Missouri Lawyers Media bestowed a 2025 ICON Award on Kansas City partner Michelle Stark Kaufman. The awards recognize distinguished attorneys and judges who have demonstrated notable, sustained success and strong leadership within and outside the field of law.

Kaufman has served as a partner in the Firm’s Health Care and Corporate practices for 30 years. She represents business clients in all facets of their corporate matters, and she assists institutional health care clients with their organizational issues, complex contractual relationships and compliance with health care laws. In 2020, Kaufman was named the “Lawyer of the Year” for health care law in Kansas City by Best Lawyers in America. The same publication has recognized her for health care law each year since 2007.

She was appointed by the mayor of Kansas City as one of just seven members on the city’s Municipal Officials and Officers Ethics Commission, and served as chair of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s membership committee. Kaufman has also served in leadership for several community organizations, including Kansas City Hospice, the largest nonprofit hospice in the community, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Alumni Association.

Kaufman is the fourth partner in the Firm’s Kansas City office to receive this award, after Karl Zobrist, Stephen Hill Jr. and Mark Johnson.