K. Ross Merrill

Ross Merrill represents businesses and individuals in a wide array of disputes, namely as to breach of contract, fraud, unfair business practices, and lost profits. He specializes in complex litigation in state and federal court, where he leverages his experience and background in behavioral economics to build his client’s best case.

Before joining the firm in 2020, Ross spent five years in “Big Law,” as a general liability litigation associate at an international AmLaw 100 firm, defending construction and product defect cases. While there he acquired valuable knowledge of defense firms’ playbook – insight that he now uses to drive litigation strategy from the plaintiffs’ side at Stueve Siegel Hanson.

Since joining the firm, Ross has handled numerous individual and class, collective, and representative cases. In 2022, he helped dairy farms win a $55 million dollar settlement against one of the largest producers of robotic milking systems in the world, DeLaval. In that case, numerous U.S. dairy farms came forward with the same problem, an allegedly defective robot (the VMS Classic), sold in the U.S. from roughly 2008 to 2018. After investigating the issues, including extensive e-discovery, depositions, and expert testimony, Ross helped reach a class settlement compensating farms with mostly six- and seven-figure lump sum cash payments.

In 2023, following the DeLaval settlement, Ross helped another group of dairy farms win a $122 million settlement against the largest producer of robotic milking systems in America, Lely. This time an even larger group of farms came forward with another allegedly defective robot from the same era of robotic milking (the Astronaut 4 or A4), sold in the U.S. from roughly 2011 to 2018. Once again, Ross helped reach a class resolution after investigating the case, taking part in a settlement that provided the option of cash payments or a trade-in program. Understanding that some farms wanted to continue using robotic milkers from Lely, the next generation model (the A5), Ross advocated for a flexible business solution that ultimately provided farms with brand new A5s at a significant discount, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.

In addition, Ross has handled and continues to handle a variety of cases in the healthcare and agricultural sectors. Since 2020, Ross has been on the firm’s dairy team, prosecuting both class and individual cases for dairy farms. The dairy team has reached numerous settlements and continues to litigate on behalf of dairy farmers in state, federal, and bankruptcy court.

Since 2022, Ross has also been on the firm’s travel nursing team, investigating the staffing agencies who place travel nurses on temporary assignments at hospitals and other facilities across the country only to change or disregard the pay rates in their contracts once they travel to location and have little choice but to continue working at reduced rates. The travel nurse team has initiated legal action – individual, class, collective, and representative actions, as well as arbitrations – against over ten agencies for certain unfair business practices and labor code violations.

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Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2023-present