William Chaney and Drew York successfully opposed Bayer AG

William Chaney and Drew York successfully opposed Bayer AG's challenges to the Court's jurisdiction over it in the In re Genetically Modified Rice Litigation multidistrict litigation proceedings. Bayer AG sought dismissal alleging it had insufficient contacts in Missouri and the other rice growing states to allow the court to exercise jurisdiction over the company. Mr. Chaney, who serves on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the MDL proceedings, and Mr. York spent one year conducting extensive jurisdictional discovery and filing briefs opposing Bayer AG's motion to dismiss, which culminated with Mr. Chaney's persuasive oral arguments before the court in May. The court denied Bayer AG's efforts to avoid jurisdiction and found that Bayer AG acted through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Bayer CropScience AG, which had already conceded the court's jurisdiction.