Legal Limelight: Lauren Tucker McCubbin

Lauren Tucker McCubbin is a shareholder at Polsinelli in Kansas City and vice chair of its commercial litigation practice. In 2013, she was on a Polsinelli team that represented a hospital in litigation following its 2003 purchase of the largest transfer of a nonprofit hospital to a not-for-profit hospital. The hospital was ordered to pay at least $161.9 million to fulfill obligations to the Kansas City-area health system it had purchased a decade earlier.

Tucker McCubbin aimed to be a lawyer ever since she was in the first grade. She earned her law degree from Washington University in 2003 and has served on the Board of Governors since 2014. That same year, she served as president for the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations. She also has held past vice president roles in finance and fundraising for the organization.

Tucker McCubbin is the daughter of Larry Tucker, who served as president for The Missouri Bar from 1995 to 1996. When she won a 2011 Up & Coming Award, she named him as her legal hero.

Tucker McCubbin also was the first bar president in three years to address a fully in-person annual meeting audience. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 events were held online.

The board also named Megan Phillips as president-elect and elected Shelly Dreyer as vice president last September, setting the bar on track to be led by women for three consecutive years for the first time in its history.

Tucker McCubbin will serve as president until next year’s meeting in Kansas City, when Phillips takes over.

What is the best part of your practice?

Hands down, the best part of my practice is helping people. Whether I am helping my clients to resolve a dispute prior to litigation or in litigation, or I am helping them with risk management or loss prevention analyses on the front end of a new venture or transaction, my goal is to help my clients’ businesses thrive while making their lives better. And I have the privilege of having enough variety in my practice that every day is intellectually challenging and stimulating. I love being a lawyer and am particularly grateful to practice with the phenomenal people at Polsinelli.

What is something that would surprise people about you?  

I am, at my core, a very shy person.  I have to work to be out-going in social settings — particularly in smaller group settings.  And yet, I love performing — arguing in court, speaking to large crowds, running meetings, what have you. I often fall back on my vocal performance training — I am a classically trained Soprano — to control my breath, slow my speech, and harness my nerves so that I can perform on command. It would not phase me to speak or sing before a crowd of thousands, but it makes me uncomfortable to practice a speech or sing for just one or two people.

What is the best career advice you have received?

Your single greatest asset is your reputation.  We all start in this business with the presumption that we are ethical, competent, and professional.  Our reputation is ours to reinforce or to lose over the course of our careers.  Each interaction with clients, colleagues, opposing counsel, judges, and the public is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken not only our reputation, but the reputation of the legal profession. This does not require perfection, or even the absence of mistakes, however. It requires regularly committing and recommitting to service, excellence, integrity, kindness, and professionalism.

What is your favorite thing to do away from work?  

Spending time with my husband, Gabe, and our three children — Paige, Ainsley, and James.  They are the greatest blessings in my life and my biggest source of joy. They are helpful, patient, supportive, loving, and ridiculously funny.  They make me laugh every single day.  Whether watching Paige (a/k/a “Toria Paige”) play a gig, watching Ainsley cheer, sampling something Ainsley whipped up in culinary class, marveling at James’ latest artistic creation, traveling to our beloved Chatham, Massachusetts, or just catching up at the dinner table — there is no place I would rather be.

What is your biggest accomplishment this year?

Becoming President of the Missouri Bar.  I have long enjoyed serving Missouri lawyers through committee work, on the Young Lawyers Section Council, and the Board of Governors.  It is truly an honor to serve as the President.  I am really enjoying traveling and meeting so many of our members and learning about all the good they are doing in their jobs and in the community, as well as ways we can improve the lives of all Missourians.  I am proud to be a Missouri lawyer, and very humbled to lead this organization.