Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Employment and Labor

Senior Trial Counsel - Litigation and Investigations

Elaine has more than 30 years' experience as a trial lawyer. Her practice focuses primarily on employment litigation, fiduciary litigation and business torts, in addition to training and counseling clients on employment issues. She has tried a wide variety of jury trials in state and federal court. She has also tried arbitrations, bench trials, and the largest individual taxpayer case in the history of the United States Tax Court. Her litigation experience includes contract disputes, class actions, employment litigation, trusts, estates and fiduciary litigation, whistleblower claims and non compete litigation. Elaine's experience also includes serving as an expert witness and as an independent investigator.

Elaine served as the global leader of the Labor and Employment Group at Bryan Cave for eight years. She is a national speaker on litigation techniques and employment law, served on the editorial board of the Practical Litigator, and has been an active member of the American Bar Association, serving in a number of national leadership roles in the Labor and Employment Section and frequently speaking at national meetings. She was awarded the David Dixon Award for outstanding achievement in appellate advocacy, the KCMBA President’s Award for founding an internship program for inner city youth, the Hon. H. Michael Coburn Community Service Award by Legal Aid of Western Missouri, and was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Elaine has been repeatedly named by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the "Best of The Bar" in the Kansas City area, she has been repeatedly named a "Super Lawyer" in Kansas and Missouri (including "Top 50 Women" in Kansas and Missouri) and she has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America. Elaine has also been named by USA Chambers as a leader in Labor and Employment. She was selected by the Kansas City Business Journal to the Women Who Mean Business group and by Kansas City Magazine as one of the city’s Influential Women. She also received the Women’s Justice Award from Missouri Lawyers’ Weekly, recognizing contributions to the practice of law and leadership as a female litigator. She was named in 2017 as one of Ingram's Magazine's "50 Missourians You Should Know."

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT & HONORS Missouri Lawyers POWER List in top Missouri Employment Law Attorneys Saint Luke's Hospital Board of Directors, President The Best Lawyers in America© 2022 for Litigation: Labor & Employment Law Missouri Lawyers Weekly, 'Power 30' Missouri Employment Lawyer, 2020-2022 National World War I Museum and Memorial, Board of Trustees, Former Chair; Executive Committee Member Nelson Atkins Museum Business Council, Executive Committee, Former Co-Chair The Pembroke Hill School, Board of Trustees, Former Executive Committee, Treasurer, Secretary, and Vice-President NCCJ (National Conference for Community and Justice, aka National Conference of Christians and Jews), Former Regional President and Executive Committee member PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Kansas City Bar Foundation, Former Member of the Board of Directors ABA Sections of Labor and Litigation, the Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Associations Women Lawyer’s Association The Practical Litigator, National Editorial Board Member UMKC Law School Minority Affairs Committee, Former Co-Chair with Judge Fernando Gaitan Western District of Missouri Federal Practice Committee (Advisory Committee to the Court), Former Chair College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Fellow