WJA 2022: Dana Tucker Redwing

Bi-State Development

“Justice is an ongoing task, not just one event,” says Dana Tucker Redwing. “I do it every day by being equitable to all and having an impact on individuals, professionally and in life. It’s about how I show up in the world as a human being.”

After earning her BA from the University of Missouri, Redwing was uncertain about what she wanted to do as a career. So she worked for five years as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines before deciding to go to law school.

While in law school, Redwing found her passion for litigation. That was where she knew she could do the most good and be successful. She earned her JD from St. Louis University School of Law.

Just six years later, she was representing high-profile clients across the country with famed trial attorney Willie E. Gary. “My most exciting case while I was with Gary’s firm was a trade secrets case, working with the late Johnnie Cochran,” she says. “An individual had taken an idea to Disney World and was turned down. Then Disney World broke ground and developed the same idea. Similarly if not exactly. We received a jury verdict for our client.” During the trial of that case, she also sat for the Florida bar exam.

For 18 years, Redwing was with Fox Smith LLC (formerly Fox Galvin) and became the first African American woman partner there. She handled commercial litigation, medical malpractice, and product liability cases.

As Chief Counsel for the Missouri Attorney General’s Eastern Region for seven years, she managed a staff of more than 80 attorneys, investigators and support staff members. In addition, she personally managed a litigation caseload and represented clients in mediations, alternative dispute resolutions, settlement negotiations, and trials in state and federal courts.

In her current position with Bi-State Development, Redwing is applying everything she knows and has learned while teaching herself how to do her new job. She manages the corporate compliance and ethics program, and manages the helpline where complaints of any ethical violations from employees or vendors are received.

“My son, Jackson, is 20 now,” Redwing says. “I was a single mom practicing law for a significant time before I married my husband, Ron. I did it all and dealt with the madness because of Jackson. I had a greater purpose. I wanted to make sure I allowed him to have access and exposure to everything I did not have access and exposure to as a child.”

In all of the volunteer work she does, Redwing focuses on young people. “Some of my proudest moments are when I’ve mentored young people,” she says. “I stress to them that you don’t have to have the highest paying job or the highest profile job to be happy. You just have to be happy with what you do. Then you’ll do it well because you love to do it. I want them to be more productive citizens and pass on that same message.”