Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
based in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. In 2008, the National Law Journal ranked the firm as the 83rd largest in the United States.
Personnel
One of the more unusual features of Shook, Hardy & Bacon is that the firm maintains a full time scientific research staff of 200 analysts and 125 researchers. These employees advise the firm's attorneys on technical issues in the course of complex litigation, patent prosecutionPatent prosecution
Patent prosecution describes the interaction between applicants and their representatives, and a patent office with regard to a patent, or an application for a patent...
, and selection of expert witness
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
es.
Practice areas
The firm has practice groups in intellectual propertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
, commercial transactions
Financial transaction
A financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.-History:...
, tax law
Tax law
Tax law is the codified system of laws that describes government levies on economic transactions, commonly called taxes.-Major issues:Primary taxation issues facing the governments world over include;* taxes on income and wealth...
, banking law, products liability, tobacco litigation, corporate
Corporate law
Corporate law is the study of how shareholders, directors, employees, creditors, and other stakeholders such as consumers, the community and the environment interact with one another. Corporate law is a part of a broader companies law...
and securities law, health law
Health law
Health Law is the federal, state, and local law, rules, regulations and other jurisprudence affecting the health care industry and their application to health care patients, providers and payors, and vendors to the health care industry, including without limitation the relationships among...
, insurance law
Insurance law
Insurance law is the name given to practices of law surrounding insurance, including insurance policies and claims. It can be broadly broken into three categories - regulation of the business of insurance; regulation of the content of insurance policies, especially with regard to consumer...
, real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
, construction law
Construction law
Construction law is a body of law that deals with matters relating to building construction and related fields. It covers a wide range of legal issues including contract law, bonds and bonding, guarantees and sureties, liens and other security interests, tendering, construction claims, and related...
, environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
, and antitrust.
Notable clients
One of the firm's longtime clients is Philip Morris Inc. (now Altria GroupAltria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
). SHB also maintains a large clientele of pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
, Amgen
Amgen
Amgen Inc. is an international biotechnology company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Located in the Conejo Valley, Amgen is the world's largest independent biotech firm. The company employs approximately 17,000 staff members. Its products include Epogen, Aranesp, Enbrel, Kineret,...
, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb , often referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City. The company was formed in 1989, following the merger of its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation...
, GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
, Sanofi-Aventis
Sanofi-Aventis
Sanofi S.A. is a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, the world's fourth-largest by prescription sales. Sanofi engages in the research and development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market, but the...
, Guidant
Guidant
Guidant Corporation, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Labs, designs and manufactures artificial pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, stents, and other cardiovascular medical products. Their company headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their main competitors are Medtronic, St...
and Wyeth
Wyeth
Wyeth, formerly one of the companies owned by American Home Products Corporation , was a pharmaceutical company. The company was based in Madison, New Jersey, USA...
. Shook also has an extensive roster of intellectual property clients and recently was named by Microsoft as one of its preferred providers for legal services. In 2007, Shook also won a $69.5 million verdict on behalf of client Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
, against Vonage
Vonage
Vonage is a publicly held commercial voice over IP network and SIP company that provides telephone service via a broadband connection. The company's name is a play on their motto "Voice-Over-Net-AGE"....
. Other clients include Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
, and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
.
William H. Colby, an attorney at the firm, represented Nancy Cruzan
Nancy Cruzan
Nancy Beth Cruzan was a figure in the right-to-die movement. After an automobile accident left her in a persistent vegetative state, her family petitioned in courts for three years, as far as the U.S. Supreme Court , to have her feeding tube removed...
(by way of her parents) in the famous right-to-die
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health
Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health
Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 497 U.S. 261 , was a United States Supreme Court case argued on December 6, 1989 and decided on June 25, 1990...
, as part of Shook's pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
work.
Relationship with tobacco companies
The firm has represented five of the six major U.S. tobacco companies: American Brands, Brown & WilliamsonBrown & Williamson
Brown & Williamson was an American tobacco company and subsidiary of the giant British American Tobacco, that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes...
, RJR Nabisco
RJR Nabisco
RJR Nabisco, Inc., was an American conglomerate formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. RJR Nabisco was purchased in 1988 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co...
, Philip Morris Inc. (now Altria Group
Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
) and Loews Inc. In 1992, a federal judge all but accused the firm of orchestrating fraud on behalf of the tobacco industry and exerting attorney-client privilege
Attorney-client privilege
Attorney–client privilege is a legal concept that protects certain communications between a client and his or her attorney and keeps those communications confidential....
to hide facts about tobacco's health hazards during the 1960s and 1970s.
Notable lawyers and alumni
John Murphy, ChairmanExecutive leadership
- Robert Adams, Tort Section Chair
- Walter Cofer, Product Liability Partner
- Michael Gross, Intellectual Property Section Co-Chair
- Frank Kelly, Product Liability Partner
- Madeleine McDonough, Agribusiness & Food Safety Practice Co-Chair
- Bruce Tepikian, Product Liability Partner
- David Thorne, Product Liability Partner
- Martha Warren, National Product Liability Division Managing Partner
- Gene Williams, Houston Managing Partner
- George Wolf, General Litigation Division Chair
- Gene Voigts, General Counsel
- William Johnsmeyer, Chief Operating Officer
Office management
- Gene Williams, Houston Managing Partner
- Simon Castley, London Managing Partner
- Lea Souza-Rasile, Miami Managing Partner
- Frank Rothrock, Orange County Managing Partner
- Alicia Donahue, San Francisco Managing Partner
- Daniel Molony, Tampa Managing Partner
- Michelle Mangrum, Washington, D.C. Managing Partner
- Victor Schwartz, tort expert and co-author of Prosser, Wade & Schwartz’s Torts Casebook.
- Harvey L. Kaplan, named Product Liability Lawyer of the Year by Who's Who Legal - The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers
- Kevin Underhill, author of the legal humor blog Lowering the Bar.
- Bryan PrattBryan PrattBryan Pratt is the current representative for District 55 in the Missouri House of Representatives. A Republican, Pratt was elected to the House in November 2002. He was elected the Speaker Pro Tem in September 2007...
, Speaker Pro TemSpeaker (politics)The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the Missouri House of RepresentativesMissouri House of RepresentativesThe Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 31,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections held in even-numbered years.In 1992 Missouri... - Jolie JustusJolie JustusJolie L. Justus is an American lawyer and politician from Missouri. A Democrat, she is a member of the Missouri State Senate, representing the state's 10th District in Kansas City.-Early life and career:...
, first openly lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
member of the Missouri SenateMissouri SenateThe Missouri State Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 160,000... - Vince GunterVince GunterVincent E. Gunter is an attorney from Missouri. A former enlisted Navy man and later an Army captain, he is a veteran of the Iraq War where he served in the Army JAG Corps. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star, and gave an introductory speech for Barack Obama in Independence, Missouri.Gunter earned...
, former captain in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, received a Bronze Star in the Iraq War.
United States
Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
Irvine, California
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
External links
- Homepage
- LawPeriscope Profile
- Vault.com profile
- Chambers USA profile
- Profile from LexisNexis Martindale-HubbellLexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell-History:The 140-year history of Martindale-Hubbell begins with two separate publications:The Martindale DirectoryThe Martindale Directory was first published in 1868 by James B. Martindale, a lawyer and businessman...
- Firm's LinkedIn Profile