Kurt U. Schaefer

Mr. Schaefer is a partner of the firm. His practice focuses on litigation, environmental, health care, governmental relations, administrative, business and public utilities. He is a State Senator for the 19th Senate district.

Mr. Schaefer is the former General Counsel and Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Special Counsel to the Governor, Special Counsel to the Missouri Department of Agriculture and Assistant Attorney General.

As General Counsel and Deputy Director at DNR, Mr. Schaefer was responsible for all legal aspects of the State’s Environmental Regulatory and Enforcement Agency, which also owns and manages the State’s 83 state parks and historic sites, including litigation management, environmental, administrative, employment, personal injury, Sunshine Law and open records/meetings, contracts, property and land acquisition, criminal and constitutional law.

Among other career highlights, Mr. Schaefer oversaw the emergency response, environmental remediation and cleanup of the destruction caused by AmerenUE’s Taum Sauk Reservoir failure in December, 2005, and he was lead counsel for the department in assessing and negotiating settlement for the State's natural resource damages and park restoration of Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, valued at $179 million. He was also lead counsel for the department in negotiating state- and federally-required sewer infrastructure capital improvements with the City of Kansas City and the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, valued in excess of $3 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively.

Mr. Schaefer has litigated bench and jury trials of all kinds and complexities in numerous circuit and federal courts throughout Missouri and elsewhere. He has handled approximately 100 appellate actions before all three districts of the Missouri Court of Appeals and Missouri Supreme Court, and more than 90 administrative proceedings before various state permitting and licensing agencies and the Missouri Public Service Commission. Mr. Schaefer has drafted legislation that has been codified into Missouri law and engaged in state agency rule making.

Court Memberships

• Missouri
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

Honors

• Named “Freshman of the Year” by Missouri Chamber of Commerce
• Selected among The Best Lawyers in America®, 2010-2012
• Selected for Missouri Super Lawyers, 2011

Events

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section
• The Missouri Bar, Environmental and Energy Law Committee
• Boone County Bar Association
• Cole County Bar Association
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
• Missouri Chamber of Commerce
• U.S. Attorney’s Environmental Crimes Task Force - former member
• City of Columbia and Boone County Energy and Environment Commission - former member

Presentations

• Panelist, State of Water in Missouri, Fifth Annual 2010 Missouri Water Seminar, September 2010
• Speaker and panelist, Energy Panel on Clean Coal, Missouri Energy Summit, University of Missouri, April 2009