Rick Paul

Managing Partner at Paul LLP

Rick, managing partner of Paul LLP, specializes in complex antitrust, business, bankruptcy, product liability, and consumer litigation—typically involving multi-parties, class or mass actions, or bankruptcy estates. Rick graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, where he served as Associate Managing Editor of the Missouri Law Review. After law school, Rick was a judicial law clerk at the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. In 1996, he began private practice with the firm formerly known as Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, a large Kansas City law firm with offices in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Arizona. In 2002, the Board of Directors of Shughart Thomson elected him a Shareholder and Director. In 2008, Rick moved his practice to Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP. In May 2013, Rick started Paul LLP.

Rick has recovered more than $2 billion for his clients through trial or settlement. Rick has been appointed by numerous courts across the country to serve as lead counsel in class actions and MDL proceedings and as special litigation counsel for bankruptcy trustees.

Rick enjoys being in the courtroom and has tried and won many types of cases in jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations. He has repeatedly been brought in to a case shortly before trial for just that purpose. Recently, Rick served as trial counsel in the In re Syngenta Litigation pending in Minnesota state court. Rick was co-lead trial counsel for the first individual bellwether trial as well as the Minnesota class action trial. During the third week of the Minnesota class trial, the litigation was settled on behalf of all farmers (individual and classes) across the country. This is just the most recent in a string of cases where Rick has been lead trial counsel, including two class arbitrations, where he prevailed in both. He has also argued more than 40 appeals to various state and federal appellate courts and briefed over 100 appeals.

Rick is active in the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. In 2004, he served as the Chair of the Appellate Courts Committee of the KCMBA. He has also served as Vice-Chair on the Business Torts Committee, where he authored the Chapter on Fiduciary Duties for the Business Torts Handbook. Rick is a frequent speaker and moderator at seminars and presentations on handling appeals, electronic discovery, and the use of technology in the courtroom. In 2006, Missouri Lawyers Weekly named Rick as one of eight “Up and Coming Lawyers.” He has also been named a “Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer,” and is listed on American Registry’s “Top Attorneys in Missouri/Kansas.” He has an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating with Martindale-Hubbell.

Timeline

  • Managing Partner

    Current role

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