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 15 of the firm’s attorneys in its 2020 edition. Best Lawyers is one of the most highly regarded attorney referral publications.
“We are honored to work alongside these 15 hard-working, deserving attorneys who are included in the prestigious Best Lawyers in America legal industry referral guide,” said John Simmons, chairman of Simmons Hanly Conroy. “Our attorneys spend their days putting clients before themselves, and this continues to propel the firm forward in an effort to secure justice for clients through millions of dollars in settlements.”
The firm’s attorneys who are listed in the 2020 Best Lawyers guide and their recognized practice areas are:
- 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.
- 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.
- John A. Barnerd (Mass Tort Litigation — Plaintiffs): A Shareholder in Simmons Hanly Conroy’s Alton office, he joined the firm in 2002 as mesothelioma and asbestos attorney and today is a member of the firm’s management committee. His work has helped secure millions of dollars on behalf of asbestos exposure victims and families.
- 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.
- 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 and one in Cuyahoga County Court in Ohio.
- 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.
- 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 on the Illinois State Bar Association’s Board of Governors.
- 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.
- 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.
- Conard 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.
- 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.
- Jo Anna Pollock (Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions — Plaintiffs): She is a Shareholder at Simmons Hanly Conroy in the Complex Litigation Department. She has more than 17 years of experience in trial and appellate courts across the country and has secured hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of her clients.
- Justin Presnal (Appellate Practice; Personal Injury Litigation — Plaintiffs): A Shareholder with more than 25 years of experience, he specializes in cases that involve dangerous drugs and medical devices, class actions, and other complex litigation matters. He is based in College Station, Texas.
- Deborah R. 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.
- John Simmons (Product Liability 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.
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 2020 edition considers more than 10 million evaluations and recognizes over 93,000 attorneys in 145 practice areas.
