Shook, Hardy & Bacon

      Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P.
      Shook, Hardy & Bacon
      Headquarters Crown Center
      Kansas City, Missouri
      No. of offices 9
      No. of attorneys 500
      No. of employees 1,500
      Major practice areas Product liability, tort, business litigation, intellectual property, environmental and toxic tort, labor and employment
      Key people John F. Murphy, Chair[1]
      Revenue $341.5M (2011)
      Date founded 1889[2]
      Founder Frank Payne Sebree[3]
      Company type Limited liability partnership
      Website
      www.shb.com
      Corporate headquarters in the 2555 Grand Building (where it occupies all 24 floors)[3] in the Crown Center complex

      Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P. (previously Shook, Hardy, Ottman, Mitchell and Bacon) is a U.S. law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2012, The National Law Journal ranked the firm as the 87th largest in the United States.[4]

      The firm has practice groups in intellectual property, bankruptcy, commercial transactions, tax law, banking law, products liability, tobacco litigation, corporate and securities law, health law, insurance law, real estate, construction law, environmental law, and antitrust.[citation needed]

      Notable clients

      One of the firm's longtime clients is tobacco company Philip Morris (now Altria).[5] SHB also maintains a large clientele of pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Company, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Guidant and Wyeth.[3] SHB 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, against Vonage.[6] Other clients include Ford Motor Company, Toshiba, and Sony.

      William H. Colby, an attorney at the firm, represented Nancy Cruzan (by way of her parents) in the right-to-die case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, as part of Shook's pro bono work.[7]

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      Relationship with tobacco companies

      The firm has represented five of the six major U.S. tobacco companies: American Brands, Brown & Williamson, RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris Inc. (now Altria Group) and Loews Inc.; a 1992 New York Times article about the firm was titled "'Tobacco' Its Middle Name, Law Firm Thrives, for Now."[8]

      In 1992, a federal judge all but accused the firm of orchestrating fraud on behalf of the tobacco industry and exerting attorney–client privilege to hide facts about tobacco's health hazards during the 1960s and 1970s.[8]

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      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.[citation needed] These employees advise the firm's attorneys on technical issues in the course of complex litigation, patent prosecution, and selection of expert witnesses.

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      Notable lawyers and alumni

      Executive leadership

      • John Murphy, Chairman
      • 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
      • George Wolf, General Litigation Division Chair
      • Gene Voigts, General Counsel
      • William Johnsmeyer, Chief Operating Officer

      Office management

      • James Shepherd, Houston Managing Partner
      • Simon Castley, London Managing Partner
      • Bill Geraghty, Miami Managing Partner
      • Doug Robinson, Orange County Managing Partner
      • Tammy Webb, San Francisco Managing Partner
      • Daniel Molony, Tampa Managing Partner
      • Michelle Mangrum, Washington, D.C. Managing Partner
      • Sean Wajert, Philadelphia Managing Partner

      Alumni

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      Offices

      United States

      International

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      References

      1. ^ Shook, Hardy & Bacon. "Attorneys—John F. Murphy". Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
      2. ^ Shook, Hardy & Bacon. "SHB - Attorneys - John Murphy". Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
      3. ^ a b c Hansen, Mark (2008-10-01). "Shook Hardy Smokes 'Em". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2012-03-21. 
      4. ^ "The NLJ 350". The National Law Journal. 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-21. 
      5. ^ "Shook, Hardy & Bacon". SourceWatch. Center for Media and Democracy. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
      6. ^ Bloomberg News (2007-09-26). "Vonage Infringed 6 Patents of Sprint, U.S. Jury Rules". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
      7. ^ Dan, Margolies (1998-08-02). "Colby to write Cruzan story". Kansas City Business Journal. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
      8. ^ a b Margolick, David (1992-10-20). "'Tobacco' Its Middle Name, Law Firm Thrives, for Now". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
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      External links

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      Last modified on 3 June 2013, at 20:49