Robins Kaplan LLP Announces National Practice Group Chairs

Minneapolis, MN—‪April 24, 2018—National trial firm Robins Kaplan LLP^® today announced the leaders of the firm’s national practice groups.  

• Business Litigation: Jason Pfeiffer will continue to serve as chair of the National Business Litigation Practice Group. A member of the firm’s Executive Board, Pfeiffer is an experienced trial lawyer who has earned a national reputation for excellence in catastrophic loss, toxic tort, and product liability litigation. His clients range from industrial plant owners and subrogated property insurers to product manufacturers to individuals who suffer devastating injuries in fires and explosions. For the past 16 years, he has litigated many of the country’s most significant industrial accidents and disasters, including five matters that prompted U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigations. In recent years, he has also devoted a significant portion of his practice to securing recoveries from corporate entities engaged in health care fraud. 

• Insurance and Catastrophic Loss: William Erickson will continue to serve as chair of the National Insurance and Catastrophic Loss Practice Group. Erickson has handled hundreds of coverage disputes under first- and third-party policies for claims arising from fire, explosion, collapse, design defect, environmental impairment, flood, and other losses. He has litigated disputes concerning fortuity, reformation, physical damage, insured risk, insured property, exclusions, obligations in case of loss, extra expense, business interruption, sue and labor, limits and deductibles, arson and fraud, and fair claims practices. He represented, for example, two insurers in the appraisal of the multibillion-dollar World Trade Center loss, and litigated related 9/11 claims in excess of $100 million to final decision or settlement. Additionally, he provides counsel and advice to cedents and reinsurers including review of claims and analysis of reinsurance treaties and faculty agreements.

• Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation: Christopher Larus has been appointed chair of the National Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation Practice Group. For more than 25 years, Larus has helped leading technology companies protect and monetize their intellectual property. He tries complex patent, trade secret, and licensing cases, and represents both plaintiffs and defendants in courts throughout the United States, and in both national and international arbitration. Larus also works with clients to license and monetize IP assets outside the disputes context. He has extensive experience planning and implementing licensing campaigns involving a broad range of IP assets, including telecommunications, agrochemical, medical device, and manufacturing technologies.

• Mass Torts: Executive Board member Tara Sutton will continue to serve as chair of the National Mass Torts Practice Group. Throughout her career, Sutton has created a path to recovery for thousands of individuals injured by drugs and medical devices. In the firm’s history-making win against Big Tobacco nearly 20 years ago, Sutton served as trial counsel in the first state tobacco lawsuit to go to trial; the landmark case settled for $6.6 billion. Most recently, Sutton served on the executive committee and plaintiffs’ negotiating committee of a 2,000-plaintiff multi-district litigation over the blood pressure medication Benicar, which was resolved for $358 million. Sutton also acts as plaintiffs’ settlement counsel in multi-district litigation over the antipsychotic drug Abilify.

• Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury: Peter Schmit will continue to serve as chair of the National Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Practice Groups. Schmit has dedicated his practice to representing those injured by poor medical care. He has tried and settled numerous significant cases in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa involving all types of medical malpractice. He is a past president of the Minnesota Association for Justice, where he led efforts to ensure that the right to a trial by jury is not undermined in the courts or at the State Capitol. He is certified as a civil trial specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association, and was inducted into the American Board of Trial Attorneys in 2013.

“With Jason, Bill, Chris, Tara, and Peter serving as our national practice group chairs, Robins Kaplan will continue to expand its national reach and serve its clients in some of their most high-profile, high-impact litigation matters,” said Martin Lueck, chairman of the firm’s Executive Board. “They are tremendous trial lawyers whose leadership has contributed significantly to the growth and success of the firm.”