(Kansas City, Missouri, October 6, 2020)  Baty Otto Coronado PC is pleased to announce the addition of three attorney associates to the firm.

Stephen M. Lillis joined Baty Otto Coronado’s St. Louis office.  Steve is an experienced litigator, having worked for firms located in the St. Louis area and most recently with a national firm handling asbestos-related cases.  He previously worked as an assistant general counsel & NFL player agent for National Sports Agency.  He was a judicial intern for Chief Judge John T. Elsner with the State of Illinois Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.  Steve is a graduate of John Carroll University with a B.A. in history and a marketing minor.  He obtained his J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law with a concentration in business transactions.  He is licensed to practice in Missouri and Illinois and is admitted in the United States Eastern District of Missouri and the Southern District of Illinois.

Jacob D. Bielenberg and Bretton W.H. Kreifel joined the firm’s Kansas City office:

Jacob is a civil litigator, having practiced in Kansas City and southeastern Kansas where he focused on water law, land use, municipal governance, and criminal matters.  His municipal law experience includes serving as an assistant city attorney for the City of Erie, Kansas, where he was responsible for criminal prosecution for the City of Erie Municipal Court.  Simultaneously, he was a deputy county counselor for Neosho County (for the cities of Erie, Chanute, and St. Paul, Kansas), assisting on a multitude of municipal law issues related to civil local governance.  Jacob holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Northern Colorado and a J.D., with Dean’s Honors, from the Washburn University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in Kansas, Missouri, and the federal Western District of Missouri.

Bretton most recently served as an associate with a national firm in its labor and employment practice, managing 15-25 cases at any given time ranging from charges of discrimination to active lawsuits.  Previously, he served as a research attorney for Justice Carol Beier of the Kansas Supreme Court, drafting numerous judicial opinions.  During law school, Bretton was an honors clerk for the Office of Pesticide Programs with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.  He also was a legal extern to Justice Marla Luckert with the Kansas Supreme Court.  Bretton holds a B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  He obtained his J.D. from Washburn University School of Law.  While at Washburn, he served as a senior staff writer for the Washburn Law Journal.

“Baty Otto Coronado continues a long, distinguished history of defending corporations, including product manufacturers; construction and trucking companies; public entities; insurers; and individuals in civil litigation,” said Lee Baty.  “Our attorneys collectively provide the firm’s clients with more than 100 years of dispute resolution and trial experience.”

About the firm:

Baty Otto Coronado, with 23 attorneys and offices in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, serves clients throughout Missouri, Kansas, and southern Illinois in both state and federal courts, from trial through, when necessary, appeals. Baty Otto Coronado’s attorneys have participated in hundreds of jury and bench trials as well as thousands of arbitrations and mediations. They have argued cases in the Missouri and Kansas appellate courts, including the Missouri and Kansas Supreme Courts, as well as the Eighth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. Two of the firm’s attorneys are admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Full attorney bios are available at www.batyotto.com.

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