Biography: Product Liability Defence

Bill Sampson is a partner at Shook Hardy & Bacon. He has tried more than 80 jury trials in military, federal and state courts, and has taught more than 100 programmes on trial practice, litigation strategy and legal writing for professional associations, law schools and law firms.

Mr Sampson has defended product liability claims in state and federal courts throughout the United States, both as national coordinating counsel for industry-wide claims and in high visibility individual actions. In 2010, Mr Sampson appeared before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and successfully opposed centralisation of nationwide domestic drywall cases. See J Zeveloff, 7 Tips For Maximizing Your Time Before The JPML, Law 360, September 2010.

Mr Sampson is a member of DRI, which he served as national president between 2003 and 2004. He is a member of and previously served on the national board of directors for the American Board of Trial Advocates. He is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, served on the faculty of its trial academy, and is a member of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He was president of the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence and remains on its board. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in three categories: Bet the Company Litigation, Product Liability, and Commercial Litigation. He is listed in Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, and Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America's Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys. Mr Sampson is recognised as a "Super Lawyer" for business litigation in Missouri and Kansas.

Mr Sampson is admitted to practise before the state courts of Kansas and Missouri, the US District Courts for the District of Kansas and the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri and the US Courts of Appeal for the Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits.

A Distinguished Graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law, Mr Sampson is the author of Kansas Trial Handbook, published in 1997 by Thomson/West and supplemented or revised annually since then.