Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that Partner Christine Miller has been named a recipient of the 2024 Verdicts and Settlements (V&S) Awards by Missouri Lawyers Media.
The V&S awards honor settlements and trial victories, including wins for both the defense and plaintiffs. Miller was noted for securing a complete defense verdict on behalf of Monsanto.
In a widely publicized trial in St. Louis County involving allegations that exposure to Roundup® herbicide caused a plaintiff’s non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), a Husch Blackwell team led by Miller and Erik Hansell secured a complete defense verdict after a five-week trial for Monsanto. The plaintiff alleged that she used Roundup®-branded herbicides in and around her property for two decades. According to the plaintiff, her subsequent diagnosis and treatment for NHL was caused by exposure to the herbicide.
Plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury for an award of $36 million, along with a finding of punitive damages (the amount of punitive damages would have been determined in a separate deliberation). In response, Miller delivered a clinical and powerful closing argument focusing on the science and all the holes in plaintiff’s case. After deliberating for a little over four hours, the jurors returned with a complete defense verdict. The defense of the case centered on complex issues of cancer causation, including recent breakthrough cancer research by Dr. Christian Tomasetti (one of Monsanto’s expert witnesses) demonstrating that most cell mutations leading to lymphomas are caused by naturally occurring cell replication, as opposed to environmental factors.
The Husch Blackwell team also included Dominique Savinelli, Rick Norris, Tim Larkin, and Kate Dickenson.
Miller and other V&S winners will be honored at the Missouri Lawyers Awards luncheon on February 15 at the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis. The full rankings of the year’s biggest verdicts and settlements can be viewed here: Missouri Lawyers Media Top V&S winners of 2023 announced.