Public Policy Lawyers

At Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P. (SHB), we meet modern legal challenges with more than 25 years of experience in complex litigation, government affairs and media relations. Our SHB Public Policy Practice has perhaps the most comprehensive approach to cutting-edge liability law issues in the industry. Our public policy lawyers handle contentious cases on a nationwide basis by utilizing traditional advocacy and innovative defense strategies. Not content to merely litigate, our public policy lawyers actively pursue civil justice reform. With a reputation for dynamic problem-solving and counseling excellence among our peers, legislators and government regulators, our public policy lawyers supplement their trial expertise with an emphasis on the following:

• Litigation prevention counseling
• Legislative tort reform
• Amicus work
• Media outreach
• Legal scholarship

With access to the firm’s arsenal of established practitioners, our public policy lawyers are able to provide our clients with customized, cost-effective solutions.

Led by co-chairs and public policy lawyers Victor Schwartz and Mark Behrens, the ranks of the SHB Public Policy Practice include nationally-recognized product liability experts, veteran litigators and former faculty at prominent law schools. Mr. Schwartz currently co-authors the nation’s leading torts casebook, Prosser, Wade & Schwartz’s Torts (11th ed. 2005), as well as the principle text on the subject, Comparative Fault (3d ed. 2004). Mr. Schwartz previously chaired the federal government’s Interagency Task Force on Product Liability and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Interagency Task Force on Insurance and Accident Compensation. For this latter service, he received the Secretary of Commerce’s Medal of Excellence. He is the only defense attorney in the United States to sit on the advisory committees of all three American Law Institute Restatement (Third) of Torts projects: Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability and General Principles.

Mr. Behrens has published numerous articles on tort issues in leading national journals and has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the National Law Journal and the Journal of Commerce. His professional honors include a Burton Award for Legal Achievement in recognition of his writing and an award from several national organizations for major research contributing to civil justice reform. In addition, Washingtonian magazine has listed Mr. Behrens as of the “top lawyers” in the District of Columbia and Business Insurance named him to its 2004 “40 under 40” list. Mr. Behrens also acts as co-chair of the Federalist Society’s Tort and Product Liability Subcommittee; counsel to the Coalition for Litigation Justice; and advisor to the American Legislative Exchange Counsel’s (ALEC) Civil Justice Task Force. He is currently a member of The American Law Institute, Product Liability Advisory Counsel, Inc. and the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.

Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Behrens are joined by Cary Silverman, Phil Goldberg and Chris Appel. Together this team offers clients the complete package in litigation defense, civil justice reform and public relations.

The credentials of our public policy lawyers speak for themselves, but their dedication to our clients makes them truly outstanding attorneys. Contact us today for more information about our public policy lawyers.