The POWER List: Jeffrey D. Morris

Berkowitz Oliver Williams Shaw & Eisenbrandt, Kansas City

Jeff Morris has been the defense attorney for some of the best-known defendants in fraud cases in Missouri.

He represented J. Scott Brown, the Kansas lawyer convicted in 2012 for his part in a real estate scheme run by Martin Sigillito. Brown pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in connection with a Ponzi scheme involving land-development deals in Britain. He was ordered to pay more than $34 million in restitution.

Morris also represented Scott Tucker, a Kansas businessman convicted in 2017 of running a $2 billion payday-loan operation that, to avoid regulators, tried to partner with Native American tribes that operate outside of state jurisdiction. Tucker’s case was chronicled in an episode of the Netflix series “Dirty Money.”

Morris’ practice also includes complex and high-stakes commercial litigation, legal malpractice defense, internal investigations and corporate governance matters.

Morris is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He also serves on the board of directors of the Midwest Innocence Project and the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired. He earned his law degree from the University of Kansas in 1993.