Two Former Political Consulting Partners Settle a Business Dispute for $7.5 Million

The Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that Thompson Coburn client Rachel Keller is owed $7.5 million in her dispute with Travis Brown, her former business partner in Pelopidas, LLC, a political consulting firm formerly tied to Rex Sinquefield, the billionaire philanthropist and activist.
In the unanimous August 10 decision, the court reversed a St. Louis County Circuit Court ruling that Keller had violated the terms of a 2019 settlement in an earlier lawsuit and owed Brown and Pelopidas $408,326 in attorney fees.
The decision is a complete victory for Keller in a five-year court battle that was ultimately resolved on fundamental principles of contract law. (A discussion of the Court’s reasoning can be found here.) “The only remaining issue is the calculation of Keller’s attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party,” Thompson Coburn partner John Kingston told the Missouri Independent in a story about the appellate decision. Kingston represented Keller along with Tom Douglass and Shaun Broeker.