SAN DIEGO (January 31, 2023) – Growing insurance and civil litigation defense firm Tyson & Mendes LLP announced today four promotions to regional manager, a new role for the firm, for Partners Lynn Allen, Kristi Blackwell, Michael Drews and Jacob Felderman.

“We’re introducing regional managers as part of the firmwide leadership to provide direction for our attorneys and support our continued nationwide growth,” said Strategic Managing Partner Robert Tyson. “We’re proud to appoint four of the firm’s trusted and proven leaders to this new position and have tremendous faith in their future success.”

• Lynn Allen has been named southwest regional manager, managing Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico from her base in the firm’s Scottsdale office. She represents insurance companies and their insureds in all aspects of insurance defense, most notably focusing on insurance coverage disputes, insurance bad faith, personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, intellectual property, employment law, and appeals. She has been lead counsel in many high-profile and successful jury trials, arbitrations, summary judgment motions, and appeals – saving multimillions of dollars in indemnity for her clients. Allen earned her Juris Doctor cum laude from the Arizona State University College of Law.
• Kristi Blackwell has been promoted to California regional manager, overseeing San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Fresno and Northern California from the firm’s San Diego headquarters. Blackwell joined Tyson & Mendes in 2008. She is an experienced litigator who also leads the firm’s Retail, Restaurant, and Hospitality practice group, representing some of the largest chain retailers and hotel companies in the country. She focuses her practice on general liability, personal injury, premises liability, and complex litigation. Blackwell has wide-ranging litigation experience representing a diverse group of individuals and businesses in California state and federal district courts. Blackwell earned her Juris Doctor cum laude from California Western School of Law.
• Michael Drews, northwest and central regional manager, oversees Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee and Washington. Based in Tyson & Mendes Denver office, Drews handles cases that draw from diverse practice areas, including professional liability, medical and legal malpractice, premises liability, products liability, wrongful death, hospitality law, interstate trucking and transportation law, commercial law, construction defects, employment law, and bad-faith litigation. Drews represents not only individuals and small business owners, but also hospitals, physicians, attorneys, directors and officers, large corporate entities, insurance companies, airlines, general contractors, construction managers, and interstate trucking and transportation companies. Drews obtained his Juris Doctor from the Hofstra University School of Law.
• Jacob Felderman was named east regional manager, overseeing Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. Felderman is also head of legal operations for the firm, providing strategic guidance on substantive legal issues and acting as an advocate for all Tyson & Mendes attorneys, overseeing case assignments and trial staffing and contributing to attorney and staff education content. In his law practice, he has in-depth experience handling cases in practice areas including general negligence, professional liability, business disputes, premises liability, product liability, personal injury, and commercial and general civil litigation. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law.

Serving 18 states nationwide, Tyson & Mendes is one of the fastest growing civil defense firms in the U.S. The firm is proud to offer one of the fastest and clearest paths to partnership of any mid-sized law firm in the U.S. For more information and to view career opportunities, visit www.tysonmendes.com.

About Tyson & Mendes LLP

Tyson & Mendes LLP is a nationwide, AV-rated litigation and trial firm specializing in insurance defense and protecting its clients from Nuclear Verdicts®. Robert Tyson and Patrick Mendes founded the firm in 2002 to defend corporations, insurance companies, and their clients in civil litigation matters. The firm has experienced tremendous growth in the past two decades, with offices across the U.S. serving clients in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The firm is most widely recognized for winning the landmark Howell v. Hamilton Meats California Supreme Court case, which forever changed the state’s litigation landscape by significantly impacting the damages a plaintiff may recover. Robert Tyson is also the author of the Amazon Bestseller Nuclear Verdicts®: Defending Justice for All, the first playbook for the defense on how to avoid runaway jury verdicts.

For more information, visit www.tysonmendes.com.

Media Contact:

Ashley Bendas, J. Walcher Communications

ashley@jwalcher.com, 619-295-7140

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