Lawyer of the Year 2026: Edward D. “Chip” Robertson Jr.

Appellate courts rarely change large jury verdicts without finding clear legal errors. In the past year, four such verdicts were challenged, and four times, they stood. 

Edward D. “Chip” Robertson Jr. played a vital role in defending each of those appeals, which together represented hundreds of millions of dollars in affirmed judgments and some of the most closely watched civil litigation issues in Missouri courts last year.

The run, which included appellate wins in trucking, premises liability, commercial negligence and mass tort litigation, set apart Robertson’s work in a year crowded with high stakes appeals and led to his selection as Missouri Lawyers Media’s 2026 Lawyer of the Year.

A year defined by affirmance

Robertson said the four appeals that defined his year were unusual not just because of the size of the verdicts involved, but because each presented complex legal questions layered onto extensive trial records.

“One of the things is that they were all very big financially,” Robertson said. “And they had interesting issues … they were all big, complex and quite a privilege to work on.”

Large jury verdicts routinely draw appeals, particularly when defendants challenge evidentiary rulings, jury instructions or damages. Appellate courts, however, are constrained by standards of review that limit their ability to reweigh evidence or substitute their judgment for that of a jury. Whether a verdict survives often turns on decisions made in the trial court long before an appeal is filed.

In Schultz v. Great Plains Trucking, Inc., the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed a $20 million St. Charles County verdict arising from a fatal trucking crash. Among the issues on appeal was whether evidence that the decedent had consumed marijuana should have been admitted at trial following Missouri’s constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana.

“The question in that case was … whether the fact that the person who was hit had consumed some marijuana, how that affected the case,” Robertson said. “Given the constitutional amendment about marijuana becoming legal in Missouri, we didn’t think it was allowed to be put into the case.”

The defense argued the evidence was relevant to causation and fault. The Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the trial court that its prejudicial effect outweighed any probative value and affirmed the verdict.

In Dugan v. Hyatt Corp., the Eastern District affirmed a $177 million verdict against a hotel after a guest was assaulted by an employee. The appeal challenged the hotel’s hiring practices, supervision and the scope of its duty to protect guests.

“They didn’t do a very good job on the background check, and then they broke all the rules as to how you should care for people in a hotel,” Robertson said. “They let this guy have access to this woman’s room … and didn’t send anybody to make sure he behaved himself.”

The appellate court rejected the hotel’s arguments that the verdict was speculative or unsupported by the evidence, concluding that the jury had been properly instructed and that the record supported its findings.

In Midwest Trust Co. v. United Parcel Service, Inc., the Western District affirmed a $65 million Clay County verdict arising from a collision involving a UPS driver. The appeal centered on competing theories of medical causation, with the defense arguing that the plaintiff’s injuries were genetic rather than crash related.

“It had medical components,” Robertson said, “and it had potential medical malpractice components … and then it had, again, this overlay of what’s the company’s responsibility to the people on the street.”

The appellate court declined to reweigh the competing expert testimony, holding that the jury was entitled to credit the plaintiffs’ evidence.

The most closely watched appeal of the year was Anderson v. Monsanto Co., in which the Western District affirmed a $1.5 billion verdict — later remitted to $611 million — in a Roundup cancer case.

“That was … obviously a national issue,” Robertson said. “There’s 60-some-odd thousand of these cases out there, and this was, so far, I think, the biggest verdict that’s been upheld on appeal.”

The decision preserved one of the largest verdicts ever sustained by a Missouri appellate court and addressed evidentiary and expert testimony issues being litigated in courts nationwide.

Why some verdicts survive, or don’t

Robertson emphasized that appellate success is shaped long before a case reaches an appellate court.

“The beauty of them, from my perspective, was they were so well tried by the people who asked me to help them on appeal,” he said. “It’s a lot easier when you’re doing appeals when you have really good lawyers who tried the case.”

That philosophy is rooted in Robertson’s own judicial experience. Appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court in 1985 at age 32, he served on the court for 13 years, including two as chief justice.

“You learn how to read briefs and distill the information,” Robertson said, “and try and write opinions that will help people understand the law.”

From the bench, Robertson said, appellate judges focus on whether trial courts were given the opportunity to rule correctly in the first instance.

“Often, trial lawyers don’t give the court the opportunity to do that,” he said. “But a good appellate judge is not going to fix things that the lawyer didn’t want to fix.”

From Robertson’s perspective, that restraint reflects how appellate courts understand their role not as factfinders, but as reviewers of decisions already made in the trial court.

“When a case comes up on appeal, as a judge, you know the idea is, did the trial court have every opportunity to make the right decision,” Robertson said.

Austin Green, an associate at Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader who was one of Robertson’s mentees, said that perspective defines Robertson’s approach.

“He really focuses on the fundamentals,” Green said. “He distills things down and conveys them in a way that’s understandable to lawyers and to regular people.”

A different path to law

Before pursuing a legal career, Robertson followed a different academic path.

“I went to seminary first and then law school in Kansas City,” he said.

Robertson attended seminary at Southern Methodist University before earning his law degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He said his decision was influenced in part by the career of former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who received his undergraduate degree in religion from Princeton University as well as a degree from Yale Divinity School.

“I had sort of gotten to know Jack Danforth when I was in college,” Robertson said. “And thought he’d had a pretty interesting career, and he’d done both. So why shouldn’t I?”

While Robertson chose law as his primary profession, he said the seminary experience shaped how he thinks about judgment, responsibility and service, themes that later carried into both his judicial and appellate work.

“He’s so humble,” Green said. “When Chip says something — and he doesn’t say it often — people listen. … These are people that call on him regularly just because of the type of person he is and the advice that he gives.”

Later in his career, Robertson has returned more formally to ministry, becoming an ordained Methodist minister and serving part time at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.

“The work at the church is great,” he said. “It gives me an opportunity to think about things that, in some ways, are much more important than the law.”

Robertson said his ministry work provides a counterbalance to the pressures of high-stakes litigation and reinforces the values that guide his legal practice.

“At the end of the day, the question you always have to ask yourself is, why do I do this?” he said.

For Robertson, the answer has remained consistent across both roles.

“I did it to be able to work with people that I admire and respect and who want to work hard for the right reasons,” he said. “And I did it because, at the end of the day, the law is what stands between us and injustice.”

That philosophy also guides his pro bono work, including his role in the reversal of Kevin Strickland’s wrongful conviction in 2021 after 43 years in prison, which Robertson has described as one of the best days of his career.

“Here’s a guy the system failed and spent 43 years in prison for killing three people that he didn’t do …. And you know it was just one misstep after another that led to this,” Robertson said. “So when she (Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker) called and asked to help, I thought, well, I don’t know much about this, but when I was on the court, the thing that I was most afraid of, the thing that kept me up at night was, am I being part of a deal here to put somebody who shouldn’t be in jail, In jail? And once I heard the facts, it became pretty clear that he couldn’t have done it.”

Reflecting on both his legal and ministry work, Robertson said they reinforce the same priorities.

“One of the things I’ve watched over the years is that money has driven a whole lot more than it should,” he said. “These were ways that allowed me to remember what it is that we’re supposed to be about when we take that oath.”

Asked about being named Lawyer of the Year, Robertson said the recognition was unexpected.

“When they called and told me, I said, ‘Well, I can’t hardly believe this, so I’m going to give you 30 days to change your mind,” he said. “This is not something I expected. I’m grateful for it,” he said. “There’s a lot of great people out there who probably deserve it more than I do.”

Jokingly, he added, “I’m glad, I’m very glad and honored to have this recognition, not because I deserve it, but because people have bad judgment.”

Now practicing alongside his son, Robertson said he is increasingly selective about the work he takes on at this stage in his career.

“I don’t know where I am,” he said, “but I’m past the 16th hole … I’m going to spend my time working on the kinds of things that he and I can work on together and that are worth the time spending that little bit of time I have left.”