Thompson Coburn

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 merged with Fagel Haber of Chicago. In 2013, the firm merged with Los Angeles-based Freedman Weisz LLP and opened an office in Los Angeles.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8]

In July 2020, Roman Wuller succeeded Tom Minogue as chairman.[1][9] In July 2021, Thompson Coburn combined with Hahn & Hessen and opened a new office in New York.[10]

• Thompson Coburn was the first major law firm in Missouri to support a bill extending basic workplace protections to members of the LGBT community.[11][12]
• Thompson Coburn represented the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis pro bono in a $30 million EPA settlement to clean up 10-acre Superfund site in St. Louis.[13][14]
• 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.[15]

• Kit Bond, former Missouri governor and U.S. Senator (joined immediately after leaving the Senate in 2010)[16]
• 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.[17]
• 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.

Some of the firm's notable cases include, but aren't limited to:

• Northwest, Inc. v. Ginsberg, No. 12-462 (Counsel of Record for Amicus International Air Transport Association) (preemption of state law and regulation under Airline Deregulation Act) (decided Apr. 2, 2014, 572 U.S. 273)

• Bowman v. Monsanto Company, et al., No. 11-796 (Co-counsel for Respondent and Counsel below) (enforceability of patent rights after sale) (decided May 13, 2013, 569 U.S. 278)

• Norfolk Southern Ry. Co. v. Sorrell, No. 05–746 (Co-counsel for Petitioner and Counsel below) (standards of causation and negligence under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act) (decided Jan. 10, 2007, 549 U.S. 158)

• Federal Maritime Commission v. South Carolina State Ports Authority, No. 01-46 (Counsel of Record for Respondent and Counsel below) (Federal regulatory proceedings and State sovereign immunity) (decided May 28, 2002, 535 U.S. 743)

• Official website