MoveMakers & NewsMakers for Aug. 17, 2021

St. Louis | Kansas City

St. Louis

James E. Adkins has joined Berger, Cohen & Brandt, LC. He has over 25 years of experience representing real estate developers and investors, helping them to reduce risk and add value to their real estate holdings and developments. He regularly counsels clients through all aspects of their real estate projects, including acquisition, financing, leasing, governmental and zoning approvals, incentives, management, operations, and dispositions.

Adkins regularly assists clients in structuring and disposing of their real estate investments in a tax-advantageous manner, including assisting in Starker and reverse 1031 tax-deferred exchanges. He also works with real estate developer clients in tax credit transactions.

Adkins received his J.D., cum laude, from the Saint Louis University School of Law and was a member of the Saint Louis University Law Journal. He is a member of the ABA, The Missouri Bar, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Kansas City

Jay Daugherty Mediation and Arbitration is pleased to announce that Judge Joe Dandurand has joined the firm effective Aug. 2. In this new phase of his career, he will dedicate his full-time practice to mediation, arbitration and special master services while working from Kansas City and Warrensburg. Judge Dandurand will not only mediate in the Kansas City area, but throughout central and western Missouri. He is a certified mediator and arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

Judge Dandurand brings 40 years of rich litigation and judicial experience to his mediation and arbitration practice. He is recognized as one of the most approachable and well-respected faces in the West Central Missouri legal community after having served for 21 years as a circuit judge in Cass and Johnson counties; a term on the Missouri Court of Appeals; eight years as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Missouri in Jefferson City; and most recently as executive director of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. In these roles he presided over more than 200 jury trials, wrote over 60 appellate opinions, and mediated numerous civil cases while on the bench.

Judge Dandurand is also a proud recipient of this year's Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Central Missouri from the class of 1977. He will be recognized during UCM's Homecoming festivities in October of this year.

Graves Garrett LLC is pleased to announce the addition of Paul Brothers as an associate. Brothers represents clients in high-stakes investigations, white collar criminal defense, and complex civil litigation matters, bringing significant prosecutorial experience to his national practice.

Brothers' extensive and varied litigation experience includes first-chairing jury trials on behalf of the Kansas Attorney General’s Office in a variety of cases. Prior to entering private practice, he spent nearly five years as an assistant attorney general. He has experience handling all stages of litigation, from preliminary hearings, motions hearings, plea hearings and sentencings. He has led notable prosecutions, conducting all phases of jury trials from jury selection to verdict, including financial cases with losses up to nearly $1 million, insurance fraud involving both consumers and agents, and a variety of high-profile violent crimes.

“As a former appellate clerk and state prosecutor, Paul’s background gives him a unique understanding of investigative and prosecution priorities, helping him effectively advise clients facing civil and criminal investigations,” said Nathan Garrett, partner at Graves Garrett. “Graves Garrett continues to develop a bench of experienced attorneys with government backgrounds, allowing us to advise clients on responding to government investigations and help clients minimize risks before the government is involved. Paul reinforces our commitment to this approach as Graves Garrett maintains a reputation as a firm capable of handling the most complex cases anywhere in the country.”

Brothers also clerked for Kansas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Thomas E. Malone. While in law school, he served as an appellate intern with the Johnson County (Kansas) District Attorney’s Office and a judicial clerk for the Douglas County (Kansas) District Court.

A native of Clarinda, Iowa, Brothers graduated with honors from the University of Kansas School of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served on the Kansas Law Review. Before law school, he earned his undergraduate degree in political science with a minor in criminal justice from Northwest Missouri State University.