Stephen Mudge

Stephen C. Mudge has been practicing trial law for 46 years. Mr. Mudge was born and raised in Madison County and comes from a long line of attorneys who have practiced law for more than 100 years. Mr. Mudge has extensive trial practice and has tried a wide variety of jury and non-jury cases. He has tried all types of personal injury cases including wrongful death, brain injury, and other catastrophic injuries, resulting in no liability or low damage verdict.

Noel Smith

Noel Smith is an attorney with over 20 years of courtroom experience in Illinois and Missouri. His practice primarily focuses on toxic tort defense and general civil defense litigation. Noel’s experience includes significant court appearances, including jury trial experience, in St. Louis, the St. Louis Metro area in the Illinois counties of Madison and St. Clair, and various other counties in Southern Illinois.

Michael Hobin

Michael Hobin is a partner in the firm. Michael has tried over twenty civil jury trials to verdict in the Illinois counties of Madison, St. Clair, Jersey, Randolph, Marion and Fayette, in addition to a civil rights action in federal court. Michael has successfully argued before the 5th District Appellate Court of Illinois. He has also been retained by local attorneys to mediate cases.

Michael Margherio

Mr. Margherio primarily practices in the area of Workers’ Compensation defense, although he also does work in the areas of Insurance Law and the defense of liability cases in the state and federal courts. He represents insurers and self insured employers on Workers’ Compensation cases in the St. Louis area and the eastern half of Missouri, including Hannibal, Cape Girardeau, Rolla, Jefferson City, Farmington, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff.

James Defranco

James E. DeFranco has concentrated his practice on the defense of civil claims. He has tried over 100 jury trials to verdict in state and federal courts in Illinois and Missouri, including traumatic brain injury, commercial arson, wrongful death, and catastrophic injury cases. He holds the rank of Diplomate with the American Board of Trial Advocates and was the president of the Missouri/Southern Illinois Chapter in 2016.

Scott Bjorseth

Scott Bjorseth is a partner in the firm. He has over 25 years of courtroom experience and an active litigation practice in both Missouri and Illinois state and federal courts. He has tried dozens of civil cases to verdict throughout the St. Louis metro area and Southern Illinois.

Brian McChesney

Brian is a partner in the St. Louis office of Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch & Champion, an experienced trial attorney with 30+ years of experience handling complex personal injury and wrongful death litigation, including automobile and commercial trucking accidents, fire and explosion cause and origin cases, construction and industrial accidents, defective and dangerous products, premises liability cases, and amusement park ride accidents.

Jeff Suess

Jeff Suess is a founding partner and managing partner of the firm. He is a Martindale-Hubbell AV rated attorney with 30 years of courtroom and alternative dispute resolution experience.

Sam Rynearson

Sam Rynearson is a founding partner of the firm. He has over 47 years of trial experience in the area of civil litigation, primarily in the representation of the insurance industry. Mr. Rynearson handles litigation in the state and federal courts of Missouri. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has been recognized as a Missouri Super Lawyer for many years.