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Chambers USA Recognizes Lathrop Gage as a Leading Law Firm

5/20/2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (May 20, 2015) - Chambers USA, the producer of an annual client guide to America’s leading lawyers, recognized 22 Lathrop Gage attorneys who received honors within their respective practice areas. The firm was also honored for practices in the categories of environment, real estate, labor & employment, corporate/mergers and acquisitions and litigation

Lathrop Gage’s individual attorneys and practice areas were recognized based on Chambers’ research of the firm’s strengths, most significant work and current clients. Chambers’ staff conducted thousands of interviews with lawyers and clients to complete this research. 

The attorneys recognized include: 

  • William “Bill” G. Beck (Kansas City, Environment), a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, focuses on toxic tort, insurance coverage and Superfund with particular experience in defending major toxic tort litigation.
  • Mark A. Bluhm (Kansas City, Corporate/M&A) is the firm’s Chief Executive Officer whose practice comprises handling clients’ business transactions and providing legal advice on clients’ business matters.
  • Jean Paul Bradshaw II (Missouri, Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations) has experience in white-collar criminal defense, complex civil litigation, class actions, internal corporate investigations and the establishment of corporate preventative law programs that comply with federal requirements.
  • Don F. Dagenais (Kansas City, Real Estate) specializes in commercial real estate purchase, mortgage, lease, development, management and land use projects. He works for a wide range of clients and frequently speaks before groups interested in real estate development and management.
  • Giulio A. DeConti (Massachusetts, Intellectual Property) is the firm’s intellectual property division chair and has 30 years of experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and chemistry. He works interactively with clients to build strong patent portfolios.
  • Russell R. Eggert (Illinois, Environment: Litigation) maintains a practice that encompasses a full range of environmental law and devotes a large portion of his practice to litigation and litigation avoidance.
  • J.A. “Jay” Felton (Kansas City, Litigation) has 20 years of experience and focuses his practice on litigation, representing a number of Fortune 1000 companies in product liability, complex commercial, environmental and intellectual property matters.
  • William F. Ford (Kansas City, Environment) is the co-leader of the firm’s environmental practice and has successfully represented clients in multidistrict and class action litigation throughout the country. He has a wide range of experience in complex litigation including environmental, general business litigation and products liability.
  • Lewis “Pete” A. Heaven (Kansas, Real Estate), co-leader of the firm’s real estate practice, has represented prominent residential and commercial real estate developers in the Midwest for 25 years and serves as counsel to a number of regional contractors, handling contract negotiation, bidding and construction issues.
  • Janice E. Hetland (St. Louis, Real Estate) anticipates the needs of clients by proactively addressing those needs before issues arise. She has closed hundreds of tax credit and affordable housing transactions across the country.
  • John P. King (St. Louis, Real Estate) focuses his practice in the areas of land use zoning and planning, with special emphasis in the fields of residential and commercial development. He was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Missouri Ethics Commission, but has resigned due to laws which affect his zoning practice.
  • Rosalee M. McNamara (Kansas City, Labor & Employment) represents businesses and organizations in employment and litigation matters. She has successfully defended – from charge to jury verdict – a wide array of employment discrimination complaints and collective actions.
  • Joseph W. Medved (Kansas City, Corporate/M&A), a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, has represented clients in numerous mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and business transactions.
  • Jared M. Minkoff (St. Louis, Real Estate) has experience in all aspects of development and finance. He has a national practice representing investors, community development entities, developers and lenders in transactions utilizing federal and state new markets and historic tax credits.
  • Stephen G. Mitchell (Kansas City, Real Estate) has represented clients in major real estate and business transactions; commercial office and industrial building leases for both landlords and tenants and land use and zoning; historic preservation regulation issues; and more having worked extensively with the City of Kansas City, Missouri on land use and historic preservation issues.
  • Lyle D. Pishny (Kansas, Corporate/M&A) has 25 years of experience, joining Lathrop Gage in 1998. With a master’s of laws in taxation, he focuses his practice on designing creative solutions for business and personal situations.
  • Jerry D. Riffel (Kansas City, Real Estate) is in charge of the real estate department’s Public Law Team and has experience representing notable clients including: Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Bayer Crop Science, L.P., and many more.
  • Jack D. Rowe (Kansas City, Labor & Employment) focuses his practice on employment and labor relations issues. He represents management and the business sector in equal employment opportunity, personnel relations and traditional labor matters and speaks frequently before firm clients and civic and professional organizations.
  • Thomas A. Ryan (Kansas City, Environment), Chair of the firm’s environmental department, spends a considerable portion of his time defending chemical exposure toxic tort litigation, including class actions. He also has 20 years of experience in personal injury litigation.
  • David A. Shorr (Kansas City, Environment) serves as partner in charge of the firm’s Jefferson City, Missouri office and is a noted authority on water, wastewater, air and solid waste issues. He previously served as director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
  • James H. Velema (Massachusetts, Intellectual Property) assists a wide variety of clients ranging from start-ups and emerging biotechnology companies to large academic research institutions and Fortune 500 biotechnology companies.
  • David C. Vogel (Kansas City, Labor & Employment) is a co-leader of the firm’s labor and employment practice team. He specializes in employment defense work, and has spent 10 years defending some of the nation’s largest companies in litigation, obtaining judgments in favor of clients in employment discrimination and similar lawsuits filed in numerous states.

About Lathrop Gage:
Lathrop Gage has 320 attorneys nationwide serving clients in the areas of litigation, intellectual property and business. Chambers USA ranks Lathrop Gage’s corporate, environmental, labor and employment, litigation and real estate practices among the best in their regions. For more information, visit www.lathropgage.com.