Garry Lewis grew up in the farm lands of Southeastern Missouri-called the “Boot Heel” working hard on a rented farm with his father, mother and four siblings. After high school he moved to Columbia, Missouri to go to college and eventually received his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri.
His graduation happened during the height of the draft during the Vietnam War. Instead of being drafted, he took the advice of his father and followed in his father’s footsteps, a U.S. Navy enlisted man who served in the Pacific in WWII. Garry joined the United States Navy where he excelled and became a jet flight instructor teaching jet carrier landings, aerobatics and formation flying. He then served as a tactical fighter pilot in the F-4 Phantom, flying from the deck of the USS America. He then flew the F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft (the plane made famous in the movie “Top Gun”) and finally served as Assistant flight Deck Officer aboard the Carrier USS Kittyhawk, all before leaving active service for a legal career. He continued his association with the U.S. Navy, joining the Naval Reserves and eventually retired with the O-6 rank of Captain. He continues to be an active civilian pilot and continues his enjoyment of piloting jet aircraft.
Using the military’s GI Bill, he eventually went to law school and attained his degree from the University of Missouri. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1979 and to the Louisiana Bar in 1980.
Garry has a long history of success in helping injured persons or the family of those that are killed because of someone else’s negligence. He has an excellent financial track record of success, especially in cases where a person is killed or injured because of an unreasonably dangerous product.
In the 1980’s his clients’ family member was killed when her Ford truck vibrated into reverse and backed over her when she exited her vehicle to get her mail. She was the 126th person to die from this defect (many times referred to as a “Park to Reverse” defect). Up until this case, Ford had done very well in defending these cases by proving (correctly) that it was impossible for the truck to go from park to reverse on its own. However, Garry reframed the issue and no longer called it “park to reverse” but rather “false park”; because the shift indicator falsely indicated that the truck was completely in park but in reality it had not locked into park and vibrations from a fast idling motor would throw the truck into reverse. Ford agreed to settle during trial. It was a sealed agreement but the St. Louis Post Dispatch described it as Ford’s largest settlement in the Park to Reverse cases, which had previously gotten much exposure on the show “60 minutes.” Ford thereafter worked diligently to correct this defect.
He was involved in several other major cases resulting not only in significant financial help to those injured but giving financial reasons to manufacturers and designers to implement product improvement on behalf of grieving families to prevent future similar injuries or death to others. Another such product improvement in the late 1980s encouraged by an award to his client (but also sealed by agreement with the manufacturers) was the current vertical slot-in-thread design on beverage bottles. This suit involved, ALCOA Aluminum, Coca Cola, and Continental Can. The slot-in-thread design limited the once common risk of cap blow off when opening a warm or agitated bottle of a carbonated beverage. This defect had unnecessarily caused several people to lose their eyesight, including his client. This design has prevented countless injuries and is now the standard design on all carbonated beverages worldwide.
Garry is an honorary member of the law firm. Mostly retired from the practice of law, a large majority of his time is now devoted to his private real estate business. However, he still takes on select cases involving serious injury and wrongful death when someone is injured as a result of a defective product. Joshua Lewis always has available jet aircraft at his disposal, including Garry’s three private jets, and can be where required quickly.