Voigts Receives Deans of the Trial Bar Award

Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Gene E. Voigts recently received the 2004 Deans of the Trial Bar Award at the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Assocation’s Bench-Bar Conference at Tan-Tar-A-Resort in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.

This award is presented annually and spotlights individuals whose superb litigation skills and professional demeanor are viewed as exemplary by their peers. Recipients of the honor must have practiced for at least 30 years or have reached the age of 60.

Since 1976, Voigts has been a Partner engaged in firm litigation matters. He has appeared in various civil (products liability, professional liability and commercial litigation) and criminal cases in state and federal courts. He has also argued cases at all levels of the state and federal appellate systems, including the Supreme Court of the United States. In addition to his litigation practice, he is the firm’s Vice Chairman and General Counsel and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

Voigts served as Chairman of the Merit Selection Commission appointed by Senators Kit Bond and John Danforth, a member of the Law School Dean Search and Advisory Committee for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, the Supreme Court Committee on Approved Indictments and Informations, the Committee to Draft a Modern Penal Code, the Supreme Court Committee to Prepare a Trial Judges Bench Book and the Missouri Council on Criminal Justice. In 1992, he was nominated by then-President George Bush to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. He has been a speaker and participant in litigation and business litigation continuing legal education seminars sponsored by The Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.