Shook, Hardy & Bacon


Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P. is a U.S. law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2012, The National Law Journal ranked the firm as the 87th largest in the United States.

Notable clients

SHB also has represented pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Company, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Guidant and Wyeth. In 2007, Shook also won a $69.5 million verdict on behalf of client Sprint Nextel, against Vonage.
William H. Colby, an attorney at the firm, represented Nancy Cruzan in the right-to-die case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, as part of Shook's pro bono work.

Relationship with tobacco companies

The firm has represented five of the six major U.S. tobacco companies: American Brands, Brown & Williamson, RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris Inc. and Loews Inc.; a 1992 New York Times article about the firm was titled "'Tobacco' Its Middle Name, Law Firm Thrives, for Now."
In 1992, a federal judge all but accused the firm of orchestrating fraud on behalf of the tobacco industry and exerting attorney–client privilege to hide facts about tobacco's health hazards during the 1960s and 1970s.