Phil LeVota is a life-long resident of the Kansas City area. Phil attended Truman High School in Independence and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg in 1988. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and held many leadership roles in the organization.

After college, Phil worked for the State of Missouri in the Division of Child Support Enforcement for four years. In the position of Manager and Public Awareness Director, Phil was responsible for the supervision of a team of investigators and office staff in enforcing state administrative law. He also was appointed to the Governor's Public Relations Task Force as well as representing the agency in media interviews and speaking engagements. During this period, Phil was elected to the Board of Directors of the Missouri Child Support Enforcement Association. While working full-time, Phil attended classes and received his Master's Degree in Management from Baker University.

Phil was then able to pursue his lifelong dream of being an attorney. In Phil's first year of law school, he was ranked in the top fifteen percent of his class. While attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, Phil was a member of Law Review, was selected to the UMKC National Trial Team, and was listed in Who's Who of American Law Students twice. During law school, Phil was employed as an Administrative Hearing Officer dealing with administrative law issues for the Department of Social Services. In his last year of law school, Phil worked in the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney's office in Kansas City, Missouri as a legal intern licensed to practice law in Missouri courts. Even before graduation, Phil had numerous court appearances and was involved in eight jury trials prosecuting criminals on behalf of the State of Missouri.

After graduating from law school, then Jackson County Prosecutor Claire McCaskill appointed Phil as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the criminal trial division. As a trial attorney, Phil has tried numerous jury trials ranging from murder and assault to drug cases. He also has argued successfully before the Missouri Court of Appeals. Further, Phil specialized in prosecuting gang violence as the designated Gang Prosecutor for the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. Phil has served on the County Homicide Case Review Committee, as well as the Jackson County Prosecutor's Death Penalty Review Committee.

Phil LeVota later served Prosecutor Bob Beaird as the Chief of Communications and Special Projects within the Prosecutor's office. His duties ranged from homicide prosecution to media contact as office spokesman as well as coordinating several law enforcement and community task forces and committees. Phil LeVota later served as the Trial Team Leader of the Jackson County Community Justice Unit.  Phil also has specialized in election, campaign, and voter fraud violation prosecutions. In his personal time, Phil recently worked with citizens concerned about the release of prisoners. Phil was the co-author, and lobbied for the passage, of the Jake's Law bill that was signed into law by Missouri Governor Bob Holden. Phil has also worked with the Missouri General Assembly in the passage of the new Child Enticement legislation that makes it a crime to lure children from their homes, schools, or the Internet.

Phil is licensed to practice law in Missouri, Kansas, and Federal District Courts. He served as Legal Advisor for the Eastern Jackson County Youth Court Program and served on the Board of Directors of KKFI 90.1 FM - Blues & Jazz Community Radio Station. He also is a member of the Paseo Corridor Safe Neighborhood Grant Advisory Council and the Executive Director of the "SHOW-ME" Council for Accountability & Responsibility in Government. Phil has participated as a speaker in over 100 DARE graduations in elementary schools with law enforcement officers all over Jackson County.

Phil has extensive experience in training for different organizations he is a member of; including the Missouri Bar Association in moderating and teaching continuing legal education seminars, the International Homicide Investigators Association, and the Midwest Gang Investigators Association. He has experience as a Trainer and Presenter for the U.S. Department of Justice Law Enforcement Education Program. Phil also serves as an Instructor for the Kansas City Police Department Crime Scene Investigation Academy, the Kansas City Police Officer Recruit Academy, and the Officer Continuing Education program.

Phil was selected by the National District Attorney's Association to be a member of the faculty at the Department of Justice's National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Phil was one of only 40 prosecutors across the entire nation selected to participate in training at the Office of Legal Education's new state of the art training and technology center. After Phil attended an Advanced Trial Advocacy course as a student, he was nominated by the faculty to be a teaching member of the faculty and now teaches a variety of subjects to prosecutors across the country.

After over a decade of representing victims of violent crime in Jackson County, Phil currently is in private practice as the managing partner of The Law Offices of Phil LeVota, LLC (www.LeVotaLaw.com) with two office locations in the metropolitan Kansas City area representing clients in varied areas of the law.  Phil still is involved in prosecution serving as a part-time municipal prosecutor in Lee's Summit, Missouri appointed by the Lee's Summit City Council and as the Special Prosecuting Attorney representing the State of Missouri in several criminal prosecutions in Jackson County appointed by the Presiding Judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit.

Among other activities, Phil is a member of the United States Attorney's Weed & Seed Steering and Advisory Committee responsible for the administration of law enforcement and community grants in Kansas City, Missouri.  Phil also was appointed by the Independence Police Department as a board member of the Juvenile Law Enforcement Coalition Committee.  Phil is also a board member of Hope House Shelter for Battered Women and Children in Independence and Lee's Summit, Missouri. 

Phil is a much sought after national speaker and has been invited to speak across the country from West Virginia, Louisiana, and California on different issues ranging from prosecution to motivational speaking.