Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm with offices across the United States, proudly announces that Financial and Real Estate Services partner Steven N. Cousins has been recognized among the Missouri Lawyers Weekly Influential Lawyers of 2018. The award acknowledges lawyers who are newsmakers and made substantial contributions to the legal community in the past year.
“I have worked with Steve for over 20 years and know him as a trusted and proven adviser to many CEOs, high-level executives, civic leaders, and elected and appointed officeholders,” said John Beulick, managing partner at Armstrong Teasdale. “He’s recently handled two high-profile bankruptcy proceedings, demonstrating his high skill level and established reputation in the bankruptcy community. Steve fully understands what it means to provide excellent client service, and that’s why many clients return to him for legal counsel year after year.”
Cousins is a nationally recognized bankruptcy practitioner and founder of the firm’s Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring practice area. He represents utilities, hospitals, regulated organizations, major banks, creditors’ committees, pension funds and other financial institutions around the country, including private entity and hedge funds. Ranging from Enron, TWA and American Airlines to Apex-Clark Oil, Peabody Energy and Payless Shoes, Cousins has been involved in major bankruptcy cases throughout the country.
In the past year, he played a key role in two highly significant bankruptcy proceedings: Peabody Energy Corp. and Payless ShoeSource Inc. In the Payless matter, he served as co-counsel, delivering a successful restructuring for the largest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere. For Peabody, in the second-largest Chapter 11 case filed in the country in 2016, he represented the company through bankruptcy as co-counsel and then a successful emergence from bankruptcy in 2017. Peabody is the largest private sector coal company in the world.
When he joined Armstrong Teasdale in 1980, Cousins was the firm’s first African-American lawyer, its first African-American partner in 1987 and later the first African-American to serve on the firm’s Executive Committee.
Cousins was the first African-American in Missouri to be listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for his work in bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law. He has been listed in Best Lawyers consistently for more than 20 years. He has also been named for many years as a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer, listed in Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the country’s top five bankruptcy lawyers, and received the Brotherhood Sisterhood Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice of Metropolitan St. Louis. He recently received the Martin J. Purcell Professionalism Award from The Missouri Bar Foundation. In addition, Cousins has received numerous awards from the NAACP, St. Louis American and St. Louis Business Journal, 100 Black Men of America, Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and MOKAN.
His history of service to the region is extensive. Cousins is founder and past co-chair of the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation, and founding and initial co-chair of the Inner-City High School Summer Internship Program, a role he served in for 13 years. In addition, in March 2014, he was appointed by the Commissioner of Education of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to the Normandy School District Transition Task Force. Cousins has also provided pro bono services to the national office of the NAACP when the organization was experiencing financial difficulties. He has received multiple honors from the NAACP, including the Inspiring St. Louisan award and the Commitment to St. Louis award.
Cousins will be recognized during the Missouri Lawyer Awards 2018 luncheon on Friday, Jan. 26 at the Hilton at the Ballpark in St. Louis.
About Armstrong Teasdale: With lawyers in offices across the United States, Armstrong Teasdale LLP has a demonstrable track record of delivering sophisticated legal advice and exceptional service to a dynamic client base. Whether an issue is local or global, practice area specific or industry related, Armstrong Teasdale provides each client with an invaluable combination of legal resources and practical advice in nearly every area of law. The firm is a member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms with locations in more than 100 countries, and the United States Law Firm Group, a network of 17 law firms headquartered in major U.S. cities. Armstrong Teasdale is listed in the Am Law 200, published by The American Lawyer, and the NLJ 250, published by The National Law Journal. For more information, please visit www.armstrongteasdale.law.