Thompson Coburn

Thompson Coburn is a law firm with more than 380 attorneys[3] nationwide and offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C, Dallas, and Southern Illinois. The firm’s attorneys practice in more than 40 areas of the law and serve Fortune 500, mid-market and smaller clients on a national, regional and international basis.[4] In 2012, Thompson Coburn was rated one of the top 13 law firms in the U.S. for client service.[5] The firm has been especially active in the field of product liability.[6] The firm also has practices in business litigation, class action, mergers and acquisitions, admiralty law, aviation, bankruptcy and restructuring, government contracts, intellectual property, labor law and employee benefits, environmental law, railroad law, corporate law, real estate and transportation.[7]

Thompson Coburn attorneys serve Fortune 500, mid-market and smaller clients on a national, regional and international basis.[4] The main headquarters are located in St. Louis, Missouri.

The firm was founded in 1929 and became known as Thompson Coburn in 1996 through the merger of two St. Louis firms, Thompson & Mitchell and Coburn & Croft. In July 2007 Thompson Coburn completed a merger with Fagel Haber of Chicago, giving the firm its first outpost in the Windy City. In December 2009 and January 2010, 10 attorneys from the Chicago law firm of Schain, Burney, Ross and Citron joined the firm, strengthening its client services in the area of Land Use Real Estate Law. In 2013 the firm launched its Lobbying & Policy Group.[8][9] Also in 2013, the firm combined with Los Angeles-based Freedman Weisz LLP and opened an office in Los Angeles.[10]

• The firm represents the youth robotics program FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in its lobbying and policy efforts.[11]
• Thompson Coburn served as co-counsel in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a First Amendment case that the New York Times called the “most significant religious liberty decision in two decades.”[12] The unanimous Supreme Court ruling supported Hosanna-Tabor.[13]

• Thompson Coburn was the first major law firm in Missouri to support a bill extending basic workplace protections to members of the LGBT community.[14][15]
• Thompson Coburn represented the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis pro bono in a $30 million EPA settlement that will clean up 10-acre Superfund site in St. Louis.[16][17]
• Thompson Coburn is a sponsor of Street Law, a pipeline program with the Association of Corporate Counsel that introduces high school students to possible careers in the law.[18]

• 112 attorneys selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2015 edition (Copyright 2014 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.)[19]
• The firm earned perfect scores in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey for six consecutive years (2009-2015)[20]
• Finalist, 2015 Best Places to Work, St. Louis Business Journal[21]
• Finalist, 2014 Top Work Places, St. Louis Post Dispatch[22]
• 2014 Healthiest Employers Awards, St. Louis Business Journal[23]
• Named to the 2014 BTI Client Service 30 (one of just two firms outside of the AmLaw 100).[24]
• Recognized in 2013 by BTI as one of the nation's top 13 firms at providing exceptional value for the dollar; BTI Consulting is the leading provider of strategic research to law firms and general counsel.
• Nationally ranked in 35 major practices – U.S. News /Best Lawyers®, 2014 “Best Law Firms.” [25]
• The most Tier 1 rankings - 45 in all – in the U.S. News/Best Lawyers® 2014 “Best Law Firms.” Rankings for St. Louis[25]
• 106 attorneys selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2014 edition (Copyright 2013 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.).[19]
• Five Thompson Coburn attorneys named 2014 "Lawyers of the Year" by Best Lawyers®.[26]
• Twenty-nine attorneys recognized in the 2014 edition of Chambers USA.[27]
• Ranked in Band 1 in Missouri by Chambers USA 2014 for Corporate/M&A Services, Environment, Commercial Litigation and Real Estate.[27]
• The firm has earned perfect scores in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey for the past five consecutive years (2009-2014).[28]
• Presented with the Gerald R. Ortbals Outstanding Law Firm Award, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (2013).[29]

Tom Minogue was appointed by Tom George, the Chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to serve as chairman of the Chancellor’s Council of the University. The advisory board is composed of 50 civic and community leaders that counsel the Chancellor on issues of strategic, financial and legislative importance to the University.[30]

In January 2015, the United States Olympic Committee appointed Ken Salomon to the organization’s ethics committee. Salomon replaces outgoing committee member Bill Ide of McKenna, Long & Aldridge as one of three independent representatives on the five-member committee.[31]

In 2000, Thompson Coburn attorney Michael Lazaroff admitted that he had charged clients for "$380,651 worth of entertainment and gifts they believed were free", using falsified bills that inflated costs for telephone and fax charges, witness preparation and courier and legal services. The Associated Press reported that Lazaroff left Thompson Coburn and would surrender his law license. Thompson Coburn's chairman John Musgrave said that according to an independent audit, Lazaroff had improperly billed around 50 clients, and no other lawyer besides Lazaroff was involved in the billing irregularities.[32]

In 2008, Union Planters Bank, then operating as Magna, filed a complaint against Thompson Coburn alleging negligence and breach of contract and seeking $11,789,053 from the firm, in an amendment to an earlier suit filed in 2003. Magna was eventually awarded $3,654,606.40 in damages by a Madison County Circuit Court jury. Both parties appealed, but the judgment was upheld by Fifth District Appellate Court justices in 2010.[33]

• Kit Bond, former Missouri governor and U.S. Senator (joined immediately after leaving the Senate in 2010)[34]
• Robin Carnahan, Secretary of State of Missouri, worked for predecessor firm Thompson & Mitchell prior to her political career.
• John Cullerton, member and President of the Illinois Senate (D-6th dist.) is a partner in the firm.[35]
• Thomas Eagleton, former U.S. Senator for Missouri and one-time vice-presidential candidate, became a partner in the firm after the end of his Senate career.
• Thomas Schlafly, partner, is also co-founder of the St. Louis Brewery.
• Louis B. Susman, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was a partner at the firm and is a former director of the St. Louis Cardinals. Susman is also a retired vice chairman of Citigroup and was national finance chairman for Senator John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign

• Official website
• Thompson Coburn Lobbying & Policy Group