Attorneys from Denver, Kansas City, Mo., Omaha, Neb., Springfield, Mo., and St. Louis Offices Listed
Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has announced its 2013 Lawyers of the Year selections. Six Husch Blackwell attorneys from the firm's Denver, Kansas City, Mo., Omaha, Neb., Springfield, Mo., and St. Louis offices made the list.
In the Denver office:
Jeffrey A. Chase has been named Best Lawyers' 2013 Denver First Amendment Law Lawyer of the Year. Chase's practice focuses on Business Litigation including securities, oil and gas, intellectual property, telecommunications, banking, media and legal malpractice. Chase is an American College of Trial Lawyers Fellow and one of Colorado's most prominent litigators, having acquired the largest verdict in Colorado history for an international cable TV company. This is the second year in a row Chase has made this list; he was named the 2012 Best Lawyers’ Denver Bet-The-Company Litigation Lawyer of the Year. In addition, he has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for the past 25 years.
In the Kansas City, Mo., office:
Jeffrey T. Haughey has been named Best Lawyers’ 2013 Kansas City-MO Securities/Capital Markets Law Lawyer of the Year. A distinguished Securities & Corporate Governance attorney, Haughey has represented issuers and underwriters in more than $11 billion in public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities. He has also assisted many clients with mergers and acquisitions, as well as crisis management issues resulting from Chapter 11 reorganizations, restatements of financial statements from accounting irregularities, and financial distress due to changed market conditions.
Lisa A. Veselich has been named Best Lawyers' 2013 Kansas City-MO Trusts and Estates Lawyer of the Year. Trusts & Estates law is Veselich’s practice focus. Veselich provides sophisticated estate and gift tax planning using advanced techniques such as family limited partnerships, grantor retained annuity trusts, sale to intentionally defective grantor trusts and qualified personal residence trusts. She also advises on generation-skipping transfer tax and planning for multiple generations, as well as charitable gift planning such as charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, private foundations and supporting organizations. In addition, Veselich provides advice and guidance on matters involving probate and trust administration.
From the Omaha, Neb., office:
Thomas H. Dahlk has been named Best Lawyers’ 2013 Omaha Litigation – Securities Lawyer of the Year. A member of the firm’s Partner Board, Dahlk is a Litigation attorney who focuses on cases involving complex business transactions. He has successfully obtained verdicts for clients in federal and state court, and has provided litigation strategy and multidistrict litigation management for clients in the banking, mutual fund and securities industries. Dahlk’s clientele includes financial services corporations, numerous investor groups, as well as individual plaintiffs and defendants. Dahlk’s accomplishments include having obtained the dismissal of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims on behalf of defendants. He has also represented shareholder groups in derivative actions based upon civil RICO, as well as plaintiffs and defendants in accounting, legal, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions and financial advisor malpractice cases.
From the Springfield, Mo. office:
Virginia L. Fry has been named Best Lawyers’ 2013 Springfield-MO Litigation – Labor & Employment Lawyer of the Year. Fry is a member of the firm’s Partner Board and a Springfield Office Managing Partner. She is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts in a variety of areas, including constitutional law, commercial and business litigation, breach of fiduciary duty and employment litigation. Her Labor & Employment work includes frequently defending management in wrongful discharge, harassment, discrimination, and related state and federal employment claims. She also advises education clients with respect to the federal and state laws that regulate their operation. Influential in the legal community, Fry was selected as the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association’s Lawyer of the Year in 2010.
From the St. Louis office:
Craig S. Biesterfeld has been named Best Lawyers' 2013 St. Louis Litigation – Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year. Biesterfeld has extensive experience in commercial Real Estate & Development law, including issues related to acquisition, leasing and development, zoning and land use regulation and government regulation and permitting. He has assisted clients in the use of numerous economic development programs such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Special Business Districts (SBD) and Community Improvement Districts (CID) and represents cities and other local governmental entities. In addition, Biesterfeld is an American College of Real Estate Lawyers Fellow and a long-time city attorney for a St. Louis area municipality. This is the third straight year Biesterfeld made this list; he was first named the St. Louis Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year for 2011, and last year he was named the 2012 St. Louis Real Estate Lawyer of the Year.
Best Lawyers designates “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current 19th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2013) is based on more than 4.3 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. The lawyers being honored as “Lawyers of the Year” have received particularly high survey ratings by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism and integrity.