The Attorneys of Hunegs, LeNeave & Kvas
When you turn to the lawyers of Hunegs, LeNeave & Kvas, you get the benefit of legal counsel from a group of dedicated proven professionals. The HLK team boasts some of the nation’s most respected attorneys, consistently ranked among the leaders in the country by their peers. You’ll find HLK lawyers listed in prestigious journals and listings like Best Lawyers In America and Super Lawyers. Even more importantly, you’ll find them in conference rooms and courtrooms, fighting for the rights and interests of injured people and their families.
Richard G.
HUNEGS
Richard Hunegs has been listed in each edition of the book Best Lawyers in America by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith of the Harvard Law School. No other local (FELA) attorney has received such a distinction. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member in the International Society of Barristers and American Board of Trial Advocates. Additional honors include membership in the Million Dollar Round Table for attorneys who have won client awards of one million dollars. Richard is a member of the National Panel of Arbitrators and The American Arbitration Association.
Richard has received the highest possible peer review rating (AV) in the industry standard Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. An AV rating indicates that a lawyer’s peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence in both legal ability and ethical standards.
Cortney S.
LeNEAVE
Cortney S. LeNeave started his law career in 1984 as a law clerk for the senior partners in the DeParcq Law Firm, one of the country’s first and foremost law firms representing injured Railroad workers under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act. Cortney dedicated himself to reading and learning the FELA from the country’s finest lawyers. He has written trial briefs and other legal memoranda while learning the law from its very foundation and continues to study and read relevant laws that affect his clients everyday. Early in his career, Cortney was a clerk for the Hennepin County District Court Trial Judges. He then worked several years at the Meagher and Geer law firm where he felt privileged to be among some of the finest trial lawyers in the State. Cortney is now a senior partner in the firm in which he began his legal career and proud to carry forward the hard work and dedication of his predecessors, William DeParcq, Robert Stone and Richard Hunegs.
Since 1995, Cortney has dedicated his legal career to helping individuals and families who have endured
serious physical injury or lost family members in
railroad or automobile accidents. He takes this
responsibility and trust seriously as evidenced by his
trial successes and settlements achieved on behalf of his clients. He has achieved some of the largest settlements in the region. Cortney recognizes and communicates the significant impact that life-changing and career-ending injuries have on families and individuals. Cortney is recognized by clients and peers as dedicated, hard working and committed to making a difference for the people he represents. Cortney is a member of the Academy of Rail Labor Board of Directors, the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates (reserved for the select group of lawyers who have achieved settlements and verdicts in excess of 2.0 million on behalf of their clients). Cortney is honored to be appointed by the United Transportation Union as a Designated Legal Counsel to represent the train and engine service employees who put their lives on the line everyday to move this country’s freight. Cortney tirelessly fights for the rights and dignity of those injured on the job or otherwise. He is recognized as having the highest rating possible in Ethics and Legal Ability by Martindale-Hubbell, perennially listed as a Super Lawyer, and is among Who’s Who in the legal community.
Most importantly, Cortney is a family man who is very proud of his wife Kristen and their children, Sarah, Sam and Kathryn.
Randal W.
LeNEAVE
Randal W. LeNeave has had the privilege of representing people who have been injured by the wrongful conduct of others - whether those injuries were caused by defective products that kill or maim, substandard medical care, reckless transportation and conveyance of passengers, consumer fraud, and other wrongs in the workplace, or other countless instances of foreseeable harm inflicted by wrongdoers for well over 20 years. Randy is a Civil Trial Specialist, certified by the Minnesota State Bar Association, is perennially recognized as a Super Lawyer by Minnesota Law & Politics, has been selected as a Leading American Attorney in personal injury law by the American Research Corporation and a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an organization recognizing lawyers who have obtained verdicts and settlements of a million dollars, or more. Randy has obtained several jury verdicts in excess of $1 million as well as numerous seven-figure settlements for his clients.
Randy began his legal career in the early 1980s as a law clerk for the firm then known as the DeParcq firm, a pioneer and powerhouse in the representation of railroad workers under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Today, Randy's clients include railroad workers covered under the FELA, members of the Minnesota Vikings and other professional athletes in workers' compensation claims. He also represents
people who have been seriously injured or who's family members have been killed as a result of the wrongful conduct of others, individuals or corporations.
In addition to the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Randy is a member of The Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys, and is privileged to serve as Designated
Legal Counsel for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, National Conference of Firemen & Oilers and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. Randy currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Minnesota Association for Justice. He possesses an A/V rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible rating for legal ability and ethics.
It gives us great satisfaction to help those that need it most to regain their dignity and self-esteem by becoming productive and contributing members of society again after facing life-altering challenges.
William
KVAS
William Kvas is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who has devoted his legal career to assisting injured individuals, appearing as counsel in over thirty states. Many attorneys throughout the country have referred cases to him because of his experience and reputation. Over 2,000 railroaders have asked him for assistance with injury claims. He pioneered occupational disease litigation for railroad workers, trying several of the first cases for noise induced hearing loss in the 1980s. In 1998, he obtained the largest verdict for carpal tunnel syndrome to be upheld on appeal for a railroad worker. In 2002, he obtained verdict of over one million dollars for an Amtrak engineer. The verdict followed a hard fought battle where he proved that Amtrak had falsified documents to cover up the cause of the accident. In 2005, Kvas obtained a verdict of $700,000 for a CSX engineer who suffered smoke inhalation while operating a locomotive and a verdict of over $300,000 for a fireman and oiler whose case set precedent on the railroad’s liability for off property injuries. Most recently, he scored two big victories over CSX – a verdict of $628,000 in Syracuse for a maintenance of way mechanic and $750,000 in Huntington, West Virginia for an engineer who was exposed to a chemical leaking from a tank car.
Kvas lectures frequently at Continuing Legal Education courses, teaching trial strategy and courtroom skills to other lawyers. Kvas graduated from the Carlson School of Management and received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota Law School. He is member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys. He is presently a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Kvas possesses an A/V rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible ranking for both legal ability and ethics. He was elected by fellow attorneys to the list of “Best Lawyers in America,” the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States.
Hunegs, LeNeave, & Kvas, P.A., is designated counsel for several major railroad unions.
Richard L.
CARLSON
Richard L. Carlson, a graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law, is a member of the Hennepin County and Minnesota State Bar Associations and the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association. Richard practices in the areas of motion and appellate practice in actions involving personal injury, wrongful death, insurance coverage, and the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. He has participated in appeals before the Fourth Circuit and Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, as well as appeals before state appellate courts in Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
