Career Highlights
- Recovered $50 million from publicly traded company in settlement of industrial product defect case involving over three million units of products and many complex business, engineering, and legal issues.
- Recovered nearly $1 million after jury trial of case against a company who failed to pay its contractor for installation of a chicken rendering system for pet food.
- Trial and appellate team member in defense verdict in month-long trial of a CERCLA contribution claim for several hundred million dollars, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.
- Federal environmental appeal dismissed by Eighth Circuit following favorable stay of district court proceedings.
- Summary judgment granted to railroad, and Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of FELA action where employee train driver was injured when a third-party criminal threw a main line switch causing derailment of train.
- Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of several mental health care providers in federal civil rights and professional negligence appeal.
- Eighth Circuit remand for re-sentencing of a federal criminal defendant following government confession of error.
- On brief as special assistant attorney general in Eighth Circuit appeal upholding state medical malpractice damages cap.
- Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment in favor of out-of-state client on personal jurisdiction grounds.
- Summary judgment obtained at district court and affirmed at Nebraska Supreme Court in legal professional negligence case.
- Obtained defense verdict after trial on various employment law claims in the context of college nursing program. No appeal.
- On brief obtaining summary judgment in internet Communications Decency Act § 230 case involving a fatality; plaintiff declined to appeal as to our client.
- Summary judgment in defense of fraud claims against a drug testing lab by a plaintiff who received an unfavorable test result.
- Obtained summary judgments in favor of three physician professional negligence defendants in wrongful death action.
- Summary judgment in fraud and unjust enrichment case involving the Nebraska Seller Assisted Marketing Plan Act; following summary judgment, plaintiff paid defendant to settle counterclaim.
Education
University of Nebraska College of Law, Juris Doctor with high distinction, 2007 (law review executive editor; national moot court team member)
Order of the Coif, 2007
Order of the Barristers, 2007
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, B.A. (political science)
Admitted to Bar and Courts
Nebraska
Iowa
United States District Court for the District of Nebraska
United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Supreme Court of the United States
Memberships, Boards and Committees
Nebraska State Bar Association (President 2022-Present; House of Delegates 2013-2021; Leadership Academy 2013-14; Practice and Procedure, Budget and Planning, Legislation, and Professional Enhancement Committees; Appellate Practice Section Member)
Judicial Nominating Commission (Separate Juvenile Court of Douglas County, Nebraska 2017-2019)
Nebraska Lawyers Foundation (President 2021-2022)
Nebraska State Bar Foundation (Director 2021-2023; Fellow 2022-Present)
Iowa State Bar Association
Eighth Circuit Bar Association (President 2022)
Eighth Circuit Federal Advisory Committee (Nebraska Delegate 2014-2017)
National Conference of Bar Presidents (Member 2020-Present)
Omaha Bar Association (Executive Council 2017-2021)
American Bar Association
American Bar Foundation (Life Fellow 2017-Present)
Robert M. Spire American Inn of Court (Member 2006-Present; President 2014-2015; Treasurer 2010-2014)
National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel (Trial College 2014)
