Dorothea M. Capone

Thea Capone, a member of the firm, has been part of Baumeister & Samuels since its inception and has worked with Mitch Baumeister for more than 40 years. She has been involved in every major case handled by the firm, including Continental Connection Flight 3407, Comair Flight 5191, the World Trade Center September 11th Litigation, and the Pan Am Flight 103 Libya terrorist litigation. Thea represented the families of dozens of individuals who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in hearings before the Special Master for the federal Victims Compensation Fund, a legislative alternative to litigation. She was appointed and serves on the Plaintiffs Executive Committee that continues its pursuit of justice on behalf of all of the 9/11 victims and their families in litigation pending in the Southern District of New York against the nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan and dozens of other entities and individuals who supported and facilitated the terror attacks. Thea has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for the immediate family members of the 9/11 victims from the federal U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund since it was initially created in 2015.

Thea recently served as the Chair of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and continues to advise its governing Council as a Past-Chair and serves as a member of its renowned Leadership Academy. Prior to her service as Section Chair, she served for several years as the TIPS Secretary and Diversity Officer and as its Vice Chair and Chair-Elect roles and had a three-year term as a Council member. Thea has been a faculty member for the National Trial Academy sponsored by TIPS and the American Board of Trial Advocates and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She remains an active member of several of TIPS’ standing and general committees having served a term as Chair of the TIPS Aviation and Space Law Committee, and she has been part of its annual conference planning committee for many years.

In addition to her service to the American Bar Association, Thea is also a member of the International Aviation Women’s Association, the American Association for Justice, and numerous other national and local bar associations. She spent many years as a member of the Southern Methodist University’s Air Law Symposium’s Board of Advisors which hosts one of the premier aviation conferences bringing together the world’s foremost practitioners and experts.

Thea earned her Juris Doctorate degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1998 and was the recipient of the New York State Bar Association Distinguished Writing Award, “The Unique Causation Burdens Facing the Toxic Tort Plaintiff - An Argument for Application of the Substantial Factor Test,” New York Environmental Lawyer, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter 1997.