CHRIS MESSERLY
· PARTNER, ROBINS, KAPLAN,
MILLER & CIRESI
· PERSONAL INJURY; PLAINTIFF:
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
· MINNESOTA SUPER LAWYERS:
2003–2011
AFTER
THE
COLL APSE
Personal injury lawyer Chris Messerly
tackles the 35W bridge collapse
BY ANNA BEFORT PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY MARCUS
Chris Messerly was in a Woolworth’s in
Ohio, holding his mother’s hand, when JFK
was assassinated. He was driving to work
on Interstate 694 when a friend called to
tell him about 9/11. And he was standing in
a park in Wausau, Wis., when he received
news that the 35W bridge had fallen into
the Mississippi on Aug. 1, 2007. It was one
of those moments he will never forget.
“I knew immediately I was going to get
involved, I just had no clue what it was going
to be,” says Messerly, whose commute from
Vadnais Heights to Minneapolis' Robins,
Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi had taken him over
the bridge every workday for decades. “All
this stuff was running through my head—
‘We’re not there to help carry people off the
bridge, what can we do now?’—and finally
it dawned on me: ‘Duh! Do what you can do
best, and that’s provide your legal services.’”
Just two weeks later, Messerly found
himself in front of 500 people at the
