Lon Kouri, a native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, attended Augustana College and graduated with honors in 1977. He graduated from the University of South Dakota Law School in 1980, serving as an Editor of the South Dakota Law Review from 1979-1980.
Lon joined the law firm of May & Johnson, P.C. in 1980. He is the senior attorney in the Litigation Section, where his practice has been devoted to civil litigation, with an emphasis on insurance defense, insurance litigation, and professional liability defense. His clients include several major insurance companies in the United States. Lon is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the International Association of Defense Counsel, and the Defense Research Institute, the largest organization of defense attorneys in the country. He is the past President of the South Dakota Defense Lawyers Association and was honored to serve as the South Dakota Representative to the Defense Research Institute. Lon was selected for inclusion in Great Plains Super Lawyers.
In addition to his litigation practice, Lon is a trained and certified mediator. He has mediated over 400 civil disputes and now mediates over 150 disputes per year. He has successfully mediated a wide variety of civil claims, including class action lawsuits, wrongful death actions, catastrophic injury actions, medical malpractice and professional negligence claims, complex multiparty construction claims, commercial and business disputes, including shareholder claims and first party insurance bad faith claims. As part of his neutral practice, Lon also has arbitrated numerous civil claims in various areas including personal injury, medical malpractice, labor contracts and construction disputes.
Lon is a member of the American Academy of ADR Attorneys and is certified by the Academy as a mediator/arbitrator. He is also a member of the International Academy of Dispute Resolution and is the chairman of the South Dakota Bar Association Committee on ADR.
