Melissa Crowe Schopfer

Attorney Melissa Schopfer joined the Simmons Firm in 2005, after earning her Juris Doctorate from St. Louis University School of Law. As an asbestos and mesothelioma attorney, she has worked on dozens of cases in the past six years and helped recover over $100 million in settlements and verdicts on behalf of individuals and families impacted by mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. She has represented clients in nearly every state.

Melissa regularly travels to visit her clients. Though her main office is at the firm’s headquarters in Alton, Illinois, she’s just as likely to work from a client’s dining room table, a hotel room, airport waiting areas, or somewhere even more unusual. One of her more unusual visits found her meeting with a client in a Nevada rock quarry.

To Melissa, meeting her clients and getting to know them is the best part of her job. “My clients are hard-working, down-to-earth people who would be willing to give you the shirt off their backs,” she said. “I feel privileged and honored that they are willing to share their stories with me.”

Melissa, who has extensive experience representing aircraft mechanics and union members, has a wide range of responsibilities as an asbestos attorney for the firm. Mesothelioma and asbestos litigation involves decades of scientific, medical and personal information gathering. When an individual becomes her client, Melissa immediately begins the process of gathering all information related to the client's exposures to asbestos and mesothelioma diagnosis. She then diligently prepares the client for a deposition and, in some cases, a trial.

“It’s not a regular attorney-client relationship,” she explained. “You’re asking them to tell you about their daily lives 50 years ago.”

One client recently wrote a thank you letter to the firm saying that his dad would be very proud of the work Melissa did. Another client affectionately calls himself her grandpa.

“No two clients are the same,” she said. “And no two days in the office or on the road are the same. That’s one of the reasons I like my job so much.”

Noteworthy

• Presented at 2011 Plaintiff's Asbestos Litigation Seminar in Nevada on "Asbestos Exposure in Aircraft Cases"

Representative Experience

Mesothelioma and Asbestos Litigation

Professional & Community Affiliations

• American Association for Justice
• American Bar Association
• Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
• Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys
• Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition - St. Louis