ALTON, Ill. – Simmons Hanly Conroy, one of the nation’s largest law firms focused on consumer protection and mass tort actions, is pleased to announce The Best Lawyers in America® has ranked 13 of the firm’s attorneys in its 2019 edition. Best Lawyers is one of the most highly regarded attorney referral publications.
“We are humbled by the accolades and the inclusion of 13 of our attorneys in the 2019 edition of the prestigious Best Lawyers in America legal industry referral guide,” said John Simmons, chairman of Simmons Hanly Conroy. “Our attorneys take great pride in our work, and that has helped to make Simmons Hanly Conroy a leader in protecting the rights of individuals and families who have been harmed by the effects of asbestos exposure, dangerous drugs and corporate wrongdoing.”
The firm’s attorneys who are listed in the 2019 Best Lawyers guide and their recognized practice areas are:
- John Simmons (Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): Chairman of the firm which he founded in 1999, he has overseen some of the largest verdicts and settlements in the history of asbestos litigation. He works from the Alton office.
- Michael J. Angelides (Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): Managing Shareholder of the firm, he oversees the asbestos, dangerous drugs and devices, sexual abuse, environmental litigation, personal injury and mass tort practices. He is based in the firm’s Alton office.
- Perry J. Browder (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs; Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder and head of the firm’s Asbestos Group, he has played a key role in helping the firm develop a national reputation in asbestos litigation. He works from the Alton office and is currently serving as president of the Illinois Bar Foundation.
- Nicholas J. Angelides (Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): He is a Shareholder in the Alton office, where he helps direct the legal strategy for all of the firm’s asbestos and mesothelioma cases.
- J. Conrad Metcalf (Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs; Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs): He has successfully represented hundreds of men and women diagnosed with asbestos-caused cancers, as well as individuals suffering from asbestosis and other occupational diseases and toxic injuries. He is Of Counsel in the Alton office.
- Paul J. Hanly, Jr. (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): He is a Shareholder in the New York office with more than 30 years of legal experience. He now represents plaintiffs in a variety of mass tort and other complex civil cases. He’s been named to multiple court-appointed leadership roles, including being named co-lead counsel in the national opioid litigation pending in Cleveland, Ohio. This federal multidistrict litigation is regarded as the largest and most complex litigation in U.S. history.
- Jayne Conroy (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder with more than 30 years in practice, she focuses on various complex civil cases, representing plaintiffs in a wide variety of products liability matters. Based in the New York office, she has held multiple court-appointed leadership roles of national scope in litigation against pharmaceutical companies brought by consumers harmed by dangerous drugs.
- Andrea Bierstein (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder with more than three decades of legal experience, she is one of the premier appellate brief-writers and oral advocates in the country. She is based in the New York office.
- Mitchell Breit (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder with a career spanning 35 years, he focuses his practice on consumer class actions and mass torts of national scope. He is based in the New York office.
- Daniel P. Blouin (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder in the firm’s New York office, he has secured hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of clients diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. In the last year, he led the trial team that secured three asbestos verdicts in New York Supreme Court.
- Laurence Nassif (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs): A Shareholder in the New York office, he focuses his practice on asbestos and mesothelioma litigation, pharmaceutical mass torts, and other complex personal injury cases.
- Deborah Rosenthal (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs; Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): She is a Shareholder in the firm’s San Francisco office, working on cases involving asbestos litigation, sexual abuse litigation, personal injury and environmental litigation.
- Justin J. Presnal (Appellate Practice; Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs): He is a Shareholder specializing in cases that involve dangerous drugs and medical devices, class actions, and other complex litigation matters. He is based in College Station, Texas.
Best Lawyers selects attorneys based on extensive surveys of leading lawyers who assess the legal abilities of their peers; lawyers are not permitted to pay a fee to participate or be recognized. The 2019 edition takes into account more than 7.4 million evaluations and recognizes over 58,000 attorneys in 140 practice areas.
