Headquarters | Crown Center Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
---|---|
No. of offices | 17 |
No. of attorneys | 500+ |
No. of employees | 1,400 |
Major practice areas | Product liability, tort, business litigation, intellectual property, environmental and toxic tort, labor, and employment |
Key people | Madeleine M. McDonough, Chair [1] |
Revenue | $353.52 M (2019) [2] |
Date founded | 1889 |
Founder | Frank P. Sebree [3] |
Company type | Limited liability partnership |
Website | shb |
Shook, Hardy & Bacon (SHB), L.L.P. (previously Shook, Hardy, Ottman, Mitchell and Bacon) is a U.S. law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2012, The National Law Journal ranked the firm as the 87th largest in the United States. [4] The firm has offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston. [5]
The firm is notable for its representation of five of the six major U.S. tobacco companies, and for its involvement in hiding the health risks of tobacco. [6] [7] The firm inspired the fictional firm of Smoot, Hawking in the satirical novel Thank You for Smoking. [7]
SHB also has represented pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Company, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Guidant, and Wyeth. [3] In 2007, Shook won a $69.5 million verdict on behalf of client Sprint Nextel, against Vonage. [8] William H. Colby, an attorney at the firm, represented Nancy Cruzan (by way of her parents) in the right-to-die case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health , as part of Shook's pro bono work. [9]
The firm has represented five of the six major U.S. tobacco companies: American Brands, Brown & Williamson, RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris Inc. (now Altria Group) and Loews Inc.; a 1992 New York Times article about the firm is titled "'Tobacco' Its Middle Name, Law Firm Thrives, for Now". [6]
In 1992, a federal judge all but accused the firm of orchestrating fraud on behalf of the tobacco industry and exerting attorney–client privilege to hide facts about tobacco's health hazards during the 1960s and 1970s. [6]
According to Brown & Williamson whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, SHB coached staff at the tobacco company on language that downplayed the health risks of tobacco. [10]
In 2019, the firm launched its cannabis practice to address regulatory, employment, and litigation matters. [11]
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes. Its former vice-president of research and development, Jeffrey Wigand, was the whistleblower in an investigation conducted by CBS news program 60 Minutes, an event that was dramatized in the film The Insider (1999). Wigand claimed that B&W had introduced chemicals such as ammonia into cigarettes to increase nicotine delivery and increase addictiveness.
A vaporizer or vaporiser, colloquially known as a vape, is a device used to vaporize substances for inhalation. Plant substances can be used, commonly cannabis, tobacco, or other herbs or blends of essential oil. However, they are most commonly filled with a combination propylene glycol, glycerin, and drugs such as nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol as a liquid solution.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.
The British Lung Foundation (BLF) is a British charity that promotes lung health and supports those affected by lung disease.
The economy of the Kansas City metropolitan area is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri, which is the largest city in the state and the 37th largest in the United States. The Kansas City metropolitan area is the 27th largest in the United States, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 population estimates. The metro's economy is large and influential to its region.
Cannabis smoking is the inhalation of smoke or vapor released by heating the flowers, leaves, or extracts of cannabis and releasing the main psychoactive chemical, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs. Archaeological evidence indicates cannabis with high levels of THC was being smoked at least 2,500 years ago. As of 2021, cannabis is the most commonly consumed federally illegal drug in the United States, with 36.4 million people consuming it monthly.
Jolie L. Justus is an American lawyer and politician from Missouri. A Democrat, she was a member of the Missouri State Senate representing the 10th Senatorial District in Kansas City, serving as the Missouri Senate Minority Leader in her final two years.
A menthol cigarette is a cigarette infused with the compound menthol which imparts a “minty” flavor to the smoke. Menthol also decreases irritant sensations from nicotine by desensitizing receptors, making smoking feel less harsh compared to regular cigarettes. Some studies have suggested that they are more addictive. Menthol cigarettes are just as hard to quit and are just as harmful as regular cigarettes.
One Montgomery Tower, part of the Post Montgomery Center complex, is an office skyscraper located at the northeast corner of Post and Kearny Streets in the financial district of San Francisco, California. The 500-foot (150-meter), 38-story tower was completed in 1982, and is connected to the Crocker Galleria mall. It houses around 2,500 office workers.
The smoking age is the minimum legal age required to purchase or use tobacco or cannabis products. Most countries have laws that forbid sale of tobacco products to persons younger than certain ages, usually the age of majority.
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.
Health in Vietnam encompasses general and specific concerns to the region, its history, and various socioeconomic status, such as dealing with malnutrition, effects of Agent Orange as well as psychological issues from the Vietnam War, tropical diseases, and other issues such as underdeveloped healthcare systems or inadequate ratio of healthcare or social workers to patients.
100 North Tampa, formerly known as the Regions Building and the AmSouth Building, is a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, USA. Rising to a height of 579 feet (176 m) and 42 floors in Downtown Tampa, the structure currently stands as the tallest building in Tampa and the twenty-sixth-tallest building in Florida. 100 North Tampa was designed by the HKS, Inc. architectural firm, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The building, an example of postmodern architecture, holds offices for Regions Bank, the American International Group, Yara, North America, KPMG, and law firm Holland & Knight.
Tobacco politics refers to the politics surrounding the use and distribution of tobacco.
The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in the Americas in shamanistic rituals. With the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the consumption, cultivation, and trading of tobacco quickly spread. The modernization of farming equipment and manufacturing increased the availability of cigarettes following the reconstruction era in the United States. Mass production quickly expanded the scope of consumption, which grew until the scientific controversies of the 1960s, and condemnation in the 1980s.
Steven C. Parrish is a C-Suite executive consultant, American lawyer, Chair Safe Horizon, and community volunteer. Until 2008, he was an executive for Altria Group Inc. where he was a Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs.
SmokinginCanada is banned in indoor public spaces, public transit facilities and workplaces, by all territories and provinces, and by the federal government. As of 2010, legislation banning smoking within each of these jurisdictions is mostly consistent, despite the separate development of legislation by each jurisdiction. Notable variations between the jurisdictions include: whether, and in what circumstances ventilated smoking rooms are permitted; whether, and up to what distance away from a building is smoking banned outside of a building; and, whether smoking is banned in private vehicles occupied by children.
Tobacco policy in Armenia is the attempt by the Armenian authorities to regulate smoking in Armenia. Tobacco laws and regulations are controlled by the Ministry of Health of Armenia. Armenian men tend to be the most common tobacco users, as 42.5% of men over the age of 15 smoke.
The minimum purchasing age for tobacco in the United States before 2022 varied by state and territory. Since December 20, 2019, the smoking age in all states and territories is 21 after federal law was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.
The drug policy of Missouri involves the policies, measures and laws set by Missouri Senate and the Missouri House of Representatives in order to stop citizens from misusing drugs.