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Katelyn Egger | SBJ

A Conversation With ... J. Taylor White

Partner, Kutak Rock LLP

Posted online

You were promoted to partner at the beginning of the year. What's your background and how did that bring you to Kutak Rock?
I grew up in the Bootheel, went to college at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri, knew I wanted to go to law school but didn't have any lawyers in the family. I didn't know exactly how that process worked other than try to make the best grades that I could. Had the opportunity to play baseball there, which was excellent, but I was never going to be a Major League Baseball player, so I applied to numerous schools. I ended up at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. During my time in law school, I came up here and interviewed with most of the same group of attorneys, although we've had some folks leave for in-house positions or most recently to become a judge. I interviewed for a summer clerkship position in 2012 and worked in the summer in 2012 and 2013 and then was offered a position as an associate, a full-time position. That was with Lathrop Gage. I was an associate here in 2018 whenever the large bulk of the group of attorneys we have here left Lathrop Gage and helped start the Kutak Rock office here in Springfield.

Kutak Rock is not a new firm, but it’s newer to the market. What’s it like to open a new office?
It's difficult because it's brand recognition, just like any other industry. Really, it's about making sure that we highlight our attorneys in this local office, build client relationships and you hope the firm matters, at times, less than the individual attorneys. People in the community may know who some of our partners are here but may not have as much familiarity with Kutak Rock because it is relatively new to Springfield. Our goal is to be the premier law firm locally. There are lots of businesses here locally that don't just do business in Springfield, they do business on a nationwide scale, and we're the type of firm that can help them with both areas.

How did the pandemic impact litigation?
Litigation slowed down pretty drastically. It probably has some to do with market challenges. We have seen (litigation) pick up recently. The way that we are conducting trials and hearings has been the biggest change. Instead of traveling for depositions or instead of having expert witnesses flying from across the country, what we're seeing is that people and juries, in particular, seem to be more comfortable with witnesses appearing remotely. It can be more cost effective, however, you never know and it's part of my job as the attorney trying to assess what is going to resonate with the jury or what is going to resonate with a judge. You ask these questions, but maybe you have a juror or maybe you have a judge that chose to believe someone more or less because they made the decision to appear remotely. The other thing that's happened relatively recently, the Missouri Supreme Court has created a Track (This) Case feature through Case.net. You don't have to be an attorney to get notifications on a specific case. I believe you get a notification the day after the attorney would that updates you on what happened in that case. It's an extra reminder as the attorney to make sure you're keeping your client abreast of any developments that are happening in their case because with the technological advances and with remote access and electronic access to case files now, you're seeing court decisions happening quicker on the whole and the public's access to information is certainly quicker.

What types of cases are you working on now or recently wrapped?
My practice, if I had to just boil it down, it's complex civil litigation. I've tried medical malpractice defense cases. I've had trials in both state court and federal court. Last year, our firm was hired to oppose the placement of Amendment 3 on the ballot. Amendment 3 was the legalization of marijuana, which passed, but we filed a lawsuit challenging the signature process. In recent years, I've had appeals with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, have submitted a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, which was the first time that I'd done that. The writ was denied, but it's not everyday that someone gets to submit something to the United States Supreme Court. I have numerous trials coming up the rest of the year. We've seen, here in this office, sort of an uptick in cases going to trial. The old adage is 99% of cases settle, and there's a good reason for that because litigation is not cheap. Now that our clients seem to be a little more comfortable, post-pandemic, understanding where they are, the decision-making process on the litigation side has changed a little bit. Ultimately for a lot of our clients, as with anything, it can become a business decision on whether it makes sense to spend the funds to litigate a matter or whether it makes sense to not do so, or whether it makes sense to settle a case. That calculus is constantly shifting with the economy.

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