St. Louis firm Thompson Coburn’s southern headquarters accompany its DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles locations, but the firm’s reach extends nationally. Its high-profile client list includes AT&T, Chrysler Group LLC, Bunge North America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, ExxonMobil
Marmon Group, Monsanto, Research In Motion, Scottrade, Trans Union, Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

A Tale of Two Mergers

Thompson Coburn is a product of two mergers. The firm was initially founded in 1996 when St. Louis firms Thompson & Mitchell and Coburn & Croft merged. Thompson Coburn again found itself part of a merger in July 2007 when it merged with Chicago firm Fagel Herber. Post-mergers, Thompson Coburn became one of the largest firms in the country, ranking in the AmLaw 250, with locations in the nation’s capital and in Southern Illinois in addition to Chicago and its St. Louis headquarters.

Being named to lists like Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers is standard for Thompson Coburn attorneys, and in 2010, five were finalists in Lawdragon’s Leading Lawyers in America guide. Thompson Coburn has also made a name as a favorable place for a young attorney to launch his or her career; the firm is home to 33 Rising Stars of 2011 andthree “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch” and has snagged one of the top 10 spots in American Lawyer’s Midlevel Associates Survey five years consecutively. The firm itself does well in surveys, having ranked in BTI Consulting Group’s 2011 “Client Service 30” list in the Group’s Client Service A-Team survey and its Real Estate group ranking second in Midwest Real Estate News’s Best of the Best Survey.

Attracting U.S. Senators

Thompson Coburn managed to lure esteemed, longtime U.S. Senator and the record holder for the youngest Missouri senator, Kit Bond, away from retirement. Bond, a Thompson Coburn partner, works in the firm’s international trade, biotechnology, cyberlaw and agriculture practices and has spearheaded initiatives to boost the St. Louis economy such as rare earth ore mining in Missouri and bringing cargo flights through Chinese airlines to Labert-St. Louis International Airport.

Religious Liberty Defenders in the Supreme Court

Thompson Coburn represented the Hosanna-Tabor church in the widely-covered, news-making Supreme Court case Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, et al. In the religious liberty case, a Hosanna-Tabor teacher and minister was fired after seeking legal action against the school, alleging that she had been the target of employment disability discrimination. Though the teacher claimed she had been fired for spending more time teaching secular subjects than religious doctrine, Thompson Coburn argued that she had been let go for seeking legal action rather than trying to sort out her claim within the church. The Supreme Court upheld a “ministerial exception,” declaring in favor of Hosanna-Tabor on January 13, 2012 that under the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment, the government could not interfere with a church’s choice of minister.

An Allied Firm

Thompson Coburn achieved a perfect score in both the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Index and Best Places to Work survey for three years consecutively. Thompson Coburn pro bono partnered with American Civil Liberties Union to achieve a U.S. District Court federal ruling prohibiting a Missouri school district for continuing use of an Internet filter which censored websites positive to the LGBT community.

Thomas F. Eagleton Scholarship

Thomas Coburn sponsors the Thomas F. Eagleton Scholarship, which is awarded to a minority law student attending Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Missouri-Columbia or the University of Illinois-Champaign, in memory of late U.S. Senator and firm partner Thomas F. Eagleton. The Scholarship provides not only law school funds but also a post-1L summer paid internship and a full year of mentoring from a firm partner.