Stephen H Rovak

Stephen H Rovak is a Partner at Dentons, based in St. Louis, focusing on Commercial Litigation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and an experienced trial lawyer with over 50 matters tried to conclusion.

Mr. Rovak has a broad background in commercial, product liability, franchise and intellectual property matters and distribution law, as well as substantial expertise in medical issues. Chambers USA has noted that “his trial skills are top-notch and his instincts in every aspect of assessing a client’s case are always accurate and realistic.”

He has been lead trial counsel for a pharmaceutical concern in both product liability and consumer class action matters. He has defended product liability matters arising from fields ranging from aircraft maintenance requirements to medical device production, including defending an aircraft manufacturer in multi-district litigation against claims of defective design for an airliner after a major airline disaster.

Mr. Rovak represented one of the largest agricultural companies in the world in claims arising from a significant Ponzi scheme in that industry, and served as trial counsel in a series of cases involving biotechnology, including challenges to the development and sale of genetically modified plants. As plaintiff’s counsel, he successfully represented the creator of some of the world’s most popular online massively multiplayer computer games against an infringer, winning an early case under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act at both the trial and appellate levels.

He also successfully defended Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. in a lengthy trial in which a writer alleged that the script for the film “Twister” had been taken from an earlier work in violation of the Copyright Act. Acting as co-lead trial counsel, he obtained a jury verdict in favour of all defendants.

He has represented Fortune 100 chemical and drug producers in distribution and contract disputes, including leading the trial of an action against a major oil producer resulting in a favourable jury verdict in excess of $21 million. He has successfully represented chemical concerns in disputes over the sale of plants and technology, and has defended such businesses in disputes over product distribution practices. He is experienced in defending firms in insurance, securities and franchising in class actions, and in real estate litigation he tried the most significant condemnation action in recent St. Louis history. He successfully represented the plaintiff in a chemical process patent dispute between two of the world’s largest producers of bulk food products.

In international transactions, Mr. Rovak represented a large London reinsurance broker in successful trials in federal courts over various international reinsurance issues, including disputes over brokering practices, the interpretation of quota share treaty provisions, the brokering and operation of facilities for the writing of aviation insurance, and the operation of reinsurance intermediaries. Other international matters include disputes over cross-border supply contracts. He has successfully represented a major law firm against allegations of malpractice and was national coordinating counsel for a major retailer of domestic products in multiple cases of catastrophic personal injuries from a defective product, and has represented franchisors in a number of trials.

Mr. Rovak has particular expertise in alternative dispute resolution and was Chair of the Commercial Advisory Committee of the American Arbitration Association’s St. Louis region. He is on the AAA’s Construction Industry Panel and Large, Complex Case Panel, and is on both the AAA’s and the US District Court’s panel of neutrals for the Eastern District of Missouri. He served on the AAA’s National Construction Arbitrator Training Faculty and its National Commercial Dispute Arbitrator Training Faculty, and has served as a mediator in a number of complex mediations and arbitration matters.

A former Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve and graduate of the National Defense University’s Defense Management Course, Mr. Rovak served as a legal advisor to the Air Mobility Command, was instrumental in formulating the Air Force’s position in both the Pan American and TWA bankruptcies, and drafted the US Air Force’s safety regulation for air charter carriers. He designed the system implementing Congressionally mandated review of air carriers on Department of Defense missions, and was thereafter the senior reserve JAG at the Air Warfare Center at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Prior to service with the US Air Force, he was an officer in the US Army, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, followed by a Fellowship in Forensic Medicine and assignment in the Pentagon at the Litigation Division of the Office of the Judge Advocate General.

Mr. Rovak is an active member of the Institutional Review Board of the Washington University School of Medicine and Chairman of the Civilian Oversight Board of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. In 2017, at the request of the Mayor of St. Louis, he served on the Citizen Advisory Committee for the selection of the Chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He was President and Chairman of the Executive Board of Teamwork, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1987 to 1997.

His recognitions include listing in Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation (2007–present) and Franchise Law (1995–present), and ranking in Chambers USA, Missouri, for Commercial Litigation (2008–present). He received the Reginald C. Harmon Award in 1990, recognised as the top Air Force Reserve Officer serving with the Judge Advocate General’s Corps worldwide, and the Legion of Merit from the US Air Force in 2000.

His practice areas include agribusiness, arbitration, competition and antitrust, construction and engineering, forest products, franchising and distribution, health care, industrial production, insurance and reinsurance, intellectual property and technology, life sciences and health care, litigation and dispute resolution, media, and retail. He holds an MS in Forensic Sciences from The George Washington University (1975), a Fellowship in Forensic Medicine from Walter Reed Medical Center and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (1975), a JD from Harvard Law School (1972), and an AB, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington University (1969).