Missouri’s Top 20 Law Firms 2023: Shook, Hardy & Bacon

Firm To Have Produced the Most State Leaders

Judge Elmo B. Hunter of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri practiced with the firm after World War II. Another former Shook attorney, Ross Roberts, was appointed to what was once Hunter’s federal seat in 1982.

Other federal judges to have practiced with Shook include Holly Lou Teeter, Angel Mitchell, the late David J. Waxse of the District of Kansas, Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Dow and Magistrate Judge Willie Epps Jr.

The firm also produced Missouri Supreme Court Judges Elwood Thomas and Laura Denvir Stith; Lisa White Hardwick and David W. Shinn of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District; and Mark Buser and Melissa Taylor Standridge of the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, state Rep. Brian Yates and state Sen. Jolie Justus served in the Missouri legislature in the mid-2000s. Rep. Kevin Corlew served in the House from 2014 to 2018.