A Conversation With ... Ginger Gooch

Title: Partner

Education: Cum laude graduate, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, and an undergraduate degree from Stephens College, Columbia

Key decision: Gooch almost went to English graduate school, but decided to give law school a shot first

What’s your history at Husch Blackwell Sanders, where you became a partner in January?

I started (at Husch) in March of 2001, but I also worked here in the summers during law school before that. In the Springfield office, we have 17 partners and 37 attorneys total. I practice general civil litigation (and) business litigation. I don’t do domestic work or criminal work or estate planning. In litigation, I do construction law, employment law, anything that comes up where we’re going to court. I’m also the one who does most of the appellate work for our office.

In 2007, you received one of three David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy awards from The Missouri Bar. What does your appellate work entail?

Appellate work can go either way. Your client can either prevail or lose (at the lower court levels), and either party has the right to appeal. So then you end up in the next level of court, either defending the decision from (the lower court) or trying to argue that it should be reversed.

Husch Blackwell Sanders is the result of the March merger of Husch & Eppenberger LLC and Blackwell Sanders LLP. What has the transition been like?

It’s been very smooth from the attorney perspective, but I think it’s been a lot of overtime and hard work by our administrators, particularly in St. Louis and Kansas City. So far, it’s been pretty seamless, but it’s still in progress, the merging of computer systems and time-keeping systems and things like that. (The merger) opens up 20 other lawyers locally and 300 other attorneys firmwide to seek guidance from and to work on cases with.

Husch Blackwell Sanders is a large firm that serves 13 markets. From which areas do most of your clients come in the Springfield office?

We do focus on southwest Missouri, but if a larger client like AIG or … something comes from outside this area, we’ll handle it, but most of what we do is based out of the Springfield-Branson area.

What attracted you to a legal career?

I debated between English graduate school and law school, and I decided to try law school first. I love reading and writing, and I liked speech and debate in high school. Those things all seemed to be a good fit for law. I like to argue.

Why did you choose corporate law versus the criminal or domestic cases?

Just with my personality, it seemed like a better fit, and more what I was interested in. I had a little experience in criminal law when I clerked at the Missouri Supreme Court for about a year before I started at Husch. A lot of that was dealing with prisoner appeals and criminal issues, and it just wasn’t something I had an interest in doing.

Do you have any general advice for businesses in terms of legal preparedness?

By and large, I think that if business owners and managers would consult attorneys up front before entering into business relationships or contracts, they would save themselves a lot of expense and heartache. All too often, we’re seeing problems that have already developed, and that’s when they’re coming to us.

What professional goals do you have now?

I just feel like it’s the beginning of a new chapter (in my career). I just want to keep learning and doing more of the things I’ve been doing. So much of practicing law is the experience and the hard work and just gaining the day-to-day experience. You can’t really learn that from any sort of law school book or law journal.

Tell us about your community involvement.

I was chair of the Law Day committee. We had a lunch and a rally and a 5k (run). John Ashcroft was our lunch speaker this year. I’m on the board of directors at the Discovery Center, and I attend Christ Episcopal Church.

Tell us about your family and your hobbies.

I’m from Springfield. My family lives here, and my husband’s family lives here. My husband is Chad Munsey, and he sells commercial health insurance at Nixon & Lindstrom. No kids, but we have a black lab and a Shih Tzu. I golf, but not as much as I would like.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]