Simmons Hanly Conroy shareholder named one of nation’s ‘Outstanding Women Lawyers’
From Illinois Business Journal news services
NEW YORK – Simmons Hanly Conroy, one of the nation’s largest mass torts firms and based in Alton, has announced that the firm’s named shareholder Jayne Conroy has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers.”
The national legal publication recently honored 75 women lawyers from around the country for their development of successful practices, appointment to leadership roles, victories at trial and setting precedents, pro bono work and more.
“Jayne has developed a distinguished legal career representing clients in multidistrict litigations across the country,” said Simmons Hanly Conroy Shareholder Paul Hanly. “My colleagues and I have long counted her as one of the best lawyers in the country.”
The women honored represent the “most accomplished female attorneys working in the legal profession today,” according to the publication. NLJ reporters and researchers reviewed the nominations to arrive at the top 75 women, including Conroy (left).
Conroy’s 30-year law career is a case study of some of the most important litigation in the past three decades. The high profile cases she has litigated include the Toyota unintended acceleration controversy, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, sex abuse in Catholic institutions and more. In addition, she has been appointed as a member of plaintiffs’ steering or executive committees in nearly a dozen multidistrict complex litigations.
Most recently, Conroy was appointed in January to the plaintiff’s executive committee in the In re: Syngenta AG MIR162 Corn Litigation, MDL 2591 in the U.S. District Court of Kansas. The MDL involves more than 360 lawsuits filed in eight different districts against Syngenta, the world’s largest crop chemicals company. The action concerns the economic impact from contamination of the U.S. corn supply with a type of genetically modified corn from Syngenta that is banned in China.
Since 2006, Conroy has secured more than $500 million specifically for her own clients. She also has worked on securing global settlement amounts for countless others through her MDL work, including:
— $1.6 billion global settlement for Toyota Unintended Acceleration MDL;
— $1.69 billion settlement of Yaz MDL;
— $299 million global settlement for Chantix MDL;
— Multiple billions of dollars in claims paid by BP Oil to businesses and individuals harmed by the
— Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill;
–Hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for families and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy; and
–$12 million settlement in Catholic institutions sex abuse case.
Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC now has 70 attorneys in six offices across the country.
