Martin M. Green
Martin Green practices primarily in the areas of business and tort litigation. He is a well-known trial lawyer with broad experience representing Green Jacobson’s clients in complex business litigations on a national basis. He regularly represents the firm’s clients in matters involving contract disputes, fraud and negligence claims, proxy fights, and other business-related disputes. Many of the decisions in his cases have been reported and are precedent-setting.
Mr. Green also helps his clients avoid litigation through sound advice and the careful negotiation and documentation of business transactions. In addition, he has taken a number of companies public and has negotiated scores of mergers and acquisitions for both acquiring and target companies.
Mr. Green has tried hundreds of cases, mostly jury trials, including both the prosecution and defense of major class and derivative actions. He is one of the few lawyers in Missouri history to ever obtain a directed verdict in favor of a claimant in a fraud case.
Beginning in 1998, in one of his most significant cases, Mr. Green led the team of lawyers prosecuting a securities class action against Bank of America Corporation. To get this case ready for trial required taking over 100 depositions, winning dozens of motions, and making new law along the way.
These efforts led to a 2002 settlement for $490,000,000 in cash — at the time, the largest settlement of any kind in the history of St. Louis and the third-largest securities class action settlement in the country.
Mr. Green frequently represents judges, lawyers, and accountants in disciplinary matters and malpractice claims, and often represents professionals in disputes with their partners or other business associates.
Mr. Green has long been involved in Bar activities. He is a regular lecturer on litigation, trial practice, and legal ethics at Bar seminars, and has lectured at Washington University Law School on trial and appellate practice. Following 10 years on the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis’s grievance committee, he was appointed Division Chair for the St. Louis County Bar Administration for an additional 10 years. Since 1995, he has regularly served as a hearing examiner for the Missouri Supreme Court in attorney disciplinary matters.
Mr. Green served on a continuing commission appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court and the Governor which for three years investigated and issued legislative reports designed to modernize the judicial system in Missouri.
In February 2010, Mr. Green was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to be on a commission to investigate and evaluate the use of expert witnesses in litigation. This appointment followed a controversial decision of the Court concerning expert witness discovery and testimony, in which a concurring opinion suggested that Missouri should abandon its existing approach to expert witnesses and completely rethink the entire concept of the expert testimony and expert discovery.
Mr. Green is the 2001 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the St. Louis County Bar Association.
Email Martin Green at Green@stlouislaw.com