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Sarah Lynn Baltzell

Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP

Sarah E. Lynn Baltzell represents clients in the insurance, energy, and fire suppression industries. Sarah also has experience providing counsel and legal representation to a wide variety of clients and industries on product liability matters spanning product lines from automotive to heavy machinery to medical devices.

Sarah counsels her clients on litigation avoidance strategies, and represents her clients at both the trial and appellate levels. She works closely with them to gain an intimate understanding of their unique business practices and needs to provide tailored legal advice and to identify and mitigate company and industry specific risks.

This partnership approach permits Sarah to work with her clients to jointly develop and implement litigation avoidance strategies from both legal and corporate perspectives. By understanding her clients’ business models, product lines, and unique internal processes, Sarah is able to provide high-quality and cost-effective counsel on risk management and litigation avoidance, as well as knowledgeable, practical, client-specific driven defenses in and out of the courtroom.

Her motion practice successes include litigation-ending Daubert and dispositive motion victories in product liability matters and medical device cases. Her appellate successes include constitutional challenges and jurisdictional issues of first impression that resulted in precedent-setting decisions and the creation of favorable law, as well as declaratory actions to leverage consent judgments.

Sarah also authors amicus briefs to influence the legal landscape in which her clients operate and creatively identifies early opportunities for writ practice to weigh in on important issues of first impression affecting her client’s business.

Her trial experience includes defense verdicts in a consumer fraud class action, a dealership termination and multiple product liability matters. Sarah has significant experience in all phases of litigation, including defending jury and bench trials; developing, preparing and presenting company and expert witnesses; and briefing and arguing dispositive motions.

Sarah’s ease and familiarity in toggling between the trial courts and appellate courts enables her to work with clients to identify creative appellate options. She has argued before the Missouri Courts of Appeal and has submitted amicus curiae briefs to the Supreme Court of Missouri and the U.S. Supreme Court, and her use of extraordinary writs during the discovery process and intervention stages has permitted Sarah to obtain early and cost-effective outcomes for her clients.

When representing her clients, Sarah works to identify opportunities to limit legal spending and resolve litigation quickly and efficiently at the trial level by using dispositive motions and prudent discovery techniques.

For example, she represents a Fortune 50 company in a flat-fee arrangement, which aligns her motivations with her clients’ to mitigate risk and avoid litigation when possible. Sarah also proactively identifies company needs and litigation risks on a national, regional, or product-specific level, working with her clients to reduce lawsuits and litigation spending.

Sarah spent a year studying international business at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Dijon in Dijon, France, and was an intern with the Sofitel Dijon La Cloche. She also spent a summer in Amman, Jordan, teaching English and counseling Fulbright scholars and other university students seeking to study in the United States.

Sarah is dedicated to mentoring young lawyers and students in the legal profession. She is actively involved with the firm’s Search Committee, and she continues working with recruited attorneys as a member of the firm’s Mentoring Task Force, Alternative Work Schedule Task Force, and as a member of the firm’s Associates Committee.

For several years, Sarah has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Kansas School of Law, teaching an intensive intersession course on deposition skills, and a similar course on expert witness preparation.  She also serves as a resource for undergraduate students considering the legal profession.

Representative Matters:

  • Sarah’s experience and representative matters include:
    • Insurance. Sarah represents various insurance companies in high-stakes litigation. She has served as both trial and appellate counsel representing insurers, often on issues of first impression such as multi-insurer trigger issues in long-tail asbestos matters and bodily injury liability. She also provides prelitigation and litigation avoidance counseling on claims handling and extracontractual exposure issues—and, when necessary, serves as counsel in declaratory coverage actions, equitable garnishments, failure to defend actions and bad faith actions.

      She has also submitted an amicus brief to the Missouri Supreme Court on extracontractual liability in insurance litigation, as well as multiple interlocutory appeals and extraordinary writs in the intermediate courts of appeals to advance favorable litigation outcomes and litigation-altering rulings early in the trial court process. See, e.g.,  Brown v. AMCO, 2015 WL 1739832 (Mo. App. W.D. 2015).

    • Energy. Sarah represents energy and motor fuel companies in state law environmental liability claims resulting from legacy refining operations, as well as in appellate matters involving issues of first impression on class action settlements, class objections and constitutional arguments.  See, e.g., AEP v. Conn, 2010 WL 3501256 (2010 U.S.)).  She also assists these energy clients on insurance matters, providing guidance on policy implications in environmental liability litigation.

      Sarah served on a trial team representing several motor fuel retailers in multidistrict litigation against conspiracy claims; in a bellwether trial, they obtained a unanimous defense verdict. During the litigation, Sarah and the team also briefed a writ of mandamus and appealed to the Tenth Circuit, ultimately creating new First Amendment discovery protections favorable to the client. In re Motor Fuels Sales Practices Litig., (D. Kan. 2012). This case, also known as the “Hot Fuels” litigation, is just part of Sarah’s 10-year history of defending motor fuel industry clients.

    • Product Liability. Sarah has a longstanding role as national counsel handling all phases of litigation in product liability matters for a Fortune 50 company under an alternative fee structure. In addition, she has worked on a variety of product liability claims, including representation of:
      • a bus manufacturer in a high-profile case, for which she briefed a writ of prohibition to the Missouri Supreme Court regarding the separation of powers and jurisdiction;
      • a medical device manufacturer in Oklahoma federal court, for which Sarah briefed tandem summary judgment and Daubert motions on defect and causation issues, resulting in the dismissal of the entire action;
      • a fire suppression manufacturer in Minnesota federal court, for which Sarah successfully briefed and argued tandem summary judgment and Daubert motions on defect and causation issues, resulting in dismissal of the entire action and creation of favorable precedent limiting the application of res ipsa loquitur in complex products liability matters. Bhd. Mut. Ins. Co. v. ADT, (D. Minn. 2014); and
      • drug manufacturers, for which she briefed a motion to dismiss and obtained a partial dismissal of claims.
    • Constitutional Issues. Sarah has represented clients in amici briefs and petitions to other appeals courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, on constitutional law arguments involving due process and First Amendment rights, in cases ranging from putative and certified class actions to consumer fraud and extracontractual liability claims. She uses this experience in her pro bono endeavors, including an argument to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on a constitutional challenge to the Kansas school financing system. In another pro bono matter, Sarah filed an amicus brief to the Missouri Court of Appeals on First Amendment associational privileges.
    • The Missouri Human Rights Act. Sarah represented the Kansas City Missouri School District and its former superintendent in a retaliation case brought under the Missouri Human Rights Act at both the trial and appellate level. She briefed and argued the appeal to a Missouri Court of Appeals, which resulted in the establishment of favorable procedural law, creating a circuit split with the Eastern District. McCrainey v. KCMSD, (Mo. App. W.D. 2011).

Education:

  • J.D., University of Kansas School of Law, 2008
    • Order of the Coif
    • Kansas Law Review, Associate Editor
    • Extern to The Hon. Julie Robinson, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
    • Payne & Jones Lawyering Program Award
    • CALI Excellence for the Future Awards (Civil Procedure, Secured Transactions, Lawyering)
  • B.A., summa cum laude, Drake University, 2005 (French and International Relations)
    • George A. Carpenter Scholar
    • Alpha Phi Women’s Fraternity, Gamma Omicron Chapter
  • The École Supérieure de Commerce de Dijon, 2001-2001 (International Marketing)

Bar Admissions:

  • Missouri
  • U.S. District Court, District of Kansas
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit

Memberships:

  • Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
  • Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers
  • The Missouri Bar

Community Involvement:

  • Lawyers Encouraging Academic Performance
    • Board of Directors

Cost

Rate : $$$

What types of cases Attorney Sarah Lynn Baltzell & Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP can handle?
Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP can handle cases related to laws concerning Litigation, Insurance, Class Action, Product Liability, Energy & Environmental. We manually verify each attorney’s practice areas before approving their profiles and reviews on our website.
Where is Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP located?
Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP is located at 2555 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA. You can reach out to Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP using their phone line 816.559.2576. You can also check their website shb.com or email them at slynn@shb.com.
How much would it cost to hire Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP?
Sarah Lynn Baltzell lawyer charges are specific to each case. However, they work with contingency fees and its ranges from $$ to $$$. They also provide free consultation [and no obligation quotes] if you are interested to hire.
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Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
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