Jennifer focuses her practice on environmental, toxic tort and exposure litigation. She has extensive experience in the field, having served as assistant district counsel for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as a special assistant attorney general for the State of Kansas while serving as environmental counsel for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). 

Jennifer has handled CERCLA, CWA permitting and RCRA matters. She has worked with geologists, hydrogeologists, chemists and engineers on remediation matters, provided counsel on solid waste and hazardous waste enforcement actions, and negotiated complex environmental settlements and cleanup ventures alongside the U.S. Department of Justice. Jennifer also served as tort claims attorney for the Army Corps of Engineers in the Kansas City district, and was bankruptcy counsel for KDHE. Jennifer uses her past experience as both a state and federal regulator to formulate effective defense strategies, often based on regulatory nuances and technical arguments. 

Since joining Shook Hardy & Bacon, Jennifer has assisted with the favorable negotiation and settlement of multi-state litigations, multiple fact-finding discovery exercises and the resolution of matters at the motion-to-dismiss stage. And as a key member of the Monsanto Roundup litigation, Jennifer was part of the trial team that obtained a complete defense verdict in the first Roundup trial in Missouri, which was reported by Law.com in “Bayer Notches Another Defense Win in Trial Over Monsanto’s Roundup.”

She received her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was a Shook, Hardy & Bacon Scholar and recipient of a Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation Scholarship.

Representative Matters

Shelton v. Monsanto (Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri) - Defense verdict in six-week trial involving claimed use of Roundup and the development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Plaintiff sought more than $160 million in damages.

Presentations

Understanding PFAS Regulation: An Administrative Law Primer, CLE Panel, American Bar Association, October 23, 2023 (with Jennifer Fischell and Steve Risotto).

Environmental Auditing/Self-Disclosures 101, Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference, September 2022.