Honors and Awards: Named to Kansas City Business Journal's "Best of the Bar" 2006, 2007 & 2008, Named to Ingram's "40 Under Forty" 2007, Chosen for inclusion in Who's Who in America 2008, Chosen for inclusion in Who's Who of American Women 2008-09, Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers Top 50 Women 2008, United States Department of Justice, Outstanding Performance Award 1994

Special Licenses/Certifications: Laura is admitted to practice before the state courts of Missouri and Kansas, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. 1992, Kansas; 1996, Missouri.

Bar/Professional Activity: Laura is a Member of the American Bar Association and DRI.  She is on DRI's Food Safety Committee. 

Scholarly Lectures and Writings: Laura has presented a number of programs on case management and preparing cases for trial for SHB clients and their outside counsel and internally for SHB attorneys. She is a frequent speaker on a variety of litigation topics, including consumer protection class actions; food and beverage litigation; jury research; voir dire and jury selection; trial techniques; litigation communication; records creation; managing records retention, e-discovery and documents in high-stakes cases; defending and affirmatively using company documents at trial; the litigation environment on the West Coast; the applicability of the attorney-client privilege to corporate communications; and minimizing punitive damages. In addition to multiple client and firm presentations, Laura has spoken at seminars sponsored by the American Corporate Counsel Association-Midwest Chapter, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Earl E. O'Connor American Inn of Court, University of Kansas, West Legalworks, Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City and GMA (the Association of Food, Beverage and Consumer Products Companies). Laura has also provided legal commentary on a number of significant cases on national television news programs. Laura co-authored "A Brave New World: The Dawn of Hyper-Complex Litigation," which was the featured article in the July 7, 2008, edition of Bloomberg Law Reports®. Laura was the lead author of a Baylor Law Review article analyzing punitive damages trends and suggesting strategies for defending against punitive damages claims. She co-authored an article on litigation and non-litigation strategies to limit corporate liability for punitive damages, which was published in the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel Quarterly. She has also co-authored a paper addressing the risks of waiving privilege when disclosing confidential information to the government and external auditors.

Verdicts and Settlements: 1999- Smith v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, et al. (Missouri)  (Total Defense Verdict), 2003- Lucier v. Philip Morris USA, et al. (California)  (Total Defense Verdict)

Educational Background: 1992   J.D., University of Kansas School of Law  1989   B.S., with distinction, University of Kansas