PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

The focus of Mr. Haar’s practice is civil and criminal trials and appeals in both federal and state courts. He has represented universities, law firms, banks, major corporations, civic and religious organizations, labor unions, a professional sports franchise,  insurance carriers and individuals in diverse contexts, including commercial, securities, professional liability, intellectual property, environmental and constitutional litigation. He has defended individuals and corporations in criminal investigations and proceedings involving allegations of corporate or securities fraud, tax violations, bank fraud, pharmaceutical adulteration or mislabeling, environmental violations and mail and wire fraud. He frequently represents clients in the federal and state appellate courts and has been retained specifically for appellate work in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and the Missouri Supreme Court.

Mr. Haar is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is a former law clerk to then Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Harold Leventhal of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. In the latter capacity, he was involved principally in organized crime and public corruption prosecutions. In 1994, he was appointed by Governor Mel Carnahan to the Board of Police Commissioners of the City of St. Louis and served as a police commissioner until 1998. He was appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve on the Committee on District Judge Education of the Federal Judicial Center from 2001 through 2007. In 2010, the Missouri Supreme Court appointed him to a special ad hoc committee to study the use of experts in Missouri and to make recommendations regarding the proper scope of expert discovery.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

• Represented electrical utility with respect to criminal investigations, Public Utility Commission hearings, and environmental litigation, with the State of Missouri and private litigants, arising out of collapse of 1.4-billion-gallon mountaintop reservoir at pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant

• Represented former Governor of Missouri in federal prosecution involving campaign contributions

• Briefed and argued numerous appeals in federal and state appellate courts, including three recent cases of first impression in the Missouri Supreme Court that resulted in unanimous opinions on the enforceability of insurance pollution exclusions, the inapplicability of public policy discharge claims to independent contractors, and the statutory limits on objections to venue motions

• Represented clients in investigations and litigation involving Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Hockey League

• Represented majority shareholders of bank holding company and of large private corporations in defense of claims of breach of fiduciary duty and oppression of minority shareholders

• Represented defense contractor in federal investigations and obtained dismissals of shareholder derivative and class action claims arising out of backdating of stock options

• Represented leading urban redeveloper and twice obtained dismissal of federal indictment for failure to state an offense under the mail, wire and bank fraud statutes

• Represented CFO of Fortune 500 cable television company in defense of federal criminal wire fraud charges and civil class action proceedings alleging accounting fraud

• Represented private university in defense of lawsuits challenging its student disciplinary processes under state and federal law, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

• Represented leading medical school and its faculty in qui tam action alleging Medicare fraud, medical malpractice actions, and administrative licensure proceedings

• Represented national insurers in defense of environmental claims and allegations of bad faith refusal to defend or settle

• Represented international energy company and obtained dismissal of class action alleging PCB contamination along multi-state natural gas pipeline

• Represented one of nation’s largest law firms and obtained defense judgment on $25 million claim which is a leading precedent in Missouri on the requirements to prove a malpractice claim

• Represented numerous lawyers and law firms in defense of legal malpractice claims, criminal investigations and Bar investigations arising in various contexts, including civil litigation, criminal defense, securities law, international arbitration, contempt, immigration, trademarks, trusts and estates, patent prosecution and transactional matters

• Represented school district in landmark First Amendment case regarding school newspapers (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988))

• Conducted internal investigations on behalf of academic, corporate, civic, labor, governmental and religious organizations

• Represented religious school where federal court found repeated constitutional violations by Missouri state officials and obtained acquittal of school official in related criminal prosecution

• Represented NHL hockey player charged with attempted murder-for-hire

• Represented prominent state legislator and obtained acquittal in criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault

• Represented internationally known Italian photographer in lawsuit filed by State of Missouri arising out of Benetton “We, On Death Row” Campaign