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John Simmons is an American attorney and chairman of Simmons Hanly Conroy, the largest mass tort law firm in the United States. Simmons and his firm are known for recovering the most—$5 billion—in jury verdicts and settlements for clients, particularly in asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits.
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Early life and education
John Simmons grew up in East Alton, Illinois. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army. At the same time, he married his high school sweetheart.
In the Army, Simmons worked as a combat engineer. He served in the Army for two years. His first job out of the Army was building houses with his father.
Simmons attended and graduated from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, majoring in political science and graduating with honors. He earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, Texas.
Accolades
According to his official biography on his law firm’s website, "In 2006, following the early success of the firm, John was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of St. Louis’s 40 Under 40. The award honors 40 early achievers based on accomplishments in their careers and work in the St. Louis community."
Law ranking
U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers ranked Simmons Hanley Conroy LLC as one of the "Best Law Firms" in the United States in 2013 and 2014. As an individual practicing attorney, Simmons received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. According to his official biography on his firm’s website, an AV rating "identifies a lawyer with very high to preeminent legal ability."
Simmons Hanley Conroy LLC
John Simmons’ law firm, currently called Simmons Hanley Conroy LLC, is the "largest mass tort law firm in the United States." Over the years, the firm has recovered through settlements and verdicts over $5 billion for clients.
History
John Simmons founded the Simmons Law Firm in 1999 with only seven employees.[6] Its first headquarters, which remains the firm’s headquarters to this day, is located in Alton, Illinois. At first, the firm focused on asbestos litigation.
By 2014, the firm had five offices across the United States. The firm gained a reputation for specializing in "mass tort litigation, namely asbestos, dangerous drugs and medical devices, intellectual property infringement, environmental litigation, consumer protection and contingent fee commercial litigation."
In pharmaceutical litigation alone, the firm has won or settled lawsuits amounting to over $260 million. Simmons’ first trial was a mesothelioma case involving a former Shell Oil employee who had worked as a roofer. In a jury verdict, Simmons won $34.1 million in the lawsuit. At that time, it was one of the largest jury verdicts in a mesothelioma case. The $34.1 million record was soon shattered, again by Simmons, when he won a $250 million verdict for a single steelworker client.
Merger
Before becoming Simmons Hanley Conroy LLC, the law firm was known as Simmons, Browder, Gianaris, Angelides & Barnerd LLC. In July 2014, the firm merged with Hanly, Conroy, Bierstein, Sheridan, Fisher & Hayes LLP, a New York law firm.
Both firms worked together for over ten years as co-counsel partners in products liability cases. The two firms worked on several high-profile cases, including the famous cases involving OxyContin pain medication, Chantix anti-smoking medication, Yaz birth control, and Toyota "unintended acceleration lawsuits."
Prior to the merger, Simmons’ law firm had 60 lawyers and 150 support employees on staff. After the merger, Simmons served as chairman of the new firm.
Philanthropy
Simmons and his firm put together $10.2 million to build a patient care, research, education and outreach center on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Springfield. The center is called the Simmons Cancer Institute.
Simmons Hanly Conroy runs a philanthropic arm called the Simmons Employee Foundation, which has donated over a million dollars to charities and events and over $20 million to cancer research.
Simmons Mesothelioma Foundation
The Simmons Mesothelioma Foundation has given money to several universities for research. As of the end of 2014, the foundation gave:
Connections to trial of New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted on corruption charges. A doctor named Robert Taub sent patients to the law firm that Silver worked at. In exchange, Silver—as the Speaker of the state assembly—gave Taub a half million in research grants.
John Simmons gave money to Dr. Robert Taub's clinic. Over a course of four years, Simmons’ law firm represented 26 patients referred by Dr. Taub. Simmons' law firm made millions more dollars on referrals from Dr. Taub than it gave to Dr. Taub's clinic. The total dollar amount of the fees that Taub gives to Simmons is estimated at over $10 million.
During Silver’s trial, the former head of Simmons’ law firm, Gregg Kirkland, testified that claims for mesothelioma usually settle for an average of one million dollars. The Simmons law firm collects 40 percent of that.
John Simmons’ foundation, the Simmons Mesothelioma Foundation, gave $2.5 million to Columbia University, where Dr. Taub worked. The donation stipulated that the money had to go to Taub’s clinic and "provided for discussion of termination [of the grant money from Simmons] if he [Taub] left [Columbia University]." Prosecutors put Simmons on the witness list for Sheldon Silver’s trial, but in the end never called him as a witness.
Campaign contributions
On December 22, 2014, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial calling Illinois Governor Pat Quinn "America’s worst governor." At that time, Quinn was approaching his final days in office. During his final month in office, Quinn signed SB 2221, a law that eliminated a ten-year statute of repose for people exposed to asbestos.
The law had the effect of expanding the pool of people that trial lawyers could sue on behalf of. The law also added new types of parties that could be sued in asbestos cases such as "supervising architects, design engineers and public school boards."
The editorial stated that "Madison County [Illinois]…is notorious for its jackpot verdicts in civil trials, making it a nationwide destination for civil cases." In 2013, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC (political action committee) gave $422,000 in campaign contributions. Most of the money went to Democratic candidates and incumbents.
Since 2003, John Simmons, along with his partners and his employees, has given $2,600,993 to Democratic candidates for national offices. These campaign contributions average approximately $4,000 per week. The majority of the support has gone to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). In 2014, Simmons and his team allocated more to the DSCC than to all other candidates and committees. Beginning in 2003, they contributed $570,250 to the DSCC alone. Additionally, they donated $179,180 to the Democratic National Committee. In the 2014 election, Simmons and his partners also contributed $62,500 to congressional candidate Ann Callis, who was the former chief judge of the Madison County court in which they practice; however, she lost her bid for office.
In a two-year period around 2013-2014, Simmons personally contributed $489,000 to Democratic politicians in Illinois.
Among that $489,000 was:
Ford Motor Company’s appeal regarding a Madison County asbestos case will be heard by a court with two new justices that the plaintiffs' bar, which includes Simmons, attempted to keep off the bench. The Fair Courts Now campaign, mostly funded by local asbestos firms, failed to prevent Republican candidates James “Randy” Moore and John Barberis from becoming elected. The campaign was assembled about four weeks prior to the election resulting in $1,077,500 raised in contributions. Most of the campaign contributions came from local asbestos law firms, including $250,000 from the Simmons Firm in Alton, $235,000 from Gori Julian in Edwardsville, and $250,000 from Maune Raichle in St. Louis.