Legal

-Senior partner, Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola PLLP.  www.mswd.com.

-AV Rated, Martindale Hubbell (Preeminent). John Martin Morrison.

-Five Star (10/10) AVVO Rating.  John Martin Morrison.

-Montana appellate lawyer of the year 2015.

-Adjunct professor of Insurance Law at University of Montana Law School.

-Montana Bar Association Ethics Committee

-Lead Montana Counsel, Special Assistant Attorney General, State of Montana v. Phillip Morris (The Tobacco case).

-Counsel for NBC, New York Times and other media, U.S. v. Kaczynski (the Unabomber case).

-Co-counsel with Southern Poverty Law Center in Gersh v. Anglin (the Nazi troll storm case).

-Co-counsel in Montana Health CO-OP v. United States (requiring Trump Administration to honor promise to make CSR payments under the ACA).

-Lead Counsel in Butler v. Unified Life et al (the junk health insurance case).

-Lead Counsel in first medical monitoring fund class action in Montana (the fen Phen case).

-Numerous cases of first impression in the Montana Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals, including:

• MEA-MFT v. McCullough (defeating referendum to give away state budget surplus)
• Gleason v. Central United Life (holding insurance companies cannot deny claims based on technicalities)
• MEA-MFT v. State of Montana (defeating referendum to create jungle primary)
• Ridley v. Guaranty National (requiring insurers to pay medical bills as incurred when liability is clear)
• McCall v. BPA (requiring the United States to maintain a safe workplace for contractors’ workers).

-Record verdicts and settlements (including largest settlement in Montana history).

-ERISA expert for the US Department of Labor.

-Visiting speaker, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Stanford University, Beijing University, University of Montana Law School, University of Denver Law School, University of South Dakota Law School, The Milbank Fund, The National Insurance School.

-Author of law journal articles on constitutional law, insurance law, product liability, professional negligence and criminal law.

-Associate law review editor and two time national trial competition finalist.

Business/Non-profit

Trustee, Senior Health Care Oversight Trust (appointed to replace former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop)

Board member and past Chairman, Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania ($3.2b closed block LTC insurer)

Co-founder, Board of Directors and past Vice Chair, Montana Health CO-OP

Co-founder, Montana Endowment for Public Health and Safety/Safe Kids and Families Fund (providing thousands of bicycle helmets to low income kids)

Co-founder and past President, National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs

Past Board member and President, CASA of Montana

Board of Directors, Presidio Reinsurance Corporation

Vice Chair, Center for Health Policy Development

Public Service

-State Auditor, Insurance Commissioner, Securities Commissioner, State Lands Commissioner

-Wrote and led creation of Healthy Montana Kids which provides health coverage to more than half of the children in Montana.

-Wrote and led creation of Insure Montana (which made health insurance more affordable for thousands of Montana small businesses).

-Banned ERISA Discretionary Clauses and led adoption of National Model (restoring fair claims handling rights to tens of millions of Americans). Standard Insurance Co. v. Morrison, 584 F. 3d 837 (9th Cir., Oct. 27, 2009).

-Led national crackdown on fake health insurance.

-Started Montana Captive Insurance Industry (which has brought nearly 300 new companies to Montana and over $5 million annually)

-Led creation of State Land Bank (opening tens of thousands of school trust land acres to public access)

-Chaired two of four major standing committees of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs; Health Insurance and Managed Care) plus the committee that responded to insurance issues related to the 9/11 attacks.

-NAIC International Vice-Chairman.  Represented NAIC in Asia, helped launch US-China insurance regulatory relationship, represented the US in the US-China WTO Insurance Dialogues.

-Provided invited testimony multiple times before both houses of Congress