Phil Pfaffly graduated from Drake University in 1970 Phi Beta Kappa and went to Duke Law School, graduating in 1973. After graduation, he worked with a number of Twin Cities law firms doing trial work for 38 years. Initially involved in defense work for insurers and their insured clients, Phil’s practice evolved into plaintiffs’ work. In 1992 he obtained the largest personal injury verdict in Minnesota history, and in 1993 he became a partner in Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, where he concentrated on mass torts and medical malpractice work. Phil was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has served as a national board member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, two of the highest honors a trial lawyer can achieve. He has been active in alternative dispute resolution since his education and recognition as a qualified neutral by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1995. Phil has arbitrated and successfully mediated hundreds of cases involving thousands of claims in Minnesota, Arizona, California, North Dakota, New York, Ohio, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Louisiana, Connecticut, Nevada, Georgia, and Washington D.C. His unusual background as both defense lawyer and plaintiffs’ lawyer has given him a unique perspective into settlement of cases involving medical or scientific issues that few lawyers possess. Currently admitted in Minnesota and Arizona, Phil is now concentrating only on mediations and arbitrations. In recent years he has developed a subspecialty dealing with medical negligence cases and food borne illness cases, handling thousands of the latter including many of the largest individual cases in the country over the past ten years. In addition, he has negotiated settlements in cases arising from oil rig explosions in western North Dakota.
