About Luke Baumstark
Luke Baumstark is an attorney in the Victims Advocacy Department at O'Brien Law Firm, P.C. who rejoined the firm in April 2025. He brings more than two decades of legal experience across criminal prosecution, civil defense, and complex litigation. Baumstark earned his Bachelor of Arts in English magna cum laude from the University of Connecticut and his law degree from Washington University School of Law, where he received the Award for Excellence in Oral Advocacy and served as an editor on the Global Studies Law Review.
Earlier in his career he spent five years as an Assistant Circuit Attorney in St. Louis and was recognized in 2007 with a Trial Star award for securing five verdicts in a single year. Missouri Lawyers Weekly named him an Up and Coming Law Firm Leader in 2016. At O'Brien Law Firm, he represents survivors of sexual and physical abuse as well as clients pursuing personal injury claims.
Proven verdicts and settlements at O'Brien Law Firm, P.C.
These results are credited to O'Brien Law Firm, P.C.. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
A St. Charles County judge entered a $300 million bench-trial judgment for a child, identified only as G.T., who was physically and sexually abused between the ages of three and five while in the care of Susan and James McLaurie, though one defendant died before the suit was filed and the only known insurance was a $303,000 policy.
A St. Charles County jury awarded $75 million, including $25 million in punitive damages, to the parents of Krystofer Batsell, a 21-year-old killed when a driver fleeing police at more than 100 mph crashed into his car. The defendant is serving a 15-year prison sentence for second-degree murder, and the judgment is effectively uncollectable.
On April 27 and 28, 2023, a bus driver for the Crawford County R-1 School District in rural Missouri molested a female student under the age of 12 on his route, and the bus's surveillance cameras recorded it. The driver, James H. Philpot, had a California record going back more than fifty years, including a 1968 indecent exposure charge and a charge of assault with intent to rape, yet the district hired him in 2021. Philpot pleaded guilty on February 5, 2024, to one count of molesting a child under 12 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Rather than sue, the family filed a charge with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and the district agreed in April 2024 to pay $3.1 million, settling before the commission issued a right-to-sue letter and before any lawsuit was filed. The girl's attorney, Grant Boyd, said the evidence he reviewed showed the district knew of Philpot's prior sex offense convictions, and that the family had been told the district's screening looked back only 20 to 25 years.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
