Departments

Phone: 816.360.4343
Fax: 816.572.5343

James E. Bird

Shareholder

During his 25 years as chair of Polsinelli Shughart's Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring practice group, James E. Bird has focused on bankruptcy, business reorganization, business loan workouts, debtor/creditor rights, and insurance company insolvencies.  Mr. Bird represents debtor corporations, secured lenders, unsecured creditor committees, debenture holders, employees, landlords, shareholders, trustees and asset purchasers.

 

A broad spectrum of industries, including insurance, real estate development, airline, trucking, manufacturing, health care, nonprofit, utilities, agriculture (including farm cooperatives), service and retail, look to Mr. Bird for guidance and representation. 

Memberships and Affiliations

  • American Bar Association
  • The Missouri Bar
  • Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
    • Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Committee, twice former Chairman
  • Turnaround Professionals Association, former Officer
  • American Bankruptcy Institute
  • Turnaround Management Association
    • Missouri Chapter, former member Board of Directors
  • Volunteer Attorney Project
  • Cornerstones of Care
    • Board of Directors, former Chairman
  • Marillac Children’s Center
    • Former Chairman and Member, Board of Directors
    • Co-Chair, Marillac Children’s Center 1996 Festival of Trees, Longview Farms
  • Industrial Development Authority of Clay County, Missouri, former Member
  • Board of Police Commissioners, North Kansas City, Missouri, former Member

Distinctions

  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2005-2012, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law
  • Selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, 2006-2011
  • Honored by The Kansas City Business Journal as "Best of the Bar" in Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring, 2010, 2011
  • AV Rated Martindale Hubbell
  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Frank P. Barker, Jr., Chief Judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Missouri.

Experience

  • Debtors’ counsel in two of the largest bankruptcies ever filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri
  • Counsel to the creditors committee in several of the largest trucking company bankruptcies filed in the U.S.
  • Represented the City of St. Louis, the domestic hub for Trans World Airlines, in that airline’s first bankruptcy proceedings
  • Co-counsel to Bondholders committee in chapter 11 of Farmland Industries
  • Co-counsel to creditors committee in chapter 11 of national rural cellular telephone company (Crossroads Wireless)
  • Successfully obtained approval of a presolicited prepackaged reorganization plan in a record 45 days for a publicly traded holding company with five subsidiaries

Publications & Presentations

2007