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 our trial practice by adding a national products liability practice. The firm also broadened its practice to become one of the premier real estate law and development firms in the Kansas City region. Our litigation work continued to grow, serving both our business clients and other clients in state and federal courts predominately in the Midwest, though our attorneys tried cases from New York to California. Responding to the economic conditions of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the firm expanded its bankruptcy practice, regionally and nationally.
In 1991, Polsinelli’s Kansas City office moved to our current location on the top six floors of the Plaza Steppes building in Kansas City. In the 1990s, we continued to expand both in the number of attorneys and the areas of expertise. As a business law firm, our core practice remains focused on midsize entrepreneurial companies although we have now developed an institutional client base, including Fortune 50 companies. The Employee Benefits, Health Care and Nonprofit practices grew significantly during this time. In the late 1990s, the firm added a nationally focused Financial Services Department servicing clients on all debt-related issues from lending to securitization to bankruptcy. In 2000, we 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, we 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 us 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 a 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 respected Phoenix trial firm and with Watkins Boulware Lucas & Minor, the oldest and most respected law firm in St. Joseph, Missouri.
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). The addition of these offices was part of a strategic growth plan of the firm to better serve the increasing needs of clients.
Polsinelli Shughart currently has 570 attorneys in 16 cities from New York to Los Angeles. The firm is a super regional power with national practices in Financial Services, Health Care, Real Estate, Science and Technology, Life Sciences, Business Litigation, Construction and Nonprofit law with strong regional practices in all aspects of business and trial practices. Throughout our growth and as we look to the future, Polsinelli Shughart builds on its founders’ vision of law firm providing clients with quality, service and value.
Polsinelli Shughart PC. In California, Polsinelli Shughart LLP.