Biography: Life Sciences

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Harvey Kaplan is a partner of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP in Kansas City, Missouri. He chairs the firm's pharmaceutical and medical device litigation division and has served as a member of its executive committee. Mr Kaplan is well known nationally and internationally for defending pharmaceutical companies. He has tried and won high-profile pharma cases in many jurisdictions, including Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. In addition, he has argued cases in the appellate courts of Missouri, Michigan and in the Fifth, Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Mr Kaplan is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the American Bar Foundation and Litigation Counsel of America. He has served on the board of directors of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) and the Defense Research Institute (DRI). He was also director of the IADC's Defense Counsel Trial Academy; co-chair of the DRI Corporate Counsel Roundtable; and he has been at the forefront of launching DRI Europe.

In 2009, Mr Kaplan was named by Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers as Global Product Liability Lawyer of the Year for the second consecutive year; and he was also selected as the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyer for 2009 by The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers. He was also featured in The American Lawyer where SHB was selected as the 2008 Product Liability Litigation Department of the Year and as a finalist for the 2010 Product Liability Litigation Department of the Year; and he was also featured in a profile of SHB in the October 2008 ABA Journal.

He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (nominated for 2007 Chambers Award for Excellence in Product Liability Litigation), The Legal 500 United States, Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (recognised as one of the most highly regarded product liability lawyers globally), Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Product Liability Defence Lawyers (most highly nominated lawyer; described as 'incredibly skilled' and an 'industry leader'), Lawdragon: The 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Lawdragon: The 500 Leading Litigators in America, Benchmark Litigation (named as a National Star for Products Liability), The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers, Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Commercial Litigators, Who's Who Legal: The International Who's Who of Life Sciences Lawyers, Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers (named to the Top Ten for four consecutive years), PLC Which lawyer? Yearbook, PLC Life Sciences Handbook, PLC Dispute Resolution Handbook and The Kansas City Business Journal 'Best of the Bar'.

Mr Kaplan is admitted to practise before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, the United States Tax Court, the Missouri Supreme Court and the federal courts of Missouri, Kansas, Arizona and Nebraska.