Ron Mercaldo established the Mercaldo Law Firm in 1978 for the purpose of representing plaintiffs in serious injury and wrongful death cases. The firm has specialized for the last 15 years in the area of medical malpractice. Mr. Mercaldo left a larger firm in 1978 where he was a partner doing both insurance defense and plaintiffs representation. Mr. Mercaldo obtained his undergraduate and juris doctor degrees from the University of Arizona completing his studies in 1970. He has been actively involved in the litigation of personal injury and medical malpractice cases since that time, including insurance defense litigation and plaintiff's personal injury/medical malpractice litigation. Mr. Mercaldo has not accepted insurance company clients for 25 years.

Since his admission to the Bar, Mr. Mercaldo has served on various prestigious committees for the State Bar of Arizona including the judicial selection committee, jury instruction committee, and professionalism and peer review committee where he served as chairman for 4 years. Mr. Mercaldo is certified by the State Bar of Arizona in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation and has sat for the last five years as a member of the commission passing on the qualifications of other attorneys to become certified specialists. He has been president of the Southern Arizona Trial Lawyers Association, the president of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Ariz., and president of the Morris K. Udall American Inn of Court. He has been a frequent lecturer to both the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association on various litigation topics. He is an AV rated lawyer in Martindale-Hubble and is listed in the bar registry of Preeminent Lawyers.

Mr. Mercaldo has been made a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The "College" was created in 1950 to recognize excellence in trial lawyers. Its purpose is to improve the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice and the ethics of the profession. Fellowship in the college is by invitation only, after a careful examination of the experience, skill, ability and ethical standards of the nominee. A lawyer must be an active trial lawyer for a minimum of 15 years to be considered for nomination and Fellowship is limited to 1% of the lawyers in any given state or province.

Barbara A. Dralnick, R.N., CLA, LtCol (Ret) USAF

Barbara Dralnick is a nurse paralegal who has worked full time for the Mercaldo Law Firm since March 1995, specializing in the area of medical malpractice. She maintains current Registered Nurse licenses in both Arizona and Florida.

Ms. Dralnick received her nursing degree from the University of Miami (1969)and her masters' degree from the University of Maryland (1972).

Barbara retired from the United States Air Force in 1993, after twenty-two years of service in the Nurse Corps. Her clinical background includes medical-surgical nursing, quality assurance, risk management and practice as a certified family nurse practitioner.

Following retirement from the Air Force, Ms. Dralnick received her Associate Degree in Legal Assistant studies in December 1994, graduating with honors, from Pima Community College. She became nationally certified as a legal assistant in February 1996.