Polsinelli is a law firm in the United States headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The firm currently has more than 750 attorneys in 17 offices. Polsinelli was the fastest-growing law firm in the U.S. for seven years (2008-2014), according to The American Lawyer.
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History
The Polsinelli firm was started in 1972 by Jim Polsinelli and two other young attorneys in a small office to serve business and real estate clients in the historic Country Club District in Kansas City, Missouri.
Polsinelli represented small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the 1980s. In the mid-1980s the firm expanded its trial practice by adding a national products liability practice.
In 1991, Polsinelli's Kansas City office moved to its current location in the Plaza Steppes building in Kansas City. In the 1990s, Polsinelli continued to expand both in the number of attorneys. In 2000, Polsinelli created a Science and Technology group with patent and business attorneys focused on the emerging biotech industry.
After opening an office in Overland Park, Kansas in 1988, Polsinelli further expanded by establishing offices in St. Louis in 1991, Topeka, Kansas in 1995 and Edwardsville, Illinois in 2002. With its June 2004 merger with Suelthaus, PC, a 35-lawyer St. Louis-based entrepreneurial business law firm founded in 1929, the firm doubled the size of its St. Louis office. In July 2005, it opened offices in Washington, D.C. and New York. In January 2006, Nasharr & Shea LLC, a small banking and real estate firm, merged into the firm, giving Polsinelli an office in Chicago.
On February 1, 2009, the 300 attorney Polsinelli firm merged with Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, P.C., a 180 lawyer Kansas City based, regional law firm with a national trial reputation and a business practice. Shughart Thomson & Kilroy (STK) traces its roots to 1939 when Harry Thomson graduated from law school and joined Henry Shughart. The third-named partner, Jack Kilroy, Sr., joined the firm after World War II. STK grew in large part due to its recognition of premier trial lawyers.
Geographically, STK opened an Overland Park, Kansas office in 1983; a Springfield, Missouri office in 1997; and a Denver, Colorado office in 1998. STK opened offices in Phoenix and St. Joseph, Missouri through mergers in 2002 with Goodwin Raup, a Phoenix trial firm and with Watkins Boulware Lucas & Minor.
During 2011, the firm underwent additional growth with new offices in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California (acquisition of the Quateman LLP law firm - California's largest women-owned municipal bond counsel firm).
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Notable cases
- Reichle v. Howards - Case decided by the Supreme Court 8-0 in 2012 in which Secret Service detail of Dick Cheney had not infringed on protestor's free speech rights when they arrested him.
- Coach America bankruptcy and restructuring.
Headquarters
Polsinelli is headquartered in Plaza Vista on the Country Club Plaza. Prior to that, the firm has been headquartered in the Country Club Plaza in the Plaza Steppes building starting in 1991. Earlier it had been located in the Plaza Theatre building in the Plaza. Its attempts to move to a new headquarters in recent years has met with some controversy. In 2010 it proposed moving into a new 8-story glass tower at 47th and Broadway on the east side of the Plaza. That structure would have involved tearing down a vintage 1920s Plaza building in the Plaza's traditional low rise Spanish style and replacing it with a glass highrise. The plan was eventually withdrawn after considerable protests.
In 2012 it announced plans to tear down the bankrupt and unfinished Moshe Safdie-designed West Edge building that had originally been built for Bob Bernstein on the west side of the Plaza and replace it with a 10-story structure designed by 360 Architecture called Plaza Vista. On February 12, 2013, a natural gas explosion in the gas line leading into JJ's Restaurant across the street from the project leveled the restaurant and heavily damaged the Plaza Vista's glass curtain wall. The Plaza Vista's roof also had to be replaced because of embers. Despite setbacks, contractors were able to finish the project and the firm was able to move into their new headquarters on November 1, 2013.
Notable Attorneys
- Martin Frost, Texas Congressman
- John C. Holstein, Missouri Supreme Court judge
- Alan Wheat, Missouri Congressman
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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