Last year, in our Professional Services Special Report assessing some of the leading talent at law firms in the Kansas City region, Ingram’s needed six full pages just to scratch the surface.

 

Lawyers identified by their peers in our Best Lawyers of Kansas City publication each October, who also met criteria for inclusion based on their rankings by the prestigious Chambers and Partners ratings, required that much space. But there are other means of assessing accomplished lawyers, such as our own talented team of reporters and the regarded Martindale Hubbell rankings, which gave us yet another metric to factor into this installment of key legal minds, since it ranks the top 10 percent of attorneys nationwide.

 

In addition to noting an elite class of lawyers we recognized in 2012, we drew on all of those resources, plus our extensive experience with the legal industry over the years, to bring you this roster of legal experts who are equally deserving of consideration.

 

Corporate Law/M&A/Finance

Norm Fretwell, a banking-law whiz we covered a year ago here with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne, has had a distinguished career, and the firm has bolstered its business-law acumen with the addition of David Zimmerman, a longtime tax law and litigation specialist that formerly served at Polsinelli, P.C. Zimmerman is not just a lawyer; he’s a certified public accountant who also holds a degree in business administration from Washburn University.

 

Bruce Baty, of what is now the global law firm Dentons, co-heads its legacy insurance regulatory practice as a member of the firm’s insurance practice group. He’s a veteran of three decades of legal practice, now focusing exclusively on the needs of insurance companies and reinsurance companies. Others in the business law group mentioned last year were Steve Rist, John Marvin, Michael Van Dyke, Bruce Davison and Bob Fisher.

 

James Eiszner of Shook, Hardy & Bacon is an accomplished defender of antitrust claims, and heads the firm’s antitrust practice. But he also counsels clients in corporate compliance and governance, privacy, marketing, computer law, distribution, food labeling, and trade secrets. Jay Simpson, meanwhile, chairs the firm’s tax practice group, where his caseload involves tax planning related to corporate acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, reorganizations and restructurings.

 

At Husch Blackwell, Bill Kircher is a partner who brings more than 30 years of experience in intellectual property matters—which is impressive, since the term “intellectual property” as we know it today didn’t gain popular usage until David Letterman and NBC had their domestic difficulties in 1993. In both the U.S. and abroad, Kircher has dealt with litigation, licensing, application drafting, prosecution and counseling of IP cases. On the banking and finance side, the firm relies on Chris Rockers, a master of all matters financial, from accounts receivable and inventory financing, to start-up funding, mergers and acquisitions and more. Last year, we also included James Ash, Jason Reschly, Steve Carman and Gary Gilson in this corner.

 

In the jungle that is banking law, Stinson Morrison Hecker, may have the loudest roar. Supplying part of that are Mike Lochmann, who has nearly three decades of experience and serves banks and holding companies in mergers and acquisitions, regulatory affairs, securities law, and financial transactions across the nation. He works with Mark Hargrave, co-chairman of the banking and financial services division, who has a broad background in payment systems, secured lending and regulatory compliance—Hargrave is also a national-level speaker and an author of several books on those subjects. The firm’s Timothy Feathers and David Wharton provide a double dose of expertise in cases of trademark, intellectual and patent litigation. Those talents are in addition to previously recognized business-law experts like Bob Monroe, John Granda, Craig Evans and James Allen.

 

Lathrop & Gage sports a deep roster of business and commercial-law talent, including Al Martin, who has a reputation as a national authority on matters of taxation, health care, and employee benefits—skills he’s put to work on behalf of more than 300 privately-held companies as general counsel. Carl Struby brings securities expertise to public companies; his work with issuers stands at an aggregate $4 billion, and counting, and he also provides guidance on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Doug Dalgleish is a longtime veteran of courtrooms, whether in jury trials or appellate settings across the nation, with widely varying sources of action that range from shareholder derivatives, to breach of supply in the utility sector and class actions over fiber-optic rights of way, to name but a few. Steven Graham, longtime manager of the financial institutions department, is well-versed in financing of transactions, real-estate deals, start-up company and other new-business formations, as well as construction and development finance. And partner Gerald Kraai, who chairs the intellectual property division’s prosecution and transactions unit, manages the IP needs of companies with extensive patent, trademark, and copyright portfolios. All of them serve to complement Lyle Pishny, Mark Bluhm, Joe Medved and Tom Stahl, who were cited here previously.

 

Herb Kohn, a legend not just within the halls of Bryan Cave, deals with corporate, business and banking law; his fingerprints are all over major cases involving acquisitions, financial transactions, banking and public finance, and his work outside the office puts him firmly in the ranks of civic leaders. Gregory Johnson specializes in corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, securities and general business law, offering counsel to corporate boards of directors and senior management in cases dealing with corporate governance, disclosure and compensation. Partner Mark Stingley has the backs of financial institutions in litigation, cases of insolvency and in resolving bankruptcy issues. Others recognized last year were Tom Van Dyke, Robert Barnes and James Pryde.

 

Since 2006, Joe Hiersteiner has been managing director at Seigfreid Bingham in Kansas City, formerly known as Seigfreid Bingham Levy Selzer & Gee. His 30-plus years in general business law has included mergers and acquisitions, tax-exempt entities, distribution, publishing, licensing and, notably health care: As general counsel, he represented Health Midwest in its $1.1 billion sale to HCA a decade ago.

 

Jonathan Margolies specializes in financial services and commercial law as well as corporate bankruptcy for McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan. In more than 25 years of practice, he’s represented banks, insurance companies, pension plans and middle-market businesses in both state and federal courts, and in bankruptcy courts nationwide. His firm’s chairman, Pete Smith, was recognized here last year, as well.

 

Richard Hayse, of Topeka-based Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy, has 44 years of experience in business organizations, real estate transactions, banking, bankruptcy, and estate planning. A former editor of the Washburn Law Journal, he has represented companies in a broad range of business sectors, from manufacturing and distribution to retailers, banks, and many others.

 

Before he was a lawyer, Michael Yakimo, Jr. held a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from MU, so he knows the technical side of patent, trademark and copyright law. He works in litigation, patent and trademark applications and searches, licensing and client counseling for the Leawood firm of Erickson Kernell Derusseau & Kleypas.

 

Tom Mullinix, of the Shawnee-based Evans & Mullinix law firm, has been representing clients in bankruptcy and complex financial and commercial transactions for more than 40 years, and at a high level: His peers have voted him onto the list of Best Lawyers in America for more than 25 years.

 

Justice King is an expert in bankruptcy law for Fisher Patterson Sayler & Smith in Topeka, where he’s also managing partner. He has tried cases involving business and commercial litigation, tort litigation and bankruptcy—he lectures frequently at bankruptcy seminars—and has a considerable background in real-estate law.

 

Webb Gilmore, chairman emeritus at Gilmore & Bell, began practicing law 40 years ago, and has specialized in tax-exempt bond financing for state and local governments, and numerous public and private institutions, such as hospitals, colleges and universities. He’s also a member of the highly exclusive Missouri Academy of Squires, which recognizes 100 highly accomplished figures in public and private endeavors.

 

John Collins, originally schooled as a chemist, earned his law degree more than 40 years ago, and went to work for Hovey Williams. As part of the Overland Park firm’s patent prosecution practice, Collins counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property, including patent prosecution, trade secrets, and licensing.

 

Ed Marquette is a Harvard Law grad with a national-level practice in intellectual property, technology and trade law for Kutak Rock’s Kansas City office. He works with executives and boards of directors to set offensive and defensive IP strategies and address compliance issues at the state and federal levels.

 

Lucky DeFries, of Topeka-based Coffman, DeFries & Nothern, has been practicing law for more than 35 years, both in private practice and in the public sector. A former staff attorney for the state Department of Revenue, DeFries is highly regarded for his expertise in tax issues, as well as administrative and corporate law.

 

Because not all firms noted in 2012 have attorneys recognized in these practice areas this year, we note the previous inclusion of Foulston Siefkin’s William Trenkle, who deals in agri-business and multi-state retail operations, and Polsinelli PC figures Jim Polsinelli, Frank Ross, Larry Swain, Bob Fitzgerald, Kevin Sweeney, Jeb Bayer, William Mahood, Trip Frizell and Maribeth McMahon.

Employment/Labor Law

Foulston Siefkin, based in Wichita but with a significant presence in Overland Park, packs a strong labor-law punch with specialists like Wendall Cowan, James Rankin and Vaughn Burkholder. Cowan’s wheelhouse is litigation and employment law, and he brings more than 30 years of experience to those tasks, in both litigation and consultation. Rankin is steeped in employee benefits law as applied to public and private companies or governmental and tax exempt organizations, with a particular emphasis on pension, profit sharing, tax-sheltered annuity and health and life-insurance plans. Burkholder, nationally recognized as an authority on employment law, specializes in a wide range of cases, from ADA and FMLA disputes to harassment and discrimination claims, and wrongful termination or retaliation lawsuits, among others. Last year, the firm’s Jeff Hurt and Wyatt Wright were recognized in this space.

 

Jack Yates has retired as a partner at Husch Blackwell, but retains not only his duties there on an of counsel basis, but his reputation among his peers in employment law. Like John Phillips and Mark Welker, both noted here last year, Yates helps counsel the firm’s clients in labor matters, including cases that require litigation.

 

Karen Glickstein of Polsinelli is an employment and human-resources specialist who has defended all manner of discrimination and harassment claims, whether those lawsuits originated from claims based on race, gender, disability, religion, national origin, or age. Others from the firm mentioned last year were Terry Kilroy and William Robbins.

 

Paul Donnelly has managed litigation for individual plaintiffs as well as multi-party and class-action cases at Stinson Morrison Hecker, working as lead counsel in federal and state trials throughout the Midwest, with a focus on federal employment litigation.