Missouri - Jurisdiction Review | Benchmark Litigation

Husch Blackwell

Firm overview

Husch Blackwell’s litigators are active coast to coast, asserting and defending client interests in virtually all types of litigation. We feature more than 300 litigators across more than 20 offices across the United States and are capable of taking on the most complex matters, ranging from bet-the-company cases to large portfolios of litigation spread across multiple jurisdictions. Clients around the world trust us to understand their businesses, their objectives, and their unique ways of working and to develop solutions that are practical, efficient and comprehensive in scope.

The efficiency and effectiveness of our case management capabilities are well attested. Both in 2017 and 2018, our firm’s Litigation Department was honored by the Association of Corporate Counsel with its prestigious Value Champion award, an accolade that recognizes collaborations that delivered substantial value to client organizations by cutting spending, improving predictability and achieving better legal results. Again in 2020, Husch Blackwell was recognized for its litigation teams’ innovation and design excellence in legal operations by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), which chose the firm as a showcase firm for the 2020 Legal Innovation in Operations (LIO) Project designees. Husch Blackwell received the recognition on the basis of its management of a large portfolio of asbestos-related litigation for a client. In the ten months our team handled the portfolio, we posted results that vastly outperformed the client’s prior efforts, including over a 30 percent reduction in legal costs.

Polsinelli

Firm overview

What a Law Firm Should Be: Polsinelli is an Am Law 100 firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 22 offices nationwide. The firm’s litigation practice encompasses business disputes, white collar investigations and enforcement, health care, intellectual property, bankruptcy, data privacy, real estate, financial services, products liability and toxic tort and labor and employment matters. Our reputation for dedicated client service and innovative business solutions is a benchmark for excellence in the legal profession.

Polsinelli approaches litigation The Polsinelli Way – with our clients and their business goals as our primary focus. The Polsinelli Way sees each dispute as unique and our lawyers work hand in hand with our clients to devise a litigation strategy from the outset of the matter that is laser focused on achieving the most efficient and effective resolution. The Polsinelli Way isn’t just a slogan. It’s the way we work on each and every matter entrusted to us by our clients.

Commercial Litigation: Polsinelli’s Commercial Litigation practice is composed of attorneys committed to providing practical, industry-specific business litigation strategies informed by substantive and procedural knowledge, real courtroom experience, and a keen awareness of how legal outcomes impact our clients’ bottom lines.

We focus on real estate litigation, disputes arising out of business relationships and contracts, mergers and acquisitions litigation, and class actions. However, we have a deep bench of litigation expertise with experience handling a broad spectrum of disputes including aviation and transportation, insurance matters, professional liability, retail and hospitality litigation, telecommunications, and manufacturing and distribution. We also have several lawyers who regularly handle statutory claims including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Fair Credit and Reporting Act.

Government Investigations: Polsinelli’s Government Investigations team is highly qualified to quickly and effectively help companies and individuals respond to and defend against civil, criminal and regulatory government actions. Many of our attorneys are former federal prosecutors with specific experience.

Our team takes the guesswork out of navigating investigations involving the government. Clients seek out our team’s counsel at all stages of their interactions with government agencies, whether a client needs help responding to a subpoena or civil investigative demand, a comprehensive internal investigation, preemptive counsel on a compliance program, or a trial lawyer to defend against allegations of white-collar crimes. Our team has experience with governmental entities, including the Department of Justice, SEC, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, EPA and States’ Attorney General Offices.

Health Care Litigation: Polsinelli Health Care Litigation attorneys combine their in-depth knowledge of the evolving health care industry with clients’ business needs to devise practical litigation strategies. We advise clients in managing risk and resolving complex disputes. When litigation is necessary, we collaborate with clients to effectively and efficiently protect their interests. Our attorneys are experienced in litigating government investigations and health care disputes in different forums, including lawsuits, arbitrations, administrative hearings, audits and investigations.

Our team is well known and respected by judges, regulators, arbitrators, health care industry leaders and the legal community. Members include former Department of Justice attorneys, including Assistant United States Attorneys, former experienced state Medicaid fraud unit attorneys, a former realtor attorney and former in-house counsel to private and publicly traded health care companies.

Intellectual Property Litigation: Polsinelli’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice take creative and strategic approaches to resolving intellectual property disputes for local, regional, national and global companies and individuals. With more than 1,300 intellectual property litigation filings over the past six years, we frequently try high-technology intellectual property cases tied to diverse subject matter including patent litigation, trademark, copyright & branding, anti-counterfeiting and grey markets, restrictive covenants and trade secrets litigation, ITC Section 337, IP litigation funding and design patent litigation.

Labor & Employment Litigation: Our attorneys defend clients before administrative agencies and in trials, mediations, arbitrations, and appeals of lawsuits arising over virtually every conceivable employment-related action including age, religion, gender, pregnancy, race, national origin, disability, harassment, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, FMLA and OSHA violations.

Our Employment Litigation practice group has substantial experience representing management in the administrative charge and litigation phase of cases involving issues such as but not limited to The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), The Equal Pay Act (EPA), Whistleblower claims, work-related torts and wrongful termination.

Products Liability and Toxic and Mass Tort: Polsinelli’s litigators have deep experience defending and protecting our clients against defective design, defective manufacturing, premises liability, catastrophic injury, and toxic exposure claims that oftentimes go to the heart of our clients’ businesses. Our litigators approach each case the Polsinelli Way -- with a laser focus on our clients’ business goals and an eye towards case resolution that prioritizes those business goals.

Our experienced Products Liability and Toxic Tort team assesses cases early, identifying potential risks and working with our client’s legal, business, technical and regulatory teams to craft effective litigation strategies. Our electronic discovery (e-discovery) lawyers and other professionals are adept at coordinating and managing the often-burdensome discovery process that comes with defending these high-stakes cases. Our trial lawyers have the skills and experience to take cases to trial in any courtroom in the country. These trial teams work hand in hand with our certified appellate specialists, who identify appellate issues and represent clients at the appellate level in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

Updated Aug 2023

Review

Dispute resolution

Husch Blackwell

A force among Midwestern firms, Husch Blackwell is rooted in Missouri and boasts a network of outposts spanning beyond to the jurisdictions of Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Arizona, California, and a host of other states. The firm’s clients note its “diverse attorneys with expertise in a broad range of topics,” and go on to rave that “all aspects of litigation are done well by Husch Blackwell.”

Marnie Jensen of the firm’s Omaha office recently obtained victory on behalf of two Lancaster County election commissioners in a case before the Nebraska Supreme Court which displayed the potential to critically derail the state’s electoral proceedings. The matter, arising from newly stoked inquiries into the constitutionality of the state’s Honest Election Law of 1913, sought to address whether Nebraska election commissioners – who are by statute selected by means of gubernatorial appointment – constitute county officers, and if such appointment stands in violation of the Nebraska constitution. Jensen was successful in achieving an affirmation by the Nebraska Supreme Court of an earlier district court ruling which found that such election commissioners are not to be understood legally as county officers, circumventing what could have been an unprecedentedly disruptive interpolation into a state’s democratic process.

Based in Kansas City, Beau Jackson is newly recognized by Benchmark for his achievements in the sphere of intellectual property. Jackson currently serves alongside St. Louis’ Rudy Telscher as lead counsel to gym equipment manufacturer TuffStuff Fitness as the company faces nine patent infringement claims which threaten its very existence in tandem with complaints to the International Trade Commission which seek to bar TuffStuff from importing production inputs from overseas. As of this year, Benchmark also recognizes Oakland, CA’s Jennifer Lee, a toxic torts specialist, and St. Louis’ Jeff Jensen, whose practice finds its focus on white-collar criminal matters. Catherine Hanaway, who also deals in white-collar matters from Husch Blackwell’s St. Louis outfit, continues to be recognized for her experience in the field, additionally serving in the critical role of firm chair. The firm’s St. Louis-based practitioners also include class action and product liability specialist Joseph Orlet, who currently serves as lead counsel to International Paint in a liability matter arising from allegations that extreme heat-resistant coatings for steel beams provided by the company to a Texas natural gas export facility were defective.

In Kansas City, Jeffrey Simon is active in the role of lead counsel to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners defending a member of the KCPD against topical claims of civil rights violations in connection with the officer’s fatal shooting of a suspect who was being apprehended.

Polsinelli

Polsinelli has grown beyond its Kansas City roots to inhabit various strategic locations throughout the country, often attracting local talent in the surrounding area. The firm’s aggressive expansion over the years has equipped it with breadth and depth in many areas of litigation.
     Bouncing between Seattle and Chicago, Gary Hood maintains an intellectual practice touches on all facets of patent, trademark and trade dress IP litigation. Chicago’s Mary Clare Bonaccorsi serves as Polsinelli’s Cross-Department Litigation Chair. She is entrusted to map the overall litigation strategy for the firm.  Bonaccorsi’s practice mainly focuses on the healthcare industry, routinely leading high-stakes corporate internal investigations for clients in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, her casework often involves false claims act litigation before judges and juries in both state and federal courts throughout the country and she has several high-profile cases under her belt. New additions from the Chicago office include Thomas Gemmell and Daniel Reinberg. Gemmell’s practice mixes IP and business litigation. He leads several industry-specific practices, serving as lead of the unmanned systems and advanced robotics practice and co-lead of both the aviation practice and the transportation and logistics practice. Reinberg like Bonaccorsi concentrates his practice on the healthcare industry. He represents organizations, corporations, and providers in a variety of cases, including civil and criminal matters, healthcare and securities fraud, and lawsuits arising under the False Claims Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
   John Peterson, a new addition to this year’s rankings, bridges a geographic and practice divide. Based in Nashville but also operating out of Chattanooga as well as Los Angeles, Peterson is a commercial litigator with vast experience in securities as well as real estate, and he is yet another Polsinelli partner devoted to healthcare litigation, an industry essential to Tennessee's economy. In Atlanta, Brian McEvoy’s white-collar practice is dedicated to fraud and abuse in the healthcare industry.  Farah Nicol operates out of the firm’s Raleigh and Los Angeles offices and serves chair of the firm’s litigation department -- the first leader to not be based in Kansas City, the firm’s mainstay. Nicol’s primary focus is on product liability and toxic tort litigation.

Labor and employment

Polsinelli

Polsinelli has maintained a commitment to upholding its labor and employment practice, seen recently in its aggressive growth and expansion in the area. While the firm continues to deepen its bench and expand its team across Denver, Los Angeles and Dallas, theKansas City office maintains its title as the firm’s stronghold.

Denise Drake, chair of the labor and employment practice, is among the firm’s leading, Missouri-basedlitigators.Drake is a leader through and through – leading the practice, the expansion, and clients in their disputes. She has been consistently distinguished as a Labor & Employment Star since its inception, maintaining the status with a roster of notable class action disputes.

New additions to the rankings this year include Los Angeles-based litigator September Rea and Dallas’ Angelo Spinola. While Rea’s practice involves the full spectrum of employment litigation, she is especially active in class action disputes arising under federal and California laws, such as the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Rea is defending clients in a series of putative wage and hour class actions, and individual-plaintiff disputes. In separate but related disputes, she represented a client before the California Labor Commissioner as plaintiffs. Spinola specializes in handling labor and employment disputes on behalf of clients in the home health industry, particularly hospice and homecare companies. He recently resolved alawsuit defending Bluebird Homecare of Alabama against a plaintiff alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) challenging the company’s alleged practice of not including certain nondiscretionary bonuses in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay. Spinola is handling several other FLSA cases involving the healthcare industry, including two with Colorado-based litigator Donald Samuels on the team. Samuels heads the firm’s employment litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution group.