Montana Attorneys Join Forces in Statewide Firm

Lawyers Dean Hoistad (Missoula), Tom Singer (Billings) and Gary Hermann (Big Sky/Bozeman) have joined forces to create Axilon Law Group, PLLC, an AV-rated firm that will practice across the Big Sky State. Each of these attorneys has also received Martindale-Hubbell's "AV" rating for legal ability and ethics, the highest possible rating awarded by this nationally recognized, peer-reviewed rating system. The firm will be joined electronically, but will maintain its three offices in order to serve clients cost-effectively throughout Montana.

The three founding members all concentrate on civil and commercial litigation. Dean Hoistad's practice focuses on defending insurance claims, especially claims of professional malpractice, negligence in the transportation industry and products liability. Dean practiced in Minnesota and North Dakota from 1976 until he moved to Missoula in 1997. He was with Garlington, Lohn & Robinson until 2004, when he started his own firm. Dean has been certified as a trial advocate by the American Board of Trial Advocacy.

Gary Hermann joined the Montana bar and opened his practice in Big Sky last year. He has practiced for more than 30 years in Ohio, where he handled toxic tort, drug and medical device, business, insurance coverage, construction and other civil litigation. In 2004 and 2005, his peers in Ohio named him an Ohio "Super-Lawyer."

Tom Singer grew up in Powell, Wyoming and has practiced law in Montana since 1986, handling litigation in areas such as products liability, employment, covenants not to compete, copyrights, trademarks, governmental liability and shareholder rights. He was a shareholder at the Moulton law firm until 2002, when he started his own firm, TTS Civil Trial Attorneys, PLLC. In 2001, he was one of only 15 lawyers chosen nationwide by the International Association of Defense Counsel to join the faculty of its Trial Academy in Boulder, Colorado.

The three founding members of the firm are joined by Mike Johnson, an attorney in the Billings office who has six years of litigation experience at firms in Sidney and Great Falls, Montana, and by legal assistants Marsha Wiedner, Pam Nelson, and Janna Wittenberg.