When Chris Hohn joined the management and executive committee at Thompson Coburn law firm ten years ago, he became more involved not only in the litigation department but also the firm-at-large.
“The more involved I was, the more interested I became in really giving back to the firm that had given me so much over my career,” he said. “It was a gradual interest I developed in wanting to continue to help the firm in a different way.”
After serving as chair of the litigation department, Hohn, 53, was elected chair of the firm effective August 2024. He started as a summer associate in 1995 and was promoted to partner in 2004.
“I still serve clients here at the law firm, and I really enjoy that part of my practice, but I also really enjoy serving my partners and helping ensure that this place remains a great platform for people to spend their entire careers,” Hohn told the St. Louis Record.
Because the Thompson Coburn law firm is collaborative, it's the management committee that elects the chair of the firm.
“We do things by consensus at the management committee level,” Hohn said in an interview. “We’re very focused on growing in all our markets. So, we're engaged right now in a strategic effort to increase the number of attorneys we have in each of our offices in the practice groups that are really strong for us and that are our core strength.”
The firm services clients nationwide and internationally at offices located not only in St. Louis but also Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Southern Illinois, and Washington, D.C.
Practice areas include tort, commercial litigation, contractual disputes, defending class action cases, intellectual property, and employment.
“Our labor and employment group are in arbitration or in trial quite frequently,” Hohn said. “You'll see us trying product liability cases in the St Louis metro area and outside. Our commercial litigation group is about half our litigation department and that group tries all different kinds of cases, whether it’s white collar or business-to-business disputes.”
In addition to electing Hohn chair of the firm, members of the management and executive committee also selected Adrienne Clair in the D.C. office to serve on the executive committee, Laura Jordan in St. Louis as co-chair of the litigation department, and Jarrod Sharp in St. Louis to serve on the management committee.
"This is a law firm that I love, and I find myself being able to lead the firm into the next phase as part of the next generation of leadership," Hohn added. "I'm truly very excited about the opportunity to do that."