James L. Ferraro was one of ten national finalists for Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1997 for trying the first case successfully prosecuted against a chemical company for causing a birth defect. Mr. Ferraro proved that a pregnant woman's exposure to the fungicide, Benlate, caused her child to be born without eyes and held DuPont accountable in Castillo vs. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and Pine Island Farms. The trial was covered in its entirety on Court TV and received worldwide attention. Seven years after trial, the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the trial court verdict.

Mr. Ferraro has fashioned his law practice in the areas of product liability, wrongful death, personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer protection and family law. He has specialized in asbestos and mass tort litigation for over twenty years. He has successfully tried many cases that resulted in multi-million dollar jury verdicts. In 1995, he received the largest compensatory award in the state of Florida for a mesothelioma case. In 1997, Mr. Ferraro also had the highest compensatory jury verdict ever in the nation for a non-malignant asbestos case. Mr. Ferraro has negotiated settlements on behalf of tens of thousands of clients in his years of practice. His negotiated settlements are over a billion dollars.

A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, Mr. Ferraro graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1978 and a Master of Science in Accounting in 1979. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1980; he also taught accounting at the University of Miami in 1982. He received his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1983. He is a member of the Ohio, New York, Florida, and Massachusetts Bars; the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation; the American Bar Association; the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants; the American Association for Justice; the Florida Justice Association; and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He is a Florida State Coordinator for The Public Justice Foundation.

Mr. Ferraro is the founding shareholder of The Ferraro Law Firm in Miami, Florida, and is one of two founding partners of Kelley & Ferraro LLP in Cleveland, Ohio. His firms currently represent nearly 50,000 asbestos claimants. The Ferraro Law Firm also has offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City. The Washington, D.C. office specializes in corporate tax fraud and tax whistleblower cases.

Mr. Ferraro is the majority owner of the Cleveland Gladiators franchise of the Arena Football League and a member of the AFL's Executive Board. He is also co-owner of Randazzo's Little Italy Restaurant in Coral Gables, Florida. Mr. Ferraro is a Trustee of The William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation; a member of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation; a member of the Board of Directors of The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Inc.; a member of the Honorary Board of The Children's Home Society of Florida Foundation, Inc.; a member of the National Leadership Committee of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame; a member of the Advisory Board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida; a member of the Bowman Foster Ashe Society at the University of Miami; a member of the Board and Advisory Council of United Way of Miami-Dade; and a Director of the Board of Jackson Memorial Foundation. He was inducted into the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta in 1999 and he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2001. Mr. Ferraro has four children, James, Andrew, Alexis and Dmitri.