Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm with offices across the United States and in China, proudly announces that Litigation partner and Kansas City office managing attorney Karrie J. Clinkinbeard has been selected by the Kansas City Business Journal as a 2017 NextGen Leader.

The NextGen Leader program is designed to recognize people who are making a difference and who are destined to leave their mark on the business community. The program's objectives include helping emerging leaders continue to build their knowledge and skill sets, and to connect them with each other and the present generation of Kansas City leaders.

“Karrie began working at Armstrong Teasdale in 1999 and has had a positive impact on the firm in many ways,” said John Beulick, managing partner at Armstrong Teasdale. “In the past few years, she’s taken on additional leadership roles at the firm and has shown tremendous passion for the practice of law as well as for the people in our Kansas City office. This honor is well-deserved.”

Clinkinbeard is an experienced litigator with substantial trial experience across the Midwest including Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Her numerous successes include her role as co-lead counsel in a furnace explosion case that generated the largest 2014 defense verdict in Missouri. She focuses on fire, explosion and electrocution litigation, product liability, contract disputes, personal injury and life, health and disability matters. Clinkinbeard has tried jury cases to verdict in state and federal courts and also achieves successful outcomes for her clients early in litigation through aggressive, targeted pretrial practice.

Clinkinbeard also takes an active mentoring role in the firm and is very involved in the Greater Kansas City community. In addition to serving as the Kansas City managing attorney, Karrie serves on the firm’s Executive Committee, Compensation Committee and led the Kansas City office's Women's Inclusion Network (WIN). She has also served on the hiring and nominating committees.

Active in the local business and legal communities, Clinkinbeard is a member of the Kansas Bar Association, The Missouri Bar, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, Johnson County Bar Association, Johnson County Bar Foundation, Litigation Counsel of America, Defense Research Institute, International Association of Arson Investigators, National Association of Fire Investigators, National Fire Protection Association, National Fire Academy Alumni Association and Instructor, NFPA 921 Technical Committee, NFPA 1033 Technical Committee, National Association of Professional Women, and the Leadership Kansas Program Class of 2015.

Clinkinbeard is also a co-captain and participant for the American Cancer Society “Relay for Life” and actively supports Noah’s Bandage Project in Kansas City, which raises funds for pediatric cancer research.

She earned her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and B.A., summa cum laude, from Washburn University. She is admitted to practice law in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western District of Missouri, District of Kansas and District of Nebraska.

Clinkinbeard will be recognized among 24 other leaders in the July 28 edition of the Business Journal.