawyers, as a top attorney. Prior to teaching at the law school he was an adjunct clinical professor at Rutgers University Law School.

The Honorable Mark I. (Ret.) Bernstein

JD, University of Pennsylvania School of Law
BA, St. John's College

Judge Mark I. Bernstein is now available for private mediations and arbitrations. Before retiring in October 2016, he served as a Common Pleas Court Judge for almost 30 years. He is the author of comprehensive comments on the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence published by Gann Law Books. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has appointed Judge Bernstein to serve on important committees concerned with the quality of Justice, including the Civil Jury Instruction Committee which publishes Standard Jury Instructions. In 1995, Judge Bernstein designed and implemented the case management system for all Civil Major Jury cases, as a result of which there is no backlog of civil cases in Philadelphia County.

Gaetano D'Andrea

JD, Widener University School of Law
BA, Loyola University Marylan

Professor D'Andrea is an assistant district attorney at the Philadelphia District Attorney's office. There, he prosecutes homicide cases from preliminary hearings through trial. He has also litigated cases out of the charging unit and trial unit.

The Honorable Mark A. Kearney

JD, Villanova University

Judge Kearney is a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He received his J.D. from Villanova University, where he presently serves on the law school's Board of Consultors. Following law school, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Delaware Court of Chancery. In 2012, the United States District Court appointed Judge Kearney to the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Varghese Kurian

JD, Temple University Beasley School of Law
LLM, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Varghese Kurian served his first tour in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) from 2001 to 2008, working in areas ranging from narcotics to major trials. ADA Kurian went on to serve in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office before rejoining the DAO in March of 2018, in the Major Trials Unit.

Francesca Liquori

JD, St. John's University School of Law
BS, Cornell University

Professor Liquori is an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey. She previously served as a Trial Attorney with the Organized Crime and Gang Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and as an Assistant District Attorney at the New York County District Attorney's Office. Professor Liquori also worked as Program Counsel for the National Association of Attorneys General, where she organized and conducted skills-based litigation trainings.

The Honorable Karen Spencer Marston

JD, Wake Forest University School of Law
MEd, Salem College
BA, Davidson College

Judge Marston graduated from Davidson College in 1990 and received her law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1998. After law school, she practiced with Moore & Van Allen in Charlotte, NC. In 2000, she became a federal criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the WDNC, and in 2006, with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the EDPA. She prosecuted a broad array of criminal matters, including, violent narcotics trafficking, money laundering, white collar crime, health care fraud, immigration offenses and counterterrorism. In 2018, Judge Marston became the Chief of Narcotics and Organized Crime. She was nominated by President Trump to be a federal district court judge in September 2019. After her Senate confirmation, she received her commission on December 20, 2019.

Brian James McMonagle

Capital Law School
BA, Gettysburg College

Mr. McMonagle served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Homicide and Rape Units of the Philadelphia District Office from 1984-1999. He is a partner at the firm of McMonagle Perri McHugh Mischak & Davis. He has been inducted into the American College of Trial Attorney's and the American Board of Criminal Attorney's and Best Lawyers in America. He presently serves as Eastern District of Pennsylvania's Vice President of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Lawyers. He is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars.

The Honorable Juan R. Sanchez

J.D., University of Pennsylvania

The Honorable Juan R. Sanchez serves as a District Judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. On the recommendation of U.S. Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, Judge Sanchez was nominated on the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2003. Judge Sanchez previously served as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he presided over criminal, civil, and juvenile matters.

James Waldenberger

JD, Villanova University School of Law
BA, Villanova University
Fellow, Temple University Academy of Advocacy

I am a trial lawyer in my twentieth year of practice. I am a partner at Kline & Specter and represent catastrophically injured individuals in various types of cases, including medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, construction accidents, products liability, premises liability, and medical devices. I have tried approximately twenty-five jury trials as lead counsel. I have obtained multiple six- and seven-figure jury verdicts in my clients' favor. I have tried cases throughout Pennsylvania, as well as in New Jersey and Massachusetts.