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Former U.S. Rep. and Republican candidate for governor Kenny Hulshof will join the soon-to-be-merged Polsinelli Shughart firm on Sunday, the firm said late Tuesday.
Kenny Hulshof
Hulshof, who had represented Missouri’s 9th Congressional District since 1997, will be a shareholder in the firm’s public policy practice group. He will have offices in Kansas City, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
“Both the Polsinelli and Shughart law firms are highly respected throughout the United States,” Hulshof said in a written statement. “I am energized by the prospect of joining the team at this pivotal time in the firm’s history, and together with my new colleagues in the public policy group, bringing our clients unparalleled legal expertise at the state and federal level.”
Attempts to reach Hulshof for comment were unsuccessful.
Polsinelli Shughart will form this weekend from a merger of Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus and Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, both based in Kansas City. The merger was announced in October.
Terry Kilroy, a Shughart shareholder, said in an e-mail through a firm spokeswoman that Hulshof has had “a number of relationships with Shughart Thomson & Kilroy attorneys, and this is part of that outgrowth.”
In the public policy practice group, Hulshof will work in the areas of federal and state taxation, appropriations, advertising regulation, Food and Drug Administration regulation, First Amendment and commercial speech issues, intellectual property, health care and others.
“His expertise in a broad range of federal and state policy issues will be invaluable to our clients,” Polsinelli chairman Russ Welsh, who is traveling this week, said in a statement.
Kilroy added in a statement that Hulshof served with “distinction and great integrity” during his six terms in Congress.
“He is highly regarded by congressmen and senators of both parties,” Kilroy said, “and we are thrilled to have that kind of person join our already outstanding team in Washington.”
Hulshof was voted into Congress in 1996, when he defeated incumbent Harold Volkmer for the 9th District seat.
In January 2008, he announced his intentions to run for governor after Matt Blunt opted not to seek a second term. Hulshof defeated state Treasurer Sarah Steelman in the Republican primary, but he lost in the general election to Jay Nixon in November.
Before starting a career in politics, Hulshof, who has a law degree from the University of Mississippi, was a special prosecutor in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and worked as assistant public defender and assistant prosecutor in Cape Girardeau County.
