Matthew J. Verschelden

Matt has practiced business litigation, both trial and appellate, in a variety of substantive areas. He chairs the firm's Appellate Practice Group. Before joining the firm in 1982, Matt clerked first for Chief Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.

Representative Experience

Matt’s work for clients in recent years includes the following matters:

• A cattle producer sued our client for fraudulent misrepresentation based on statements that the client made about a feedlot that were published in an article in an industry magazine. The producer claimed that, in reliance upon those statements, it sent its cattle to that feedlot, where they got sick and many died. We obtained summary judgment from the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska.
• A distributor sued our soft drink company client for millions of dollars in damages arising from alleged contract, tort and antitrust violations. We obtained summary judgment from the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed in large part, remanding only one contract claim against our client for further proceedings.
• A multi-million dollar judgment was entered against a meat processing company in an employment discrimination case. The client retained us to handle the appellate proceedings before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
• A department store company sued our client for coverage under a fiduciary liability insurance policy for over $50 million that the plaintiff had paid to settle earlier ERISA class actions. We obtained summary judgment from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
• An insider made several hostile attempts to take over our limestone quarry client. The dispute resulted in four lawsuits in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern District of Missouri and the Southern District of Illinois and the Circuit Court for St. Louis County, Missouri. We obtained summary judgment in the principal lawsuit and the litigation settled favorably.
• Former pilots of our airline client alleged that its employee assistance program violated ERISA. We won a trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri and that judgment was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
• Matt was a part of a team that represented a pharmaceutical company in numerous antitrust lawsuits filed in federal and state courts around the country alleging a conspiracy among brand name prescription drug manufacturers to deny discounts to retail pharmacies. He and other attorneys at the firm also represented that same company in a lawsuit filed in California state court alleging a conspiracy among manufacturers to restrict the importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
  

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