Beardsley, Jensen & Lee

Where the firm works and what it covers

Rapid City sits at the edge of the Black Hills, and this practice has worked from there since 1997. The firm serves individuals, families, and businesses across South Dakota, with a base in Pennington County. It describes itself as a full-service firm, and the range of work backs that up.

The core areas are personal injury, workers' compensation, and estate planning and administration. Alongside those sit business law, construction and professional liability, insurance defense, and bad faith insurance matters. That mix lets the firm act for injured people in some files and for businesses or insurers in others.

The kinds of cases the firm takes

Within personal injury, the firm lists car, pedestrian, bicycle, and bus accidents. It also names industrial, construction, and work accidents. A client hurt on a job site and a client hurt on the road would both find a fit here.

Estate planning and administration rounds out the everyday work for families. Business law and construction liability point toward commercial clients. In my opinion, that spread suggests a firm built to keep long-term clients rather than one narrow line of cases.

How the team is built

The firm names nine attorneys and reports more than 100 years of combined experience. Several are partners, and the roster mixes long-tenured lawyers with newer additions. A team-based approach is stated for each case, which fits a bench of this size.

The founding partners

Steven C. Beardsley is a partner whose civil litigation work covers personal injury, construction, commercial matters, workers' compensation, medical malpractice, insurance defense, and product liability. He earned a B.S. from South Dakota State University in 1975 and a law degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law. Gary D. Jensen, also a partner, earned a B.S. from the same university in 1975 and his J.D. from the University of South Dakota in 1978, with a practice that runs from personal injury and construction litigation to insurance disputes, health care matters, family law, and professional negligence.

Brad J. Lee earned a business degree from Jamestown College in 1999 and his law degree from the University of South Dakota in 2003. He clerked for United States District Court Judge Richard H. Battey, then joined the Rapid City firm that later became Beardsley, Jensen & Lee, where he is a partner.

Litigators who joined the bench

Jessica L. Larson holds a business degree from Black Hills State University (2005) and a law degree from the University of South Dakota (2008). In law school she was Editor-in-Chief of the Great Plains Natural Resources Journal and sat on the USD Trial Team, then clerked for the Third Judicial Circuit of South Dakota. Brett A. Poppen grew up in De Smet, South Dakota, studied political science at South Dakota State University (2005), and earned his law degree from the University of South Dakota in 2009 before clerking in the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Matthew J. McIntosh grew up in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Jamestown plus a master's and law degree from the University of Wyoming. He joined the firm in 2015 and became a partner in January 2020, and his work covers civil litigation, criminal defense, workers' compensation, and insurance defense.

Mike S. Beardsley was raised in Rapid City, earned a B.S. from Montana State University in 2006, and took his law degree from the University of South Dakota in 2010, where he was on the Mock Trial Team. He joined in September 2010 and is a partner.

The newest additions

Elliot J. Bloom came to law from science. He earned a biochemistry degree from Augustana College in 2011 and worked in the chemical industry for three years, then earned his J.D. from the University of South Dakota in 2017 and clerked for the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Conor P. Casey holds undergraduate degrees in English and comparative philosophy plus an MBA from Chadron State College. He graduated from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2021 and joined the firm that year, after interning there in 2019.

A thread through the credentials

One pattern stands out. Most of these lawyers trained at the University of South Dakota School of Law, and several clerked for state or federal courts before entering practice. As a reviewer, I read that shared grounding as a sign of a firm rooted in the state where it works.

The backgrounds are not identical. A couple of attorneys came through Wyoming and Montana schools, and one arrived from the chemical industry. That range of starting points can help a team that handles both technical liability work and family estate files.

How cases are handled

The firm says it prepares each case for litigation and will go to trial when a matter calls for it. It also pursues mediation and arbitration where those routes fit. That two-track posture is common among civil firms that act for both plaintiffs and defense clients.

A team-based method is stated across the practice. For a client, that can mean more than one lawyer knows the file. It also suits the breadth of work, since a construction claim and an estate plan draw on different skills.

How to read this listing

This review rests on what the firm publishes about itself, checked against our records. It names the practice areas, the attorneys, and the year the firm started. It does not carry case results, settlement figures, or client counts, because the firm doesn't publish those, and I won't fill that gap with guesses.

What a reader can take from it is clear enough. This is an established Rapid City practice with a deep bench, a long span of combined experience, and work that reaches from road accidents to business disputes to estate files. For someone in western South Dakota weighing local counsel, that profile is a reasonable place to start.