Education

B.A., Economics, Northwestern University, 1980.
J.D., Washington University School of Law, 1983.

Mediation

Completed Cook County, IL approved program at Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution (2020).

Member, Association of Attorney-Mediators (AAM).

Advanced Attorney-Mediation Training, AAM (2020).

AAM, Illinois Chapter, Workshops and Forums, and CCR Reflective Practice Group, Participant.

Certified Mediator for the Court-Annexed Mediation Program (Law and Chancery Divisions), Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.

Additional Information

FINRA Dispute Resolution Services Arbitrator.

Better Business Bureau Arbitrator (application pending). 

Licensed in Illinois (1983) and Missouri (1984).

Biography — Ron Gieseke

I am a senior business law professional with over thirty years of corporate law experience.  Most recently, I served as Assistant General Counsel, Assistant Secretary, and Director, Corporate, of Ameren Corporation, a public utility headquartered in St. Louis.  During my 17-year tenure at Ameren I managed SEC compliance and financing activities, directed corporate secretarial matters, and developed compliance programs in stock trading and other areas.  As a trusted adviser, I worked with company colleagues at every level on finding creative solutions to business problems, and negotiated and closed numerous transactional matters.  I retired from Ameren in 2017.

Presently, I am an adjunct law professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, teaching and developing courses, including Business Organizations, Corporate Finance, and Business Entity Formation and Transactions.  In each course I mentor law students in identifying and resolving obstacles in business disputes.  In 2018 I also taught an introductory corporate law course as a visiting professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. This spring I am teaching remotely classes in Kyiv,Ukraine, and Beijing, China.

From 1990 to 1999, I was an associate counsel at Bunge Ltd., an agribusiness.  My diverse corporate practice included the management of legal affairs relating to construction law, insurance, the environment, and other regulatory matters.  I participated as counsel in several mediations and arbitrations involving legal disputes in these areas.  Prior to Bunge I was an assistant counsel at Laclede Gas Company (now Spire), with an emphasis on corporate law, securities regulation, and finance.

My professional activities over the last several years have focused on business ethics, serving on advisory boards to the Cintas Institute for Business Ethics (Xavier University) and the Emerson Leadership Institute (St. Louis University).  Prior to that, I provided leadership and service to the community (Legal Services of Eastern Missouri), foster children (Voices for Children), and the legal profession (Association of Corporate Counsel St. Louis-Chapter President, and Young Lawyers Chairperson of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis). 

I received a BA degree in Economics from Northwestern University in 1980.  I graduated from the Washington University School of Law in 1983.

Employment History

2017 - Present CHICAGO-KENT COLLEGE OF LAW   Chicago, IL                     

2000-2016 AMEREN CORPORATION     St. Louis, MO             

1990-1999 BUNGE CORPORATION    St. Louis, MO 

1984-1990 LACLEDE GAS COMPANY (now Spire)     St. Louis,  MO

1983-1984 POPE AND DRIEMEYER (now Thompson Coburn) Belleville, IL