Shrontz, Craig H.

Mr. Shoemake is a senior partner of Guilfoil Petzall & Shoemake, L.L.C. and concentrates his practice on complex commercial and business litigation and white collar criminal defense.  Mr. Shoemake was born in Greenville, Missouri and has resided continuously in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area since 1967.  He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University and is a graduate of St. Louis University School of Law. 

Before joining the firm as a senior partner in 1970, Mr. Shoemake was with the United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, under the United States Attorney General’s Program for Honor Law Graduates; and was an Assistant United States Attorney, Eastern District of Missouri.  After joining the firm, Mr. Shoemake was City Attorney and Prosecuting Attorney for the City of Fenton, Missouri for six years (1970-1976).  Mr. Shoemake has been a guest speaker at meetings of various associations, including the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Missouri Bar Association.

Mr. Shoemake has the distinction of having obtained the then-largest civil judgment in the history of the State of Missouri when he obtained a verdict for $105,000,000 in an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T and several of its subsidiaries.  Mr. Shoemake was the leading litigation partner in numerous anti-takeover lawsuits, including those involving TWA/Icahn, Chromalloy/Sun Chemical, and the Cardinal Acquisition/Interco matters.  He was also the principal litigation partner in a case litigated in the Illinois courts wherein he obtained a circuit court ruling declaring the Illinois Motor Vehicle Tax unconstitutional. 

Mr. Shoemake serves on the Board of Directors of a number of charitable and not-for-profit entities.  He is currently on the Boards of Directors for the Urological Research Foundation and Lindenwood University, the second oldest university west of the Mississippi River with approximately 14,000 students, where he is Chairman.  Mr. Shoemake has served as President, Vice President and Director of the Missouri Quarter Horse Association and presently serves as a Director.  Mr. Shoemake has also served as President and Director of the American Quarter Horse Association, the world’s largest equine association, with more than 350,000 members, and has served on numerous committees for that association.  Mr. Shoemake also serves on the Board of Trustees and as Vice-Chairman for the American Horse Council in Washington, DC and is a member of that group’s Executive Committee.

Mr. Shoemake and his wife, Rita, have three married daughters and eleven grandchildren.  The Shoemakes own a farm near Farmington, Missouri and have been involved for many years in breeding and raising registered quarter horses.