Kansas City-headquartered Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice LLC, has added Laura K. Beasley to the firm’s Belleville, Illinois office. 

Beasley, who joined the firm as a member, practices in the areas of civil litigation defense, general liability, class action/mass torts, insurance coverage, personal injury, and product liability. She brings to the firm clients in the medical device and other manufacturing sectors.

Beasley is a board member of both the St. Clair County Bar Association and the State and Local Defense Organizations (SLDO) section of the Defense Research Institute. She is also second vice president of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, a hearing officer for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, and a member of the Illinois Supreme Courts Committee on Character and Fitness for the Fifth Judicial District. Beasley is a past president of both the St. Clair County and East St. Louis Bar Associations, serving as the first woman president of the latter. 

Beasley earned her J.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Law at Carbondale, and her bachelor's degree from Austin Peay University in Tennessee.