Find Lawyers in Missouri, United States for Commercial Litigation
Practice Area Overview
Litigation increasingly occurs in various venues, from state and federal courts to private arbitrations and administrative hearings. Proceedings can involve business-to-business disputes or any number of government agencies. Understanding the motivations and outlook of each of the litigation participants is important for determining weak points to exploit and strong points that will persuade the audience in question. During the past decade, commercial litigators have seen a dramatic uptick in multidistrict and inter-disciplinary litigation, making the stakes higher, the cases more complex, the parties more numerous and the discovery more complicated and unwieldy. Firms that are able to develop and implement a creative legal approach to each individual problem, efficiently focus on the key legal and factual issues, and master and manage the various aspects of these complex matters will be the busiest in the years to come.
In the current challenging economic climate, commercial litigators are under increasing client pressure to keep costs in check, which has both sides testing the efficacy of alternative fee arrangements and the scope of reasonable discovery. Whether the “death of the billable hour” is ultimately realized, the keys to a commercial litigator’s success will continue to be strong client relationships, thought leadership, practical management skills, deep experience, and personal commitment.
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Cities
James F. Bennett has a national practice of cases that are not expected to settle before trial or appeal. He is lead trial and appellate counsel in high-profile cases, and has tried to verdict many cases involving eight- and nine-figure amounts in dispute. He has also prevailed before trial in other, similar cases and has argued appeals in eight different appellate courts around the country. Three times in recent years, he was awarded the “largest” defense or plaintiff verdict awa...
Brandon began his legal career working for judges—first clerking for a Missouri Supreme Court judge and then for a U.S. District Court judge. He then entered the courtroom as a litigator, and over the last 13 years has litigated significant, high stakes cases in courts in Kansas, Missouri, and fourteen other states. Brandon has represented corporate and individual clients in matters ranging from trucking accidents to antitrust monopolies to large breach of contract and business tort mat...
John protects individual and business clients, diligently working toward the best possible outcome in all of their contested matters. Focused in the area of trust and fiduciary litigation, John is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”). John is also the Chair of the Missouri Bar Committee on Fiduciary Litigation and was recently named as the Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers for Trust and Estates Litigation. John serves clients by providing counsel...
John Comerford handles all phases of complex, high-exposure business litigation, employment discrimination defense and corporate internal investigations. He represents and counsels Fortune 500 companies, senior-level executives and government employees. John is a first chair trial lawyer. He tries cases to verdict in state and federal courts and through any appeals. His clients include major electronic equipment suppliers, healthcare providers, large retailers, energy companies, and business ...
Ian Cooper serves clients in employment, higher education, commercial, and tort matters. Ian regularly serves as lead counsel in significant cases, including class actions and other complex litigation and has tried numerous jury and bench trials in Missouri and Illinois. He has argued cases before the Missouri Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the Missouri and Illinois Courts of Appeal, and the United States Courts of Appeal for the Seventh and Eighth Circuits and has briefed importa...
Edward L. Dowd Jr. is a litigator who defends corporations, professional service firms and individuals in high-stakes, complex civil, and white collar criminal cases and investigations. He represents clients with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the SEC, DOJ, EPA,, IRS, Health and Human Services and other federal and state agencies. In addition, Ed works with companies to strengthen corporate compliance in order to avoid the initial missteps that result in investigations and trials. Ed&rsqu...
Don M. Downing is a former Missouri Chief Deputy Attorney General and managing partner of the St. Louis office of one of the region's largest law firms. As Chief Deputy Attorney General - Missouri's top appointed legal officer - from 1993 to 1995, Mr. Downing was the lead lawyer in cases involving consumer protection, antitrust, environmental, securities and many other areas of law. He appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States four times, including one case he personally argued. ...
Robert F. Epperson Jr., a founding member of Dowd Bennett LLP, handles complex commercial litigation, internal investigations and appeals. Representing domestic and multinational corporations, as well as high net worth individuals, Robert focuses on civil litigation and appeals in an array of industries such as agriculture, real estate, financial services and insurance. He also conducts internal investigations and counsels clients in connection with investigations undertaken by the U.S. Depar...
Gretchen Garrison graduated from the University of Missouri in 1982 with a degree in Hospital Administration. She earned her law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1986, where she served as managing editor of the UMKC Law Reviewand on the Moot Court Board. Ms. Garrison is admitted to practice before all Missouri state courts, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has appeared before every appellate court in...
Maurice B. Graham is President of Gray Ritter Graham and concentrates his practice in the areas of complex business and commercial litigation and catastrophic injury and death cases. He is a frequent speaker and author in the areas of litigation and legal ethics. Mr. Graham was educated at Central Methodist University and the University of Missouri, where he received both his B.A. and J.D. degree. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and the Fifth, Eighth and Nint...
Gary A. Growe is a 1977 graduate of the George Washington University National Law Center. He has spent his entire professional career devoted to civil litigation and civil trial work. He has handled a wide variety of civil cases, including commercial litigation (including breach of contract cases, franchise litigation, securities litigation, anti-trust litigation and security transaction litigation), personal injury litigation (covering product liability, medical negligence, automobile litiga...
James C. Hetlage is an experienced employment attorney, litigator, and municipal attorney. He represents government and private-sector employers before state and federal administrative agencies, trial courts and appellate courts. Mr. Hetlage is experienced in resolving employment discrimination claims and other labor and employment disputes in court and through mediation and arbitration. He has addressed the impact of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for employers, and has...
Litigator James G. Martin defends corporations and individuals facing high-stakes, complex business lawsuits, white collar criminal charges, and allegations of corporate governance and compliance violations. A former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jim is regularly lead defense counsel in class action and civil litigation matters, including SEC fraud and healthcare fraud in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation. Corporations also call on him to lead internal investigations rel...
As a former NCAA Division I athlete, Ryan McCarty’s work ethic and competitive nature make him a tremendous advocate for the firm's clients. Ryan practices in the firm’s healthcare litigation and commercial litigation groups. His health care practice is rooted in managed care disputes between a wide variety of hospital systems and physician groups and commercial payors. Ryan addresses both in-network and out-of-network reimbursement disputes including issues related to underpaymen...
Kelly J.H. Murrie represents major corporations in complex product liability, commercial litigation and employment matters. She appears in state and federal courts, including challenging venues such as the City of St. Louis and Jackson County in Missouri, and Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois. Kelly also handles corporate internal investigations and white collar defense. Focusing primarily on high-exposure product liability lawsuits, Kelly represents manufacturers and suppliers in th...
A former federal prosecutor with extensive investigation and first chair trial experience, Michelle Nasser focuses her practice on white collar criminal defense, internal and government investigations, and complex litigation. Before joining the firm, Michelle served for more than 13 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Major Case, Financial Crimes, General Crimes, and Violent Crimes sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago. She led and supervised government investigations...
Michael J. Payne is a partner at Frankel, Rubin, Klein, Payne & Pudlowski, P.C. and focuses his practice on estate planning, fiduciary litigation and civil litigation. He counsels individuals, couples, families and small business owners in creating an estate plan that is specifically tailored to their individualized needs. His passion for estate planning is evident in his approach of collaborating with clients to solve their most important personal, legal and business planning decisions. ...
Jay Preston is a shareholder in the Litigation/Dispute Resolution, Transactional, and Marijuana and Hemp practices groups of Carnahan Evans PC. Mr. Preston represents clients in civil litigation in both federal and state court focusing on business and real estate matters. Mr. Preston also assists clients in avoiding litigation through proper drafting of contracts/agreements, and counseling on how to deal with precarious situations. Mr. Preston is a member of the Marijuana and Hemp Law Group a...
Vincent D. Reese focuses his practice on labor, employment, and education law, in addition to commercial litigation. Vince has successfully litigated employment discrimination claims based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, and pregnancy in Missouri and Illinois State Courts as well as many federal district courts around the country. Vince has extensive experience in representing his clients’ interests with respect to investigations conducted by the U.S. Equal Emp...
For more than two decades, Tony has passionately committed himself to protecting the patents and intellectual property of clients all over the United States. His opponents have included some of the largest companies in the world, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and more. Thanks to his dedication to the law and skillful application of its principles, he has stood against these industry giants and successfully protected the interests of his clients each time. He represents a uniquely divers...
John G. Simon is the founder of The Simon Law Firm, P.C. He received both his undergraduate (1983) and law degree (1986) from Saint Louis University. John handles many types of cases including product liability, medical malpractice, wrongful death, and commercial litigation. During his career John has obtained more than 150 verdicts and settlements over $1 million, including 15 over $10 million and one over $100 million. On two occasions, John had the highest verdict in the state of Missouri....
Scott Williams represents clients principally in the health care, municipal and gaming industries. Scott’s practice includes defense of health care and personal injury matters, personnel issues, and workers’ compensation matters. His experience includes interacting with and advising his corporate and governmental clients on a daily basis with regard to a wide variety of tort liability, regulatory, contractual, personnel and general risk issues. Scott has also successfully defended...
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