Allison L. Bergman

Allison is a partner of Lathrop & Gage LLP and has recently concluded serving her second elected term on the firm’s executive committee. She is also the chair of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee. She is a lead transactional partner of the firm’s transportation practice and a member of the Real Estate Section and Public Law Team. Allison’s expertise is recognized on a national, state and local level:

2012:  Selected by Chambers USA as a Leading Lawyer for Business

2011:  Missouri Lawyer’s Media selects Allison as the best Business Practitioner for the Western District of Missouri, an award given to women exemplifying the highest ideals of the legal profession

2010:  Allison’s transportation and development expertise lands her on the cover as the feature story for Thomson Reuter’s annual Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer’s Magazine

2010:  Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers for Business identifies Allison as a lead attorney in the firm’s Nationwide (Transportation) practice

2009:  Kansas City Business Journal names Allison as one of Kansas City’s Women Who Mean Business

2008:  The Missouri Bar Association selects Allison as one of five finalists for Lawyer of the Year for the State of Missouri

2007:  Kansas City Business Magazine identifies Allison as one of Kansas City’s Influential Women

2007–2011:  Allison named as a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer

Transportation & Industrial Development. By knowing or learning a client’s business, Allison quickly emerges as a critical partner. She offers legal advice that is strategic, efficient and helpful to the bottom line. Allison has considerable experience with corporate governance and regulatory work as an officer and counsel for railroad and related entities. She has negotiated rail transport, industrial, real estate and service agreements, some of which required advocacy before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.  She has also provided legal services on multimillion dollar expansion and infrastructure projects west of the Mississippi.

Allison has represented municipalities and private companies on rail improvement and industrial development projects, and previously served as assistant real estate and legislative counsel to Kansas City’s local transit authority. To get the job done, Allison can also tap into the expertise of other attorneys in the firm with experience in this area. One transportation client of Allison’s stated in USNews.com for its “Best Law Firms in the US” special section, that “Lathrop & Gage is one of the few firms that has a solid practice group when it comes to the variety of issues railroads face.”

Allison also structures energy resource, sale, and development projects. In fact, she is currently working on the development of a 1,000 acre wind power transload facility which is poised to be one of the largest in the Midwest. She has represented utility companies and industrial manufacturers on matters unique to such entities, including complex purchase agreements, negotiating and documenting public/private partnerships, and identifying project financing structures. Her experience has included drafting landfill gas agreements and representing clients on the strategic development of alternative fuels projects and facilities.

Development Initiatives. Complementing her extensive railroad and industrial development experience, Allison also has more than a decade of experience implementing housing and commercial real estate development projects. And, she does so successfully. As one housing development client recently stated in the 2010 Thomson Reuters Super Lawyers magazine, “Allison is a mover and shaker . . . she opens doors. She keeps her finger on the pulse.” By knowing who to talk to and how to put it together, Allison has been integral to corporate headquarters projects, multimillion dollar industrial expansion projects, the comprehensive redevelopment of entire urban neighborhood, the redevelopment of historic properties into affordable rate housing, and hotel developments. She has structured complex transactions involving tax increment financing, tax abatement, revenue bonds, low-income housing tax credits, historic tax credits, sale-leaseback, transportation development and community improvement districts. To ensure project success, Allison often advocates her development projects before governmental agencies and tribunals.

Allison also routinely leads complex real estate projects that involve the analysis and application of federal state, and local land use regulatory and zoning laws. Her expertise is documented in the Federal Regulations section of the Missouri Bar Association’s Real Estate Practice Handbook, for which she has been a co-author from 2000-2010.

Court Memberships

• Kansas
• Missouri
• Missouri Court of Appeals
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

Honors

• Selected by Chambers USA as a Leading Lawyer for Business, 2012
• Selected as Best Business Practitioner for the Western District of Missouri by Missouri Lawyer’s Media, 2011
• Selected Best of the Bar for Real Estate by the Kansas City Business Journal, 2011
• Featured in 2010 Chambers USA’s Leading Law Firms, Transportation: Rail category (nationwide)
• Selected as finalist by Missouri Bar Association for Lawyer of the Year for the State of Missouri, 2008
• Selected as one of Women Who Mean Business, Kansas City Business Journal, 2009
• Selected as Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer, 2007-2011
• Named One of Kansas City’s Influential Women, Kansas City Business Magazine, 2007

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• The Urban Lawyer, Editor-in-Chief  UMKC Law Review
• Regional Ellison Moot Court Competition

Professional Affiliations

• Mayoral appointment to the Employee Retirement System Commission for Kansas City, Missouri, Trustee, 2011-2012
• Mayoral appointment to the Kansas City, Missouri Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Education’s Project Rise, 2011-2012
• Mayoral appointment to the Union Hill Special Business District, 2012
• Sheffield Place, President, 2011-2012
• American Railway Development Association, 2010-2012
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 2009-2012
• American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, 2010-2011
• Metropolitan Energy Center, Board of Directors, 2002-2010
• Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge, Class of 2005
• Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions, Class of 2003
• Urban Land Institute
• Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Kansas City, Missouri Committee
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
• Missouri Bar Association
• Kansas Bar Association
• KU Architectural Design Studio, Steering Committee
• Broadway Corridor Beautification Committee
• Downtown Council, Blighted Buildings Subcommittee

Publications

• Co-author, Missouri Bar CLE Handbook, Real Estate - Chapter on Federal Regulations, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011
• Covering Your Assets: Missouri’s New Limited Liability Partnership Law, Volume 63, No. 4, Summer 1995