Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, announces today that St. Louis office managing partner Karen Jordan has been named one of St. Louis Business Journal’s 2021 Most Influential Business Women. Jordan is one of 25 businesswomen in the region selected for this honor, which annually recognizes the accomplishments of leaders who have made an impact in the industries in which they work as well as local nonprofits and in the communities they represent.

A member of Dentons’ Corporate practice, Jordan advises clients on a wide range of corporate, finance and commercial transactions in excess of US$5 billion. Jordan credits her work on finance matters for the City of St. Louis as pivotal to her career trajectory. Most recently, she led Dentons’ engagement by the city as bond counsel, tax counsel and real estate counsel with respect to its more than $200 million collaboration with St. Louis County to expand and modernize the St. Louis Convention Center.

On a broader level, Jordan has worked to advance racial and gender equity in the legal profession. In 2019, she was selected by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association to join the inaugural class of its Equity Track Program—one of only 10 candidates accepted into this 18-month program, which provides high-achieving diverse partners with training, networking opportunities and other resources to help them achieve equity status within their firms. Jordan has been a featured speaker on corporate law, municipal finance and the use of public incentives to finance private development, including speaking engagements for the Women’s Business Development Center, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, Commercial Real Estate Women and the Jeffrey E. Smith Institute of Real Estate.

In addition to her practice, Jordan’s volunteer contributions are expansive and include not only vital legal and leadership advice, leveraging the skills she honed throughout her professional career, but also a hands-on involvement, whether participating on job development panels or visiting aid agencies. Her widely varied community involvement has largely been in support of diverse and vulnerable populations, including women, persons of color and people with developmental disabilities. She has been involved with St. Louis Arc, the Boys & Girls Club, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s “Street Law” Program, the National Bar Association, the St. Louis County Library Foundation, Class 50 of Coro Women in Leadership and the Business Diversity Initiative Fellows Program.