Heather concentrates her practice on defending tobacco manufacturers in individual and consolidated tort actions brought by plaintiffs in state and federal courts across the United States. She has experience in all phases of litigation including responsive pleadings, fact and expert discovery, evidentiary and substantive pretrial briefing, trial preparation and support, and post-trial and appellate briefing.
She has worked on the defense trial teams in cases such as United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., a civil RICO case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against the tobacco industry; City of St. Louis v. American Tobacco Co., a state court tobacco-cost recovery action that resulted in a full defense verdict from the jury; and In re: Tobacco Litigation, a multi-phase state court action consolidating the personal injury claims of hundreds of plaintiffs.
On behalf of a pro bono client, Heather co-authored an amicus brief that was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the majority opinion in the Court's 2010 landmark Second Amendment decision, McDonald v. Chicago.
Heather was recently selected for inclusion in the 2011 Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers® Rising Stars.