After DUI Plea, Ex-US Attorney Leaves Am Law 200 Firm
Stephen Wigginton, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, has left Armstrong Teasdale nearly two years after he joined the firm's St. Louis headquarters.
November 22, 2017 at 07:04 PM
4 minute read
Three months after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, a former top federal prosecutor in Illinois has left Armstrong Teasdale's headquarters in St. Louis.
A spokeswoman for Armstrong Teasdale confirmed to The American Lawyer that partner Stephen Wigginton had recently left the Am Law 200 firm's ranks, but did not have new contact information for him. An email sent to Wigginton through a lawyers' referral service was not returned by the time of this story.
Curtis Dawson, a name partner at Edwardsville, Illinois-based Lucco, Brown, Threlkeld & Dawson who represented Wigginton in his DUI case earlier this year before a court in Madison County, Illinois, also did not return a request for comment about his client.
Wigginton served from August 2010 to December 2015 as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, where the U.S. Department of Justice has regional offices in the Illinois cities of Benton, East St. Louis and Fairview Heights. Wigginton joined Armstrong Teasdale nearly two years ago as a litigation partner specializing in commercial class action and whistleblower cases.
In late May, he was arrested and charged with fleeing the scene of an accident in the St. Louis suburb of Troy, Illinois. Wigginton reportedly said, “You know who I am,” to a police officer that eventually stopped him, according to a dashboard camera video obtained by local news outlets under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. When the officer said he didn't know who Wigginton was, the now former Armstrong Teasdale partner replied, “Your boss does.”
Wigginton, who in the police dashcam video said he had a “glass of vodka” while out with clients, was unable to complete a field sobriety test. He initially pleaded not guilty, but subsequently accepted a deal from prosecutors that dropped two charges against him and resulted in Wigginton pleading guilty to a standard DUI charge on July 11. He agreed to pay a $1,500 fine, double the normal sum for such an infraction.
According to records on file with the state bars of Illinois and Missouri, Wigginton is in good standing and has no instances of attorney discipline. His departure from Armstrong Teasdale comes the same month that the firm had sanctions against it lifted in a putative class action case against FCA US LLC, the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automotive giant better known as Fiat Chrysler, as noted last week by legal newswire Law360.
Wigginton and several other Armstrong Teasdale lawyers are representing a class of Jeep Cherokee owners suing FCA and audio equipment company Harman International Industries Inc.—represented by Thompson Coburn and Foley & Lardner, respectively—over an optional communication device called Uconnect that they claim allows hackers to seize control of their vehicles. Armstrong Teasdale and Wigginton ran into trouble in April when FCA successfully sought sanctions against the firm for quoting from sealed documents in the case in another action filed in Northern California.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in East St. Louis responded to a request by Wigginton and sealed a motion to certify a class action against FCA, according to The Madison County Record. Brian Flynn, a name partner at Belleville, Illinois-based Flynn Guymon & Garavalia serving as a lead plaintiff in the suit against FCA and Harman, did not immediately return a request for comment about whether or not Wigginton is still representing him in the litigation, which was filed in August 2015.
Wigginton is listed in court filings—the most recent of which is dated Nov. 17—as working at Armstrong Teasdale. A firm spokeswoman said that Wigginton is still listed on documents from cases that were in progress during his time at Armstrong Teasdale.
As for the firm itself, Armstrong Teasdale has offset the recent departure of Wigginton with two lateral hires, among them Stinson Leonard Street real estate and financial services partner Joseph Hipskind Jr. in St. Louis and Dickinson Wright litigation partner Michelle Alamo in Denver.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllTrending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250