Partner Maureen Bryan is in part responsible for many of Missouri’s top ranking defense verdicts. A member of the firm’s award-winning Mass Tort and Catastrophic Loss practice area, she defends clients in litigation alleging catastrophic injuries as a result of medical malpractice, products liability and premises liability. In addition, she represents clients in matters involving the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and breach of protected health information, including conducting risk assessments, developing strategies to remedy data breaches, complying with notice and regulatory requirements, OCR investigations and reporting, and defending clients in resulting civil litigation locally and in class action lawsuits.

Experienced in all aspects of litigation, Maureen has tried cases to verdict in courts across the United States. Outside of the courtroom, Maureen’s experience includes hundreds of successful mediations and settlement negotiations throughout the nation. Before resolving a case, Maureen counsels clients through the complexities of case investigation, liability assessment, valuation and discovery. She also provides advice on methods to avoid litigation and steps to mitigate risk.

Maureen represents some of the nation’s largest hospital corporations, Fortune 500 companies, and physician groups in a broad range of claims that include catastrophic birth injuries, surgical complications, failure to diagnose or appropriately treat medical conditions, misdiagnosis of medical conditions, HIPAA violations, OCR investigations, protected health information data breaches, pharmaceutical and medical device products liability, as well as nonmedical products liability claims.

In addition, Maureen is Armstrong Teasdale’s General Counsel, responsible for protecting the firm’s legal interests, maintaining its operations within the scope established by law, and providing guidance on risk management and related liability issues. She also sits on the firm’s Executive Committee, which acts as a governing body, and previously served as leader of the firm’s Health Care and Life Sciences industry team.

Health Care Litigation

A wide range of health care clients, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, nurses, physicians and physician assistants turn to Maureen to defend medical malpractice cases. The matters she handles frequently concern:

• obstetric malpractice and birth injury
• traumatic brain and severe neurologic injuries
• wrongful death
• all aspects of medical care and all types of conditions, complications and injuries
• pharmaceuticals
• medical devices
• “never events”
• fraud
• hospital policy failures

Maureen also counsels clients on ways to reduce liability and minimize litigation costs. She provides advice on revisions to policies and procedures, consent forms, and other pertinent documents governing day-to-day operations.

Products Liability

Maureen defends clients in medical device, pharmaceutical, and nonmedical products liability claims. This area of her practice encompasses defending claims involving many different types of products including medical devices, medical implants, pharmaceuticals, baby formula, electronic and motorized products, and products causing electrocutions.

HIPAA /Data Breaches

Maureen’s experience includes investigating and defending matters arising out of HIPAA violations and protected health information data breaches. Maureen works with clients to analyze, develop and implement HIPAA compliant policies, procedures and programs. This includes providing advice about best practices, potential HIPAA and privacy exposure, and conducting in-house HIPAA and data breach training.

Personal Injury and Premises Liability

Maureen’s varied work includes defending clients against personal injury claims arising from the following: slips and falls at retailers, casinos and health care facilities; auto accidents; and explosions, electrocutions, and other events. She has also tried and resolved many cases involving premises liability claims, accidents, threats to public health, and injuries from the mishandling of products.