Jon R. Gray joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon in 2007 after more than 20 years of serving as a circuit judge in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Missouri. He is licensed to practice before the Missouri Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
In August 2007, Judge Gray became chair of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association. He is also active in The Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and the Jackson County Bar Association. The Missouri Bar Foundation honored Judge Gray with the 2014 Spurgeon Smithson Award recognizing "significant contributions to the administration of justice."
Judge Gray has served as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in regional and national seminars since 1987 in addition to serving as faculty for the Kessler-Edison Program in Trial Techniques at Emory University School of Law and the Missouri Judicial College. His reviews and commentaries have appeared in legal and non-legal publications.
Judge Gray is a life member of the University of Missouri – Kansas City Alumni Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.