Missouri Lawyers Weekly recognized the top accomplishments from 2011.
List of Awards
Lawyer(s) of the Year (with video)
■ Mark Bronson – Newman Bronson & Wallis
■ Steve Bronson – Newman Bronson & Wallis
■ James R. Dowd – Law Offices of James R. Dowd
■ Joseph Yeckel – Law Office of Joseph F. Yeckel
Influential Lawyers: Awarded to Missouri lawyers who made substantial contributions to the legal community in 2011.
■ Rebecca Randles – Randles, Mata & Brown
■ Tom Simon – former clerk of the Supreme Court
■ Shelby Watson – former in-house counsel for UniGroup
Legal Champions: Awarded to plaintiffs or defense lawyers, not based on the size of verdicts, but the importance of the principle or policy at stake.
■ Lincoln Knauer – Husch Blackwell
■ Carl Rowley – Thompson Coburn
Appellate Advocates: Awarded to the lawyers behind the most significant appellate decisions of the year.
■ Stephen Woodley – Gray, Ritter & Graham
■ Joan Lockwood – Gray, Ritter & Graham
■ Tom Neill – Gray, Ritter & Graham
■ James Layton – Missouri Attorney General’s Office
Law Firm Leaders: Awarded to a law firm leader (chairman, managing partner, executive) who demonstrated extraordinary vision, innovation and leadership during the year.
■ Russ Welsh – Polsinelli Shughart
■ Michael Chivell – Armstrong Teasdale
■ J. Kent Emison – Langdon & Emison
Most Reported Law Firm Wins, Defense – Brown & James
Most Reported Law Firm Wins, Plaintiff – Brown & Crouppen
Top Plaintiff Win – In re: Genetically Modified Rice Litigation; $750 million multidistrict litigation settlement — Don Downing of Gray, Ritter & Graham; Grant Davis of Davis, Bethune & Jones
Top Defense Verdict – Alexian Brothers of St. Louis et al v. Philip Morris et al; $455 million — Alan Kohn and Robert Murray of Kohn, Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum; Frank Gundlach and Matthew Shorey of Armstrong Teasdale; Karen Read of Shook, Hardy & Bacon; Carl Rowley, Bruce Ryder, Susan Werstak, Booker Shaw of Thompson Coburn; James McLarney and James Durbin of Swanson Midgley
Defense attorneys with most reported winning cases
• Michael Maguire, Brown & James
• Debbie Champion, Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch & Champion
• Russell Watters, Brown & James
• Bradley Hansmann, Brown & James
• William Lewis, Andereck, Evans, Widger, Johnson & Lewis
Plaintiff attorneys with most reported winning cases
• Shaun Falvey, Brown & Crouppen
• Richard Zalasky, Brown & Crouppen
• Brad Bradshaw, Law Offices of Brad Bradshaw, M.D., J.D., L.C.
• Julia Kerr, Brown & Crouppen
• Stephen Bough, Law Offices of Stephen R. Bough
• Brett Emison, Langdon & Emison
• Ryan Bradley, Bradley Law Firm
See 2011 winners