Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, today announces that partner Stephen L. Hill, Jr., has been named to Missouri Lawyers Media POWER List in the White-Collar Defense category. Hill, resident in the Firm’s Kansas City office, co-chairs the US White Collar and Government Investigations practice.

The POWER List, a new regular editorial feature from Missouri Lawyers Media, examines the most powerful lawyers in white-collar defense law. The list honors practitioners who defend their clients from adverse government actions of all sorts, whether in a court of criminal law or from an enforcement arm of a state or federal administrative agency.

A former United States attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Hill served as the top federal prosecutor in Kansas City from 1993 to 2001. His office obtained numerous convictions involving corruption at City Hall in Kansas City, local county courthouses and the Missouri General Assembly. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Hill advised US Attorney General Janet Reno and the Justice Department on corporate prosecution and health care–related policies as part of his tenure on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. During his tenure, his office successfully prosecuted several high-profile cases including the conviction of individuals responsible for the explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters and the investigation and prosecution of an AAU basketball coach that found he had paid several college-bound players to play on his team. Hill was one of the first to successfully argue the constitutionality of the Freedom of Access To Clinic Entrances Act before the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Office’s work in fighting the methamphetamine epidemic in Missouri and the Midwest was recognized by the US Senate Judiciary Committee as ground-breaking. In addition, he co-developed Project Cease Fire, a nationally recognized program targeting prosecution and conviction of felons illegally possessing firearms in Kansas City and western Missouri.

Hill regularly counsels boards and business leadership on investigations related to allegations of federal law violations. Among his successes, he successfully defended at trial Stephen Kovzan, the chief financial officer of a publicly traded technology services company in Kansas who faced securities fraud charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He also represented Freeman Health System in Joplin, MO, after the hospital voluntarily disclosed the results of an internal audit indicating it had violated federal law by giving doctors incentive pay for Medicare referrals. The action resulted in a US$9.3 million settlement.