Law360 Spotlights Stinson's Survivor Protection Practice Group

04.15.2024

Stinson LLP Partners Edwin Caldie and Robert Kugler are featured in a Law360 Pulse article, "Stinson Forms New Group Focused On Abuse Survivors," discussing the firm's recently launched and first-of-its-kind Survivor Protection practice group.

Caldie and Kugler serve as co-chair of the firm's new Survivor Protection practice group, which includes multiple new bankruptcy hires. They said they approached attorneys from both the firm's bankruptcy and insurance coverage groups, and others, about forming the new practice group. "And then we physically flew around the country, having in-person meetings with partners in those areas, and collaboratively built a plan with their input," Caldie said.

Caldie and Kugler have a proven history of advocating for survivors of sexual assault in bankruptcy cases, including securing the largest-ever recovery in a Catholic diocese bankruptcy after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for bankruptcy in 2015. "Survivors appointed to the committee really wanted to honor the histories and the interests of those they represented in that case, and they did a fantastic job. And as a result of their great work, and our ability to support them, we ended up being hired in other cases as well," Caldie said.

Stinson's Survivor Protection practice group will focus exclusively on advocating for survivors for an outcome that is fair, deliberate and efficient.

"When survivors' voices are amplified — when they are prioritized, and they're amplified — that is real atonement," Caldie said. "They actually speak about what happened. And that is what is needed."

Stinson's Survivor Protection practice group is a subset of the firm's Bankruptcy & Creditors' Rights Practice Division. The firm's bankruptcy team has represented survivor committees in 13 major Chapter 11 bankruptcies filed by the Catholic Church, and others in California, Delaware, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Guam, and have resolved more Catholic Church bankruptcies than any other firm in the past 10 years. The dedicated team of more than 20 survivor protection attorneys work closely with survivors and their attorneys to achieve successful financial recoveries and secure major advances in child protection.

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