Prairie Village, KS

Debbie Champion

Debbie Champion is a founding partner in the firm Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch and Champion, one of the largest law firms in Missouri. Ms. Champion actively practices in Missouri and Southern Illinois state and federal courts. She has argued before the Missouri Supreme Court and the Eastern, Western and Southern District Missouri Courts of Appeals, and the Illinois Court of Appeals. She has also argued in the federal court of the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the Eighth Circuit and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. She is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. She has tried over 160 trials to verdict. Ms. Champion has been named to the top 50 attorneys in St Louis and the top 100 attorneys in Missouri. She honored by the St. Louis Small Business Magazine as a “Wonder Woman” and by the St Louis Business Journal as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Business Women in St. Louis. She was selected to the Best Business Attorneys by the Small Business Journal in 2023. She a 100 St. Louis Titans in Business for 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Champion received the Award of Honor, the highest honor possible from the Lawyer’s Association of St. Louis. Champion has been selected to the Best Lawyers in America. She appears on the Best Lawyers lists in five areas: Personal Injury Litigation-Defendants, Insurance Law, Government Relations, Litigation-Insurance, and Ethics. She is currently the Lawyer of the Year in Missouri for Personal Injury-Defense. She was 2020 Lawyer of the Year for Missouri in Litigation-Insurance. She appears in the America’s Top 100 Attorneys List and received the Lawyer’s Lawyer Award by the Women’s Justice Awards. Champion is an “Acritis Star”. She is on the Power 30 list of Civil Defense Attorneys-an award recognizing the 30 most powerful civil defense attorneys in the state. Champion is a Senior Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America, and a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. For several years, Ms. Champion has been named as one of the top 50 Women Lawyers in Missouri and Kansas. She achieved the most Defense Verdicts in Missouri in 2012 and 2013 and one of the largest Defense Wins in 2011 and 2019. In 2016, Champion received an award for Outstanding Litigation Practitioner by the Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly’s Women Justice Awards. She was honored as one of Ten Outstanding Young St. Louisans by the St. Louis Junior Chamber of Commerce. She is rated as Superb on AVVO.com. In 2013, she received the CLMP certification as a certified litigation management professional from her study at the Columbia School of Law in New York. In addition to her heavy trial calendar and office responsibilities at the firm, Ms. Champion devotes many hours to community and charitable causes, and she actively provides legal services to the indigent. She is a recipient of the William McAlpin Pro Bono Award, an Outstanding Volunteer Award from Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, and the Missouri Pro Bono Publico Award from the Missouri Bar Association. She was recently honored by the Women’s Law Caucus of Washington University for her commitment to the advancement of women in the law. She was selected as an Outstanding Young Alumni of Washington University in 2012. She was awarded the Peter Perlman Award for 2019 for the Litigation Counsel of America, an award highlighting a career of community service. Ms. Champion serves on the Board of Lift for Life Academy, the first charter school in the City of St. Louis. She is founder and president of Tools for Schools, a not-for-profit corporation which provides stipends to public school teachers who strive to provide enrichment to their classrooms. She has served on numerous boards for business entities and non-profit companies in the St. Louis area. Ms. Champion serves as an expert witness on insurance bad faith and vexatious refusal to pay cases. She has authored several published articles and book chapters. She often presents educational seminars to clients and to the legal community, including several annual conference presentations to industry groups each year. Ms. Champion is an Advocate member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a national association of experienced trial lawyers and judges dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial. She is a member of the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance. She is a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation, and she is proud to be a Master in the Theodore McMillian Inns of Court.

Scott K. Logan

Scott Logan has over 30 years of experience in litigation and trial work, specializing in the defense of professional malpractice cases. He has been lead counsel in over 100 jury trials and is a frequent mediator for personal injury cases.

M. Bradley Watson

Brad Watson began his legal career as a prosecutor, handling 35 jury trials. Since joining Logan & Logan in 1989, he has focused on defending medical malpractice cases and small businesses, trying over 30 civil cases. He also serves as a municipal court judge.

Sam Rynearson

Sam Rynearson is a founding partner of the firm. He has over 47 years of trial experience in the area of civil litigation, primarily in the representation of the insurance industry. Mr. Rynearson handles litigation in the state and federal courts of Missouri. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has been recognized as a Missouri Super Lawyer for many years. Mr. Rynearson has been honored by “Best Lawyers in America” and he has been named by St. Louis Magazine as one of the Top Attorneys in the St. Louis area. He is a Fellow in Litigation Counsel of America and is a Member of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC). Mr. Rynearson is a past President of the Association of Defense Counsel of St. Louis. He served as Chairperson of the Products, General Liability and Consumer Law Committee, Tort & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association in 1986-1987. He is a former Editor of the Product Liability Newsletter of the Committee. Mr. Rynearson has lectured on topics including insurance coverage matters, bad faith failure to settle, The Federal Rules of Evidence, Comparative Fault, Cross-examination Techniques and Use of Expert Accident Reconstruction Evidence. He is the Author of Exclusion of Expected or Intended Injuries and Damages in CGL policies published by the Forum of the American Bar Tort Insurance Practice Section, and in the National Review of Insurance Law. Mr. Rynearson is a licensed pilot who holds an instrument rating. He enjoys travel, reading and fishing.

Jeff K. Brown

Jeff K. Brown has nearly three decades of experience as lead counsel in complex professional liability litigation across Kansas and Missouri, primarily defending healthcare providers against medical negligence claims. He is known for his strategic approach and deep industry knowledge.

Jeff Suess

Jeff Suess is a founding partner and managing partner of the firm. He is a Martindale-Hubbell AV rated attorney with 30 years of courtroom and alternative dispute resolution experience. Mr. Suess maintains an active litigation practice in both Missouri and Illinois where he has tried over 120 cases to verdict. He has tried cases in both state and federal courts and practices before all levels of Appellate courts in Missouri and the Federal Fifth and Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Suess is a Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated attorney and has been recognized as a Missouri Super Lawyer since 2011. He was licensed in Missouri in 1985 and in Illinois in 1986. He spent the first 15 years of his legal career as a litigator with Evans & Dixon in St. Louis, Missouri. While in law school, he clerked for the Honorable David Noce, U.S. Magistrate in 1985. He has served as a Special Representative of the Twenty-Second Judicial Bar Committee for the Missouri Bar Association. He has contributed to the updating of the Missouri Bar CLE Book on Civil Procedure and he drafted the manual, Basic Consideration and Rules for the Handling of Missouri Cases. Mr. Suess lectures regularly to bar and client groups on various topics including automobile, premises liability, and construction defect Issues, the handling of liens and subrogation interests, and insurance coverage matters. He has served on the Missouri Bar Committee on Civil Procedure and as an ethics investigator for the Missouri Bar. He presently serves on the steering committee for the Trial Tactics section of the DRI and is the liaison between the Trial Tactics and Construction Committees of the DRI. Mr. Suess is an avid soccer player and fan of the St. Louis Blues Hockey Team. He enjoys golf, travel and literature. He is the father of four active children and takes great pride in his family.

Ashley Ricket

Ashley Ricket is the founding member of Ricket Law Firm. She has handled hundreds of nursing home abuse and medical malpractice cases, focusing on personal injury litigation. She has litigated cases in state and federal courts in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas, as well as the Federal Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court of Missouri, and the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri. Ashley has received numerous awards including the Rising Star Award at the Women’s Justice Awards, recognition as an 'Up & Coming' attorney by Missouri Lawyers Weekly, and inclusion in the National Trial Lawyers Association Top 40 Under 40 list. She has also been named to Kansas City Business Journal’s Best of the Bar and Super Lawyers for Missouri and Kansas. Ashley is licensed to practice in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas.