Bernwanger, Joseph L.

Allison is a partner of Lathrop & Gage LLP and is a serving her second elected term on the firm's executive committee. She is also the chair of the firm’s Diversity 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:

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
2007–2010:		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. There is no better example of this trait than Allison’s service as general counsel to the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, the oldest functioning freight terminal in the United States which manages the largest volume of freight rail traffic in the country. The President of the Kansas City Terminal cites Allison as integral to the Terminal’s business operation. In connection with her nomination for lawyer of the year, he stated to Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly that “it’s not the big project, the little projects, the day-to-day advice. It’s not having the resource for political issues. Having all that wrapped up together is why I think she’s Lawyer of the Year.”

As general counsel for the Terminal, Allison negotiates rail transport, industrial, real estate and service agreements, some of which have required advocacy before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. She also serves as the corporate secretary to the Terminal. In that role, Allison provides legal services to some of the KCT's owners, including, in part, the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the BNSF Railway Company, on multimillion-dollar expansion and infrastructure projects west of the Mississippi.

Allison works with engineering 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 who have specialized knowledge. 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 industrial development projects. In fact, Allison 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. View project details at http://www.newtonkansas.com/index.aspx?page=301. 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.