Michael R. Conner is retired of counsel in the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg in the firm's Litigation Department. He devoted his practice primarily to the defense of products liability and other personal injury actions. He served as national defense counsel for a major Indiana manufacturer and, as such, had primary responsibility for cases throughout the United States. In that capacity, he litigated products cases in state and federal courts in more than 40 states.
Michael has served on the board of directors of the Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana and is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, and the American Bar Association. Michael is admitted to practice in the Southern and Northern Districts of Indiana, the Central District of Illinois, and the 4th and 7th Circuit Courts of Appeals. He was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1997. Michael has been selected for inclusion in the current edition, and many previous editions, of The Best Lawyers in America in the field of product liability/business litigation. He is also listed in several editions of Indiana Super Lawyers magazine.
Michael graduated from the University of Notre Dame where he received an A.B. magna cum laude in history in 1972. He graduated summa cum laude in 1975 from the Indiana University School of Law Bloomington where he served as associate editor of the Indiana Law Journal and was selected to the Order of the Coif. He joined Barnes & Thornburg in 1975 and became partner in 1982.
Michael is a former special deputy prosecutor for the Marion County Prosecutor's Office in the area of insurance fraud. He lectures at various continuing legal education programs and has served for many years as a faculty member of the NITA Trial Advocacy Skills Workshop.
