John Simmons

John Simmons founded the firm in 1999 with seven employees and a focus on asbestos litigation. Under his leadership, the firm has expanded to more than 250 employees, including more than 80 attorneys, spread between five offices in Alton, St. Louis, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. John has overseen some of the biggest verdicts and settlements in the history of asbestos litigation. The firm’s first trial involved a roofer and former Shell Oil employee diagnosed with mesothelioma. John helped secure a $34.1 million jury verdict, then considered one of the largest jury verdicts in the history of the litigation. That record stood for only a short while before the firm obtained a $250 million verdict on behalf of an Indiana steelworker. The firm’s track record of success continues today, not only in mesothelioma litigation, but also in other areas of complex litigation including dangerous drugs and devices, prescription opioid litigation, sexual abuse litigation, environmental litigation, personal injury and other mass torts and class actions. Since that first case, the firm has recovered more than $9.6 billion in settlements and verdicts for thousands of clients nationwide under John’s leadership.