Tom Cartmell
Founding Partner | Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP
Tom Cartmell is a mass torts, product liability and class actions trial lawyer and founding partner at Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri. J.D., University of Kansas School of Law.
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Suite 300
Kansas City, Missouri 64112
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Thomas P. “Tom” Cartmell is a founding partner of Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, and a trial lawyer for individuals, businesses and government entities in cases across the country. His recent work centers on litigation over the health and safety of young people, including serving as trial counsel for injured adolescents, nearly 500 school districts and one state in cases against Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube.
Federal and state judges have appointed Cartmell to leadership roles in more than a dozen mass tort proceedings. He was a lead trial counsel in the JUUL Labs multidistrict litigation, which produced recoveries of nearly $2 billion, and served as co-lead counsel of the Ethicon pelvic mesh MDL, trying five bellwether cases. He has also held leadership posts in the 3M Combat Arms earplug, Bard port catheter, hair relaxer, Zoloft, Avandia and Bextra/Celebrex litigations.
Cartmell is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers and a past president of the Kansas City chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He earned his business degree and law degree from the University of Kansas, where he was an editor of the Kansas Law Review, and he has taught trial advocacy there as an adjunct professor.
Experience and Expertise
Qualifications
Timeline
- Kansas Bar
- Missouri Bar
- U.S. District Court, District of Kansas
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
- J.D., University of Kansas School of Law
- B.S., Business Administration, University of Kansas
Practice Areas
- American College of Trial Lawyers (Fellow)
- International Society of Barristers (Fellow)
- American Board of Trial Advocates, Kansas City Chapter (Past President)
- American Bar Foundation (Fellow)
- Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
- Johnson County Bar Association
- Chambers USA, Missouri: Litigation Mainly Plaintiffs, Band 1
- Chambers USA, Nationwide: Product Liability Plaintiffs, Band 3
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America, 2024-2025
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers, 2024-2025
- Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year, Professional Malpractice, 2013, 2014
- The Best Lawyers in America, 2007-present
- Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers, 2006-present
- Missouri Bar Foundation Lon O. Hocker Memorial Trial Lawyer Award, 2003
- KCMBA Thomas J. Conway Award, 2001
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent
- $235 Million Settlement: Reached during trial against Altria in the JUUL Labs litigation, after Cartmell and his co-lead trial counsel had presented the plaintiff's evidence in a bellwether jury trial.
- $5.7 Million Verdict: Bakersfield, California, jury verdict for a plaintiff injured by a TVT Abbrevo mesh sling device made by Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.
- $3.02 Million Verdict: Platte County, Missouri, nursing home abuse verdict in Novagradac v. Beverly Manor, one of the top five plaintiff verdicts in Missouri in 2007.
- $1.2 Million Verdict: Dallas, Texas, jury verdict for a plaintiff injured by a TVT-O mesh sling device manufactured by Ethicon.
- $1 Million Verdict: Verdict against Kansas City, Missouri, for the family of a 20-year-old university student struck by a car.
- $745 Million+ MDL Resolution: Bextra/Celebrex MDL in which he served on the steering committee and as co-lead trial counsel; all cases settled for more than $745 million.
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