Departments

Phone: 816.374.0573
Fax: 816.817.0095

Jennifer Gille Bacon

Senior Partner

Jennifer Gille Bacon is a shareholder at Polsinelli Shughart PC where she has built a substantial practice in business litigation and antitrust law, and is credited with an equally impressive record as a legal and civic leader. She served on trial teams that obtained the largest business trial verdicts ever upheld in Missouri ($35 million and $70 million), and the largest settlement (over $400 million).

Her client representation includes business clients in most industries, including healthcare, energy, automotive, pharmaceuticals, financial services, trucking and insurance.

An outstanding leader in her field, Ms. Bacon is a past president of The Missouri Bar and past chair of statewide commissions on multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary practice. She currently chairs the Missouri Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee, which oversees the state’s lawyer disciplinary system, and serves as a member of the Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges.  In 2010, Ms. Bacon received Missouri’s Purcell Professionalism Award, and was also honored with the Spurgeon Smithson Award for extraordinary service and dedication to the legal profession in 2003.

Ms. Bacon has earned court admissions to the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit; the U.S. District Courts in Kansas and the Western District of Missouri; and the Supreme Courts of Missouri and Kansas.

Memberships and Affiliations

  • The Missouri Bar
    • Missouri Bar President, 1998-1999
    • Spurgeon Smithson Award for Extraordinary Service and Dedication to the Legal Profession, 2003
    • Statewide Commissions on Multi-Jurisdictional and Multi-Disciplinary Practice, Chair 
    • Board of Governors (representing the 24,000 lawyers of the state), 1987—
    • Governing Council of the Young Lawyers Section (representing all lawyers age 35 and under), 1979
    • First woman chairperson, 1985-1986
  • Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee, 2005-present
    • Chair, 2008-present
  • Missouri Judicial Commission, 2006-present
    •  Chair, 2008
  • American Bar Association
    •  House of Delegates, 2003-2006
  • Lawyers Association of Kansas City
    •  Served eight years on the Jackson County Disciplinary Committee, which polices lawyer conduct in the Kansas City area
  • Barstow School
    • Chair, 2007-2009
    • Board, 2003-present
  • Gillis Center     
    • Chair, 1994
    • Board of Directors, 1987-1995
  • Kansas City Club 
    •  Board of Directors, 1990-1998
    •  President, 1997
    •  Strategic Planning Committee,  Chair
  • Women’s Christian Association
    • Board of Directors, 1996-present
    • Chair, 2003-2005
    • Fundraising Campaign Chair

Distinctions

  • Ms. Bacon is the recipient of the Purcell Professionalism Award, presented by the Missouri Bar Foundation.  This award acknowledges outstanding professionalism by a Missouri lawyer who has consistently demonstrated an exceptional degree of competency, integrity and civility in both professional and civic activities
  • Selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, 2005-2011
  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2005-2012
    • Commercial Litigation
    • Litigation-Antitrust
  • Ms. Bacon was honored in the Kansas City Business Journal's "Best of the Bar" for 2008, 2009
  • Junior Achievement’s "Top 25 Up & Comers"
  • Recognized by The Squire as one of Johnson County’s "powerful women"
  • Ms. Bacon was recognized by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the "Women Who Mean Business" for 2002

 

Publications & Presentations

2009
Polsinelli Shughart PC Ninth Annual Business Law Institute
Co-presented with James M. Humphrey.