IN THE HEADLINES
► Curtis, Heinz, Garreet & O’Keefe: Leland B. Curtis (communications law; energy law, 1991) advised Owensville Mayor John Kamler on the Owensville parks fund budget for the fiscal year 2017–2018. After much debate among the aldermen, Kamler implored them to approve the budget, which eventually happened. He later shared his intentions to form a budget committee for future budget plans.
► Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale: Leonard D. Vines (franchise law, 1995) and Beata Krakus were both nationally recognized by Chambers USA for their efforts in franchise law. David M. Harris (health care law, 1991) was listed as a top general commercial litigation, and Kevin T. McLaughlin (employment law – management; labor law – management, 2013) and Dennis G. Collins were named top employment and labor lawyers. Chambers USA also recognized Greensfelder as a top firm in St. Louis for corporate mergers and acquisitions, employment and labor law, general commercial litigation, and real estate law.
► Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum: Charles S. Elbert (employment law – management; labor law – management; litigation – labor and employment, 2008) reviewed the Senate Bill 5, which aims to put stricter restrictions on abortion clinics. Elbert said, “Senate Bill 5 clearly pre-empts a portion of the ordinance, but the question is whether it does fully pre-empt the city ordinance. I don’t think it is entirely clear.”
HONORABLE MENTION
► Evans & Dixon: Ronald Hack (mass tort litigation / class actions – defendants, 2014), Marta Marti Camp, Katerina Christodoulou, Paul Franke, Roger Franklin, Marc Landis, Ewa Lejman, and Maarten Roos have been named to serve one-year terms as vice presidents with Ally Law.
► Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale: Mark E. Stallion (copyright law, 2010) has left Husch Blackwell and moved to Greensfelder, joining its intellectual property practice group as a leader of the patent team.
► Stinson Leonard Street: David E. Everson (bet-the-company litigation; commercial litigation; litigation – antitrust; litigation – intellectual property, 2003); The Simon Law Firm: John G. Simon (commercial litigation; mass tort litigation / class actions – plaintiffs; medical malpractice law – plaintiffs; personal injury litigation – plaintiffs; product liability litigation – plaintiffs, 2005); and Christopher Hayes have been named to the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri’s (LSEM) board of directors.
► Zerman Mogerman: Cary J. Mogerman (family law, 1999) and partner Joseph J. Kodner co-authored the recently published A Guide to Divorce in Missouri: Simple Answers to Complex Questions.
ITN FEATURE
Medical Malpractice Ruling Upheld by High Court
Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard: Kenneth W. Bean (health care law; medical malpractice law – defendants; personal injury litigation – defendants, 2005) and Bobbie Moon (health care law, 2017) represented Mercy Hospital East Communities in a 2015 lawsuit against parents Marlin and Ma Sheryll Joy Thomas who alleged that Mercy Hospital Washington and Mercy Hospital East Communities were negligent with their baby’s delivery.
A physician at the hospital was concerned about the lack of movement from the fetus and ordered fetal monitoring and a biophysical profile. Ma Sheryll Joy agreed to deliver the baby, and a cesarean section was then agreed to after the child’s heart rate decelerated during the delivery. The parents alleged that the physician should’ve immediately recommended the cesarean delivery rather than induced labor, which they believe resulted in brain damage to the newborn.
Moon said, “Our position was that unfortunately whatever caused the baby to have absent movement and initiated this process had already injured the brain. … Most likely an accident with the umbilical cord where it became significantly occluded for a period of time sufficient to cause brain injury but was relieved before it could cause a fetal demise.”
In the original trial, EMissourian says that the plaintiffs allege that the trial court failed to strike for cause a prospective juror who expressed a “disqualifying bias in favor of defendants.” The juror had stated she would “start off slightly in favor” of Mercy since she had a sister who was a registered nurse at a different Mercy location.
Judge Gael D. Wood ruled in favor of Mercy in the original case, and the high court ruled in a 6–0 decision that the juror had no knowledge of the case or its fact to form an opinion that required disqualification.
