Dawn Parsons

Dawn Parsons brings 23 years of criminal prosecutorial experience to her training.  During her time with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in Kansas City, Missouri, she served as first chair in over 90 felony jury trials, led the Drug Unit/Street Crimes Division for 9 years, and served as the Chief Litigation Specialist for the office prior to beginning her work in private practice in 2015.

Jackson County is Missouri’s largest prosecutor’s office. From 2003-2012 she was a Division Chief responsible for the disposition of over 2,300 cases annually.  She also managed 20 staff members, including attorneys, paralegals, and investigators.  In 2012, Ms. Parsons became the Chief Litigation Specialist responsible for developing and implementing a training curriculum and ongoing education for assistant prosecutors.  For over 15 years she served as faculty for the National District Attorneys Association, providing training for state and local prosecutors across the county.  Additionally, Ms. Parsons served as an instructor at the Regional Police Academy teaching statutory law to new recruits.

Ms. Parsons received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1989 and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law in 1993.  In 2001, Ms. Parsons was the recipient of the Lon Hocker Advocacy Award given annually by the Missouri Bar Association to the best trial attorney under the age of thirty-six.  She was the first female prosecutor to win this prestigious award.  In 2003, she was named the UMKC School of Law Decade Award Winner by the UMKC Law Foundation for the alumnus who made the most significant impact on the profession in the first ten years of the practice of law.  In 2014, she became the third woman in Missouri inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

During her tenure as a prosecutor, Ms. Parsons trained hundreds of Kansas City police officers in the areas of personal and professional liability related to their work as law enforcement officers.  She currently provides in-service training to public safety personnel and agencies throughout the United States on behalf of the Dolan Consulting Group out of Raleigh, North Carolina.