Missouri Lawyers Awards 2012

Missouri Lawyers Weekly recognized the top accomplishments from 2011.

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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