Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Business & Commercial Disputes

Senior Counsel - Litigation and Investigations

Kevin Abel’s areas of practice are trials and appeals in complex commercial disputes. His experience includes cases involving breach of contract, commercial and securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, disputes over corporate and partnership governance, lender liability and claims by and against mortgage lenders. Mr. Abel has first-chair jury trial experience over the past three decades, and he has tried to verdict cases in federal and state courts in Missouri and other states. He also has handled arbitrations before the American Arbitration Association and mediations of business disputes.

Mr. Abel has been lead trial counsel for: a contract manufacturer in a jury trial over a long-term production agreement; a bankruptcy plan administrator for creditors in a trial and appeal of a multi-million dollar judgment; a secured lender in an inter-creditor dispute that went to jury trial; an international airline in trials involving its lenders and national travel agencies; an aircraft manufacturer in contract disputes involving the sale of commercial and military aircraft; a real estate firm that operated commercial properties for the benefit of national pension plans, in disputes over development and a trial over shopping center anchor tenant rights; and foreign investors with claims arising from failed investments in the United States in cellular telephone technology, real estate and oil and gas properties. Other commercial disputes handled by Mr. Abel have involved the restructuring and enforcement of debt instruments, duties of investment bankers to clients, sales of commercial goods and numerous types of bankruptcy and real estate litigation.

Mr. Abel is an associate editor of Litigation, published quarterly by the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association.