Attorneys

Todd M. McGuire was born and raised in Elgin, Illinois. In 1996, Todd received his B.A. in Rhetoric and Communications Studies from Drake University, summa cum laude, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa. In 1999, Todd obtained his J.D., with highest honors (graduating first in his class), from Drake. Todd served as Editor in Chief of the Drake Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif.

After graduating from law school, Todd began his legal career in the Kansas City office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, one of the largest law firms in the country, in the litigation department, specializing in antitrust, white collar criminal defense and commercial / business litigation. In October 2001, Todd joined Stueve Siegel Hanson, LLP. In January 2005, Todd was elected to the Firm's partnership as an equity partner.

Todd is a member of the American Bar Association, Lawyers' Association of Kansas City and Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Todd has been recognized as a philanthropic leader at Drake University through membership in the President's Circle. Todd is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Donald V. Adams Leadership Institute at Drake. Todd is on the Board of Directors of the Lawyers' Association of Kansas City.

TRIAL AND LITIGATION EXPERIENCE

Todd has successfully represented a variety of clients in complex civil and criminal matters at both the trial court and appellate levels. He has defended and/or prosecuted claims in the areas of Antitrust, ERISA, RICO, Contract Disputes, Environmental Contamination, Business Torts, White Collar Crime, Employment Discrimination, Wage and Hour Violations, Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith, Copyright Infringement and Class Actions. Todd is admitted to practice in federal and state courts in Missouri and Kansas as well as before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Todd has represented clients in Courts across the country including New York, Texas, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Missouri and Michigan.

The following cases are illustrative examples of Todd's trial and litigation experience:

In Heartland Surgical Specialty Hospital LLC v. Midwest Division, Inc. (Antitrust) Todd, along with his partners Pat Stueve and Norm Siegel, settled in February 2008, a landmark Sherman Act, Section 1 antitrust lawsuit brought against the largest Managed Care Organizations and Hospital Systems in Kansas City. Todd's client, Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital, a physician-owned acute care hospital in Overland Park, Kansas, claimed that the dominant hospital systems had conspired among themselves and with the dominant Managed Care Organizations to prevent Heartland from obtaining in-network provider contracts. Heartland also alleged the defendants tortiously interfered with Heartland's ability to obtain provider contracts. Settlements occurred with certain defendants at various times in the litigation. After the trial court denied defendants’ motions for summary judgment on Heartland's antitrust conspiracy claims and ruled that Heartland had a submissable damages case in excess of $140,000,000 in treble damages, settlements were reached with the remaining defendants and the case was resolved. The case was reported in Modern Healthcare and The National Law Journal as well as other leading health care and legal publications and was followed closely by national health care and antitrust experts. Several published decisions from the United States District Court for the District of Kansas chronicle the litigation and the significant legal issues addressed in this landmark case: Heartland Surgical Specialty Hospital LLC v. Midwest Division, Inc. d/b/a HCA Midwest Division, et al., Case No. 05-2164-MLB (D. Kan.).

In Trout v. Kansas City Life Insurance Company (Business Litigation), Todd, along with his partner Pat Stueve, successfully tried a multi-week jury trial in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri. The jury’s verdict was in favor of Todd’s client on his breach of contract claim in the amount of $500,000. The jury’s verdict was also in favor of Todd’s client on the defendant’s counterclaim. The Court subsequently awarded court courts and prejudgment interest, bringing the total judgment to in excess of $650,000. Prior to trial, Todd successfully opposed defendant’s efforts to compel the case to arbitration and secured favorable rulings from both the trial court and court of appeals in connection with those efforts.

In Horizon Holdings, LLC et al. v. Genmar Holdings, LLC et al. (Business Litigation), Todd, along with his partner George Hanson, secured a $2.58 million verdict in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas after a 2 week jury trial, which ranked in the area's top 10 verdicts in that year. The case involved claims for breach of a purchase agreement and employment contracts against the largest recreational boat manufacturer in the world. Following the jury's verdict, the Court awarded an additional $865,000 in attorneys' fees. At trial, Todd had responsibility for the direct and cross-examination of several witnesses, including Defendants' Chief Financial Officer and the President of one of Defendants' largest boat divisions. Todd also had primary responsibility for dispositive motion practice, including successful opposition to Defendants' summary judgment and post-judgment motions. Todd deposed several defense witnesses over months of extensive discovery and produced one of the three individual plaintiffs for his deposition. Todd also coordinated document discovery in the case, which included indexing and issue coding over 20,000 documents. Following the trial, Todd had primary responsibility for successfully defending the jury's verdict and the trial court's decisions on appeal to the Tenth Circuit. Ultimately, the entire judgment (totaling almost $3.6 million) was fully satisfied. Numerous reported decisions resulted from this litigation in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In United States v. Smigel, et al. (Antitrust / White Collar Criminal Defense), Todd, along with his partner Norm Siegel, obtained a not guilty verdict for the president of a metal building insulation company accused of criminal violations of the federal antitrust laws. Todd served as the second chair trial attorney for this 7 week jury trial in federal court in Houston, Texas, which involved more than 50 government and defense witnesses. Todd had responsibility for the direct and cross-examination of several witnesses at trial. Todd also took the lead on coordinating the extensive open file discovery in the case, which involved review, analysis and issue coding of over 1,400 boxes of documents obtained by the United States Department of Justice during a 5 year nationwide investigation into suspected price-fixing in the metal building insulation industry.

In O'Grady v. Aquila Merchant Services, Inc. (Employment Litigation), Todd, along with his partner George Hanson, successfully defended Aquila in a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought by a former employee asserting claims of breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation. After successfully having the case referred from state court to arbitration, the case was tried in a multi-day arbitration proceeding, which resulted in a full defense verdict on all claims. Todd had primary responsibility for the briefing seeking to compel arbitration, discovery in the litigation / arbitration, direct examination of Aquila's corporate representative at the arbitration, and post-arbitration briefing.

In Henry et al. v. The Dow Chemical Company (Environmental Contamination), Todd, along with his partner Norm Siegel, is currently representing a certified class of property owners in the Tittabawassee River flood plain against The Dow Chemical Company for contaminating the river and flood plain with dangerous amounts of dioxin. The legal theories of liability against Dow include negligence, public nuisance and private nuisance. Generally, the lawsuit seeks damages which will adequately and fully compensate all those who owned real property within the Tittabawassee River flood plain on February 1, 2002, including damages for lost property value and loss of use and enjoyment of property. Todd has had primary responsibility for briefing to the trial court, court of appeals and supreme court on the issue of class certification. The case is currently pending before the Michigan Supreme Court.

In Walker et al. v. Monsanto Company et al. (ERISA), Todd, along with his partner Norm Siegel, is currently representing a certified class of ERISA plan participants against Monsanto, Pharmacia and Solutia for violations of ERISA, including violation of ERISA’s prohibition against ceasing or reducing an employee’s benefit accrual because of the attainment of any age. Todd has had primary responsibility for briefing to the trial court on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment on the issue of liability. The case is currently pending before the United State District Court for the Southern District of Illinois and a decision on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment is expected this summer.

In Truck Insurance Exchange v. Prairie Framing, LLC, et al. (Insurance Coverage / Bad Faith), Todd played a significant role in defending before the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District a trial court's $5,775,000 judgment in favor of his clients in a wrongful death action and the trial court's summary judgment decision finding the insurer to have breached its duties to defend and indemnify and liable for acting in bad faith, as a matter of law, in not settling the claims. After over a year of having the case under advisement, the Missouri Court of Appeals in February, 2005 released its almost 50 page decision affirming in part and denying in part the trial court's decision: __ S.W.3d __, 2005 WL 350340 (Mo. App. W.D. 2005). The Court of Appeals affirmed the damages and summary judgment finding of breach of the duties to defend and indemnify, but remanded for a factual finding on the issue of bad faith refusal to settle. Upon remand, the case settled.

In Garner et al. v. Regis Corporation (Wage & Hour Violations / Employment Discrimination), Todd, along with his partner George Hanson, represented almost 1,300 current and former salon managers and stylists in a certified Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), "off the clock" case against Regis Corporation, the world's largest owner, operator, franchisor and acquirer of hair and retail product salons. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri and included class members from throughout the United States. The case was certified as an FLSA collective action in August, 2004. The Court concluded that the "evidence reveals that several Regional Managers and Area Supervisors instructed salon managers and stylists to work off the clock or not to record all hours in which the employees were on duty at the salon." Ultimately, a court-approved settlement in this case was reached in June, 2006.

In Multi-Media International, LLC v. PROMAG Retail Services, LLC (RICO / Business Torts), Todd, along with his partner Norm Siegel, defended a RICO and business tort action brought in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. Of particular significance, Todd had primary responsibility for briefing on a motion to dismiss the Complaint in which the Court was persuaded to overrule its own prior decision on an important issue of statutory interpretation concerning RICO's national service of process provision, 18 U.S.C. 1965(b). Todd also successfully persuaded the Court to dismiss the corporate defendant for failure state a RICO claim under 18 U.S.C. 1962(c) because of plaintiff's failure to allege a RICO enterprise distinct from the defendant persons. The Court's decision is reported at 343 F. Supp. 2d 1024 (D. Kan. 2004). In separate briefing, Todd also successfully persuaded the Court to deny plaintiff's motion to compel discovery. Shortly after these decisions, the case was dismissed by stipulation of the parties.

In American Central et al. v. Union Pacific Resources, et al. (Antitrust), Todd played a significant role in securing a favorable arbitration decision and trial court judgment in favor of Duke Energy Corporation in a major antitrust case in the natural gas gathering, processing and liquids pipeline industries. Todd had significant responsibility for the extensive motion practice in this case, which included successful briefing to compel arbitration of the primary antitrust claims, subsequent summary judgment briefing on the merits of other antitrust claims and Daubert challenges to various expert witnesses. Todd also had primary responsibility for the contemporaneous preparation of proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, which were presented to the arbitrator immediately upon the conclusion of a 2 week hearing. Todd was also extensively involved in the review and analysis of several thousand pages of document discovery and deposed several of plaintiffs' witnesses during the discovery phase of the case.

In United States v. McCarthy, et al. (RICO / White Collar Crime), Todd contributed substantially to the favorable resolution of a complex criminal case involving allegations of racketeering, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The case involved the largest criminal indictment ever brought in the Western District of Missouri. Todd had primary responsibility for the review and analysis of thousands of documents and FBI 302's that involved complex stock and real estate valuation issues and tracing of assets through multiple transactions involving multiple parties and corporate forms. Todd also had considerable responsibility for extensive research and drafting of several sections of a comprehensive motion to dismiss the indictment and other pre-trial motions attacking the government's case.

In Searchhound.com v. GlobalNet Financial.com (Contract Dispute), Todd played a significant role in securing a $125,000 award in a AAA international arbitration involving a commercial contract dispute concerning registration of securities. Todd prepared the case for the arbitration hearing, including the coordination of document discovery and witness interviews. Todd had primary responsibility for pre-arbitration and post-arbitration briefing, and successfully negotiated a post-arbitration settlement of the matter.

In Directory Services v. Walsworth (Contract Dispute / Shareholder Rights), Todd, along with his partner Pat Stueve, represented a minority shareholder sued by the controlling shareholders to rescind his 20% interest in a successful directory binding / printing business located in Nebraska. As part of the defense of the action, Todd and Pat successfully counterclaimed for an immediate and expedited accounting. The Court granted the request for the accounting, substantial document discovery ensued, which was followed by depositions of the controlling shareholders. Shortly thereafter, the matter was resolved and the case dismissed by stipulation of the parties.

In CertainTeed v. CIMA (Unfair Competition / Contract Dispute), Todd, along with Pat Stueve, defended the Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association in a declaratory judgment action raising false advertising claims under the Lanham Act and other unfair competition and contract issues. Todd had primary responsibility for pre-trial motion practice and investigation of the factual allegations. The case was dismissed by stipulation of the parties.