Conner, Heather

For nearly 20 years, Jay has partnered with his clients to provide quality legal advice that is responsive, strategic and efficient. He focuses his practice on litigation, representing a number of Fortune 1000 companies in product liability, complex commercial, environmental and intellectual property matters.

Jay never forgets that his client’s legal decisions are, first and foremost, business decisions. He works diligently to understand how each company is unique – its people, its history, its products, its processes and its markets. In some instances this means visiting clients on his own time, serving on internal client Six Sigma teams or walking the manufacturing line (or field, or laboratory) to ensure he understands and represents each client in a way that is consistent with its business strategy and core values.

Jay delivers bottom-line value to his clients by using many strategies responsive to his various clients’ needs. He regularly utilizes lean staffing on his matters, with a hand-picked team of associates, paralegals and, when necessary, partners with specialized knowledge to get the job done. He incorporates creative cutting-edge uses of technology and knowledge-sharing to more effectively and efficiently represent his clients. Furthermore, Jay is experienced in structuring alternative fees for litigation and transactional matters.

He has handled a wide-range of multi million-dollar and “bet the company” matters for clients over the years. Although trained to resolve disputes before a jury, Jay knows that often a decisive, favorable dismissal of an opponent’s claims often serves the client better than a drawn out jury trial. He currently serves as:

• Regional counsel in over a dozen states for product liability and commercial litigation for an international equipment manufacturer;
• National counsel to an international agribusiness company on contracts, strategy, technology and national and international seed issues;
• Regional counsel for one of the world’s leading hotel chains in tort matters;
• General counsel to an agribusiness technology association, providing guidance on start-ups, technology transfer and commercial disputes; and
• Counsel for a financial institution regarding acquisitions and bet-the-company disputes.

His interests in technology trends and strategy have led Jay to teaching and lecturing on a variety of topics. Jay has taught Issues for the 21st Century at the University of Missouri Honors College for several years. He also participated in the National Security Forum at the USAF Air War College and exercises at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

As marketing partner for Lathrop & Gage, he helped launch the firm’s first formal client feedback program, the firm’s first national marketing strategy and the firm’s efforts to be in the forefront of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Value Challenge. He served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable John R. Gibson, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit from 1989-1990.