Paul Passanante, a life-long resident of St. Louis, is a 1976 graduate of the Saint Louis University School of Law. In 1980, Paul received the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award from the St. Louis County Bar Association. The next year, he received the Lon O. Hocker Memorial Trial Lawyer Award from the Missouri Bar Foundation.
Since 1980, Paul has specialized in civil litigation and has tried many civil cases to verdict, including medical malpractice, wrongful death, products liability, FELA, automobile, and general negligence cases.
Paul has been certified as a civil trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and is often called upon by the Missouri Bar to write or lecture on various aspects of civil trial practice, including ethics, presenting evidence at trial, argument strategies, and settlement tactics. For a few years, he taught trial practice at Saint Louis University School of Law.
Paul is licensed to practice law in Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, and the District of Columbia. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Eighth Circuits, and numerous federal district courts in Missouri, Arkansas, Maryland, and Nebraska.
Paul is a Charter Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a member of the American Association for Justice, and a past President of the Missouri-Southern Illinois chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Paul has received an AV peer review rating for ethical standards and legal ability from Martindale-Hubbell.
Publications:
“Habeas Corpus,” St. Louis Bar Journal, Winter 1978.
Chapter 10, "Presenting the Evidence," Civil Trial Practice (2nd Ed. 1988)
“Permanency in Personal Injury Cases,” St. Louis Lawyer, 1988.
“Closing Argument,” St. Louis Bar Journal, Fall 1991.
“Recent Developments in Trial Techniques,” American Bar Association Tort & Insurance Law Journal, Winter 2001.
“Help! We’re Lost! Co-Employee Immunity in Missouri,” Journal of the Missouri Bar, March-April 2001.
“Presenting the Evidence,” Chapter 10, Civil Trial Practice (3 Ed. 2001)
“Business Records,” Chapter 6, Sources of Proof (4th Ed. 2001).
“The Effect of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice,” Journal of the Missouri Bar, September/October 2005.
“Objections and Rulings on Evidence,” Chapter 6, Missouri Bar Evidence Deskbook (5th Ed. 2006).
“Cross-Examination,” Journal of the Missouri Bar, January/February 2006.
“Anticipated Constitutional Challenges to Tort Reform,” Journal of the Missouri Bar, July/August 2006.
