I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Nick Shaull | Partner Attorney
Biography
Nick was born in Brookings, South Dakota on January 11, 1984. He grew up in a small ranching and farming community of approximately 800 people in central South Dakota.
As a young man, Nick worked at his parents’ cattle sale barn and enjoyed participating in 4-H, raising Hereford steers and showing them at the county and state fairs each summer. This was in addition to playing basketball, football, and running track.
Nick dreamed of being a lawyer from a very young age. After graduating high school in 2002, Nick made the adjustment from a class of fifteen (15) students—most of whom he attended school from kindergarten through senior year—to attending the University of South Dakota, a campus of approximately 9,000 students. In pursuit of his dream of becoming a lawyer, Nick obtained degrees in both Criminal Justice and Political Science, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2006.
While South Dakota was all Nick had known and loved, when it came to deciding on a law school, he wanted to try something different, outside of his comfort zone. However, he still wanted to be close to home and in the Midwest. This led him to Drake University Law School and to Des Moines, Iowa, the place he would come to love, call home, and raise his family.
Nick has worked at the same place ever since moving to Des Moines: beginning as a law clerk in the summer of 2007, then as a lawyer following law school graduation in 2009. Nick has remained through multiple firm-member transitions, before buying and becoming partner in Spaulding & Shaull, PLC in 2019.
Nick practices with passion in helping injured Iowans, hard-working people like those he grew up with and called family and friends. Getting to advocate on their behalf on a daily basis is an honor.
Outside of work, Nick enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. He particularly enjoys watching sports and attending games with his family, especially their favorite team—the Chicago Bears!
Practice Areas
- Workers' Compensation
- Personal Injury
- Bad Faith
- Medical Malpractice
Education
- Drake University Law School, Des Moines, Iowa
- Juris Doctor - 2009
- Honors: Certificate of Public Service
- University of South Dakota
- B.S., Bachelor of Science - 2006
- Honors: summa cum laude
- Major: Criminal Justice
- Major: Political Science
Bar Admission
- Iowa, 2009
- U.S. District Court Southern District of Iowa, 2009
- U.S. District Court Northern District of Iowa, 2009
Honors
- Great Plains Rising Stars, Super Lawyers
- Top 10 Under 40 Attorney Award for the State of Iowa, National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys
- America’s Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys
- 10 Best Workers’ Compensation Attorneys
- Nation’s Top One Percent
- Super Lawyers, Great Plains Rising Stars
Professional Associations
- Iowa State Bar Association
- Iowa Association for Justice
- Iowa Association for Workers’ Compensation Attorneys
Favorable Outcomes
- Counsel in a legal team that secured a $4.2 million medical malpractice settlement against a hospital for improperly restraining their client too long, resulting in serious injury.
- $4.25 million recovery as co-counsel in a catastrophic automobile collision with serious injuries.
- Obtained a $325,000 recovery in a denied/contested workers’ compensation case where Claimant suffered a stroke after work hours and away from the employer’s place of business.
- $1.5 Million punitive damage award following Jury Trial in a bad faith case litigated in Federal District Court.
- Favorable verdict at Jury Trial in a civil assault case where multiple Plaintiffs were attacked and injured.
- Favorable verdict at Bench Trial while representing a defendant in a commercial contract dispute over goods and services provided; the District Court Judge determined that Defendant did not owe any damages; Rather, the Judge entered a counterclaim award of over $17,000 in favor of the defendant.
- 80% industrial disability award (or 375 weeks of benefits) entered in favor of the injured Claimant at Workers’ Compensation Arbitration Hearing in a case where the Employer and their Insurance Carrier were denying that a permanent injury had been sustained.
- Upon appeal, the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner ordered that Defendants pay the injured worker a running award of weekly healing period benefits during a continuous period of medical recovery; Ordered that Defendants pay for the injured Claimant’s past medical bills; and Awarded Claimant alternate medical care, whereby the injured Claimant received treatment with the provider of her choosing at Defendants’ expense. These rulings reversed the lower decisions of the Deputy Commissioner at Arbitration Hearing. The Industrial Commissioner’s favorable Appeal Decision was upheld upon Judicial Review to the District Court.
- $500,000 policy limits recovery for Plaintiff injured when attacked by a dog while riding his bicycle.
- $200,000 policy limits recovery for an elderly gentleman who sustained a broken leg when a negligent driver ran a red light.
- $200,000 policy limits recovery for a husband and wife injured in a collision caused by a driver in the oncoming lane of traffic on a rural highway.
- $100,000 policy limits recovery for bystander claim when mother witnessed injuries sustained by her two children.
- $800,000 recovery against a commercial building owner for injuries sustained when the Plaintiff, independent contractor, fell from a ladder while climbing to work on the roof.
- $585,000 workers’ compensation recovery in a case where the injured worker sustained permanent respiratory damage during an occupational explosion.
- $400,000 bad faith recovery based on an insurance carrier’s wrongful denial of a workers’ claim and their associated delay in providing medical care and weekly benefits to the injured worker.
- $385,000 recovery in a highly contested claim for workplace gross negligence; Plaintiff asserted entitlement to additional District Court damages for pain and suffering, over and above the administrative benefits afforded via Workers’ Compensation, which typically represent the sole/exclusive remedy for an individual injured in an occupational accident.
- $400,000 recovery in a workers’ compensation death case following extended litigation; Defendants continually denied any compensability on the basis that the worker was not acting within the scope of employment, alleging that the work had been completed for the day and that the employee was engaged in a personal task at the time of the incident.
- $534,671.54 jury verdict as co-counsel for an elderly woman who sustained permanent shoulder injuries after a negligent driver caused a motor vehicle collision by running a stop sign.
- $400,000 workers’ compensation settlement in what was a completely denied case, requiring two trials to a deputy workers’ compensation commissioner: the first produced a favorable ruling that the client’s injuries were indeed causally work-related and awarding $60,000 in back healing period benefits (i.e., benefits paid during a period of recovery); after the client recovered from surgeries, a second suit was initiated and a second hearing occurred just on the issues of extent of permanent disability and loss of future earning capacity—however, before a second decision could be entered by the deputy commissioner, defendants agreed to pay $400,000 to resolve the claims.”
- $450,000 recovery in a highly disputed trip and fall case.
Favorite Food
- Hot wings!
Favorite Movies
- Good Will Hunting
- Tombstone
- Top Gun
- A Few Good Men
Favorite Song
- “Midnight in Montgomery”, Alan Jackson


