Stinson Adds Corporate and Technology Attorneys in St. Louis and Kansas City

01.22.2020

Stinson LLP is pleased to welcome partners Tessa Trelz and David Jennings to the St. Louis Corporate Finance division. Trelz and Jennings bring significant technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate law experience. In Kansas City, Stinson welcomes Partner David J. Kim and attorney Michael Grigsby, both focusing their practices on transactional matters including finance, mergers and acquisitions.

“These attorneys add tremendous depth and breadth to our Corporate Finance group,” said Jack Bowling, chair of the division. “Their impressive backgrounds in technology-related business transactions will be of great benefit to our clients, as will their strong track records on complex, high-value corporate matters.”

Trelz provides counsel on corporate transactional and governance matters for public and private companies, guiding clients in a variety of industries, including finance/payments and manufacturing, through mergers and acquisitions and corporate structure, governance, compliance and finance matters. Trelz frequently handles joint ventures, licensing arrangements, outsourcings and other strategic commercial transactions in which technology and intellectual property assets are key. She is regularly listed in Best Lawyers in America® and Super Lawyers©. A career-long leader in the advancement of women in the law, she has been honored, among numerous other professional awards and recognitions, by being named a St. Louis Most Influential Business Woman by the St. Louis Business Journal and by receiving both an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and the Chancellor’s Women Trailblazer Award from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Jennings counsels large and small technology-based businesses, universities and emerging companies on intellectual property development and commercialization matters, including all types of licensing, software services, sponsored research and other contract negotiations and enforcement. He also focuses on supporting the technology and intellectual property components of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other business transactions for clients in a wide variety of industries including software, fintech, manufacturing, consumer products, chemical and bio life sciences. He has been recognized repeatedly by Best Lawyers in America® in the areas of Biotechnology and Life Sciences Law, and is an active member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Kim advises businesses and public and private companies through mergers and acquisitions and related transactions. He frequently works with owners and investors on financings, private equity and venture capital investments, and advises on corporate formation and governance, risk management and tax law. He also works on immigration and EB-5 matters, and blockchain technology and digital currencies. A native of Kansas City, he has been heavily involved in the region’s economic development and growth both in his corporate law practice and, uniquely, as a successful entrepreneur in both the retail and real estate sectors. He has been recognized annually by Super Lawyers© for the past 10 years and is a founding member of the Asian American Bar Association of Kansas City.

Grigsby, fluent in Cantonese, supports both domestic and international transactions and corporate compliance matters, and uniquely brings significant experience in data privacy issues and regulation.