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Shawn K. Stevens, a member of the firm, defends and counsels clients nationwide in food-borne illness outbreaks and lawsuits.

During the past decade, Mr. Stevens has worked closely with numerous food industry clients (including one of the nation’s largest beef producers, national restaurant chains, and several food distributors and grocers) in the defense of high-profile food-borne illness claims in nearly 20 states throughout the country (including Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin).

In addition to defending high-profile outbreak litigation nationwide (including outbreaks and claims involving E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Clostridium Perfringens, Norovirus, Salmonella and Staphylococcus), Mr. Stevens also assists clients with litigation avoidance, crisis management and other issues in advance of and following major food product recalls.

Mr. Stevens also speaks regularly to national audiences on topics relating to the defense of food-borne illness outbreaks and claims.  Within the last year alone, Mr. Stevens has been asked to speak about emerging trends in food safety litigation and claims defense to a wide-variety of audiences throughout the country and abroad. These include annual conventions and events hosted by the following nationally recognized groups and organizations:

     1. North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP);
     2. Southwest Meat Association (SMA);
     3. Safe Quality Food Institute (SQF);
     4. Underwriters Laboratories - Global Food Safety (UL);
     5. American National Standards Institute - Global Food Safety (ANSI);
     6. National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST);
     7. Food Marketing Institute (FMI);
     8. American Conference Institute (ACI);
     9. Defense Research Institute (DRI);
   10. Center for Business Intelligence (CBI);
   11. 29th Annual Food Microbiology Symposium (FMS);
   12. Arkansas Public Health Association (APHA);
   13. Wisconsin Restaurant Association (WRA); and
   14. Numerous national insurance companies.

Mr. Stevens also maintains an extensive food safety website devoted exclusively to food safety issues, www.defendingfoodsafety.com, and comments regularly on emerging food safety litigation trends.

In addition to his extensive national food safety expertise, Mr. Stevens has also developed additional, wide-ranging civil litigation experience, defending clients in a wide-variety of personal injury, commercial, insurance, property, environmental, civil rights and medical malpractice disputes.

Mr. Stevens is also a member of the International Association for Food Protection, the Defense Research Institute, and the American Bar Association.  He is admitted to the United States District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Wisconsin, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, and the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Stevens received his undergraduate and Honors Degree, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Mr. Stevens earned his law degree, cum laude, from Marquette University Law School where he served as article editor for the Law Review, and authored “The Wisconsin Deadman’s Statute: The Last Surviving Vestige of an Abandoned Common Law Rule.”

Prior to receiving his undergraduate and law degrees, Mr. Stevens also served as a Cavalry Scout for three years in the United States Army.  During this period, he was deployed to Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope.  Following active service, Mr. Stevens joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard where he served part-time, until 2001, concluding ten years of military service at the rank of staff-sergeant.  In addition to his military service, Mr. Stevens has remained active in his community as well, serving for nearly a decade as an elected representative on a local village board, and chairing various local community groups.