Judy Okenfuss retired as a partner in the Firm in 2022. For the prior seven years, Judy served as a Managing Partner to the Firm. In that role, Judy focused on a number of initiatives including innovation. She is the codeveloper of IMagine Labs, which is a process for accelerating the development of new legal services and products. She also spent considerable time ensuring that the hybrid work model which arrived suddenty during the pandemic continued to provide opportunities for mentoring, training, and teamwork, which are foundational to the culture of our Firm.
As a practicing lawyer, Judy was a member of our Firm's Litigation Group. Although she handled a number of different types of matters over the 30+ years she was at Ice Miller, the bulk of her practice focused on the representation of product manufacturers and distributers. Her practice included traditional product liabilitiy, warranty and indemnificiation matters as well as the defense of class actions. She also used the knowledge gained over the years to help companies identify, minimize and avoid risk. As part of this work, Judy assisted companies with product recalls and other work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Judy has defended cases in product liability, warranty and class actions in more than 30 jurisdictions around the United States. She has defended companies in a variety of national class actions and multi-district litigation cases, including cases relating to food labeling claims; Bisphenol-A in baby bottles; lead in children's products, including wooden trains; Medicaid benefits; insurance; medical devices; and other consumer products.
Judy graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Upon graduation, she was employed by Dow Corning Corporation as a technical service and development engineer where she developed products for use in the aerospace industry. Following Dow Corning, she was employed as a materials and process engineer at McDonnell Douglas Corporation where she participated in the development of advanced fighter aircraft.
She then earned her juris doctor from Washington University in 1991, where she graduated Order of the Coif. Currently, she serves on the Washington University School of Law Board of Advisors. Judy is also serves on the Board of the Indiana Bar Foundation and WFYI Public Mediat Station. She is admitted to practice law in the state of Indiana.
