Law firm has locations in St. Louis, Nashville and Las Vegas for serving clients across the U.S.

ST. LOUIS, Mo.— A familiar name in St. Louis’s legal arena announces the establishment of a new law firm, Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, PLLC (SJ&G).

The formation of the new firm is part of a restructuring that consolidates the law practice of Hon. John (Jack) Garvey with longtime Nashville, Tennessee, partners James G. (Jim) Stranch III, J. Gerard Stranch IV and Jan Jennings, along with Las Vegas, Nevada, partner Nathan (Nate) Ring. 

Garvey leads SJ&G’s St. Louis location. Much of his 35-year career has included the private practice of law, during which he assumed a leadership position in Missouri’s opioid litigation, assisted in the agreement for allocation of opioid settlement funds, and also worked as local counsel in numerous mass tort and class action cases. In addition, Garvey served 18 years as a St. Louis Circuit Court judge, where he presided over 200 jury trials, and also served as the prosecuting attorney for the city of St. Louis and as a member of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen.

“We’re excited to announce the formation of Stranch, Jennings & Garvey as we restructure our previous firm,” Garvey says. “At our St. Louis location, we concentrate our practice on class action, mass tort, and litigation surrounding personal injury, product liability and trucking accidents. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients here in St. Louis and throughout the country.”

In private practice, Garvey has been involved as plaintiff’s co-counsel in the Paxil litigation of Orrick v. GlaxoSmithKline, St. Louis City Circuit #1322-CC00079; co-lead counsel in the opioid litigation of Jefferson County v. Williams, #20JE-CC00029; and local counsel in Roundup cases. 

In addition to his litigation work, he has been appointed several times as a special master on discovery matters by St. Louis city and county courts. Garvey was also appointed mediator by the circuit court in the case of the City of St. Louis v. National Football League and the Los Angeles Rams, having successfully negotiated a $790 million settlement for the plaintiffs in 2022.

Along with Jennings, the Stranches hail from a law legacy of more than seven decades that began when Jim Stranch’s father-in-law, Cecil Branstetter, founded Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, PLLC (BS&J) in Nashville. Across the years, BS&J advocated for society’s under-represented voices, consumer rights, labor unions and victims of discrimination across the U.S., a tradition that will continue at SJ&G.

A third-generation trial lawyer and managing partner for SJ&G, Gerard Stranch leads SJ&G’s class action, complex litigation and mass tort practice groups. His experience includes serving as lead or co-lead counsel for the firm in numerous cases, including:

• lead trial attorney in the Sullivan Baby Doe case (originally filed as Staubus v. Purdue) against U.S. opioid producers Endo Health Solutions Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., resulting in a $35 million settlement agreement, the largest per capita settlement achieved by any prosecution with Endo to date;
• personally appointed to the steering committee of the In re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, resulting in approximately $17 billion in settlements, the largest consumer auto settlement and one of the largest settlements in any matter ever;
• the executive committee In Dahl v. Bain Capital Partners (anti-trust), resulting in a $590.5 million settlement;
• personally appointed to the steering committee In re: New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc., resulting in more than $230 million in settlements; and
• appointed as co-lead counsel In re: Alpha Corp. Securities litigation, resulting in a $161 million recovery for the class.

James G. (Jim) Stranch III started the firm’s class action practice, and has served as lead counsel in groundbreaking cases, such as Sherwood v. Microsoft, which set the standard for indirect antitrust actions in Tennessee and ultimately resolved for a value of $64 million. In addition to having founded the firm’s class action practice, he also focuses on Labor and Employment Law, and brings more than four decades of experience in representing labor organizations and individual workers throughout Tennessee and the South.

Jim and his wife, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, were early pioneers of 401(k) ERISA litigation. They jointly litigated numerous groundbreaking cases, such as Qwest Savings and Investment Plan ERISA litigation ($57.5 million total payout to class members) and In re: Nortel Networks Corp. ERISA litigation ($21.5 million settlement). 

Jennings joined BS&J in 1977 and initially represented labor organizations devoted to protecting the rights of employees. Over the past two decades, he has concentrated on offering services to health and pension funds that provide benefits to construction workers. He has also provided personal representation to political and labor leaders throughout the South.

SJ&G’s primary areas of practice include class action, mass tort, ERISA trust funds, labor unions, bank fees, data breaches, wage and hour disputes, worker adjustment and retraining notification, product liability, personal injury and trucking accidents.

“The law practice established by my grandfather more than 70 years ago still thrives within our firm,” Gerard Stranch says. “We look forward to continuing to uphold that heritage by providing access to justice for each of our clients across the United States.”

For additional information about SJ&G, visit www.stranchlaw.com.