22
December
2020
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09:47 AM
America/Chicago

MoveMakers & NewsMakers for Dec. 22, 2020

Summary

See who is making news and moving where in the weekly Missouri Bar update "MoveMakers & NewsMakers."

St. Louis | Kansas City | Mid-Missouri

St. Louis

Armstrong Teasdale has named seven new partners from its St. Louis office effective Jan. 1. The two equity partners include Paul Cambridge and Courtney Jackson. The five associates named income partners include Zachary Block, Robert Browning, Erin Edelman, Jonathan Shulan and John Willard.

“People first and firm growth are two of our strategic goals and those are especially reflected in partner promotions,” said David Braswell, managing partner at Armstrong Teasdale.

Cambridge is leader of the firm’s national financial services and banking industry team. He provides legal services to clients of all sizes and structures – from entrepreneurial startups to large, publicly held companies. He counsels clients in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities matters, and lending transactions. Cambridge has significant experience advising clients on matters related to entity formation and planning, corporate governance, contract negotiation, strategic planning, debt and equity financing, securities law, banking and lending regulatory compliance, joint ventures, and other business law matters. 

Jackson serves as a strategic brand-management partner to her clients, focusing her practice on domestic and foreign trademark portfolio management and enforcement. Most often, she provides counsel regarding brand strategy and related operational issues involving trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, domain names and marketing. Jackson counsels organizations around the globe in the development, maintenance and protection of their trademark portfolios, providing a creative approach to trademark selection, protection and infringement issues. She also negotiates and drafts worldwide, industry-related agreements and assists her clients with the legal implementation of marketing campaigns. Recognizing that IP, including trademarks, can be a client’s top asset, she regularly assists in the due diligence and onboarding of brand acquisitions and other major, complex transactions involving IP.

Block counsels clients on patent acquisitions, licensing, enforcement, product clearance, freedom-to-operate, validity and due diligence. He works closely with inventors and businesses to develop IP strategies and build portfolios. He also assists clients on issues of patent infringement, provides opinions of noninfringement and invalidity, and performs due diligence and patent landscape analyses. As a patent attorney registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Block actively engages in preparation and prosecution of U.S. and international patents. 

Browning is a member of the tax, public finance, and trust and estates practice areas. Public and private companies of all sizes, in a broad range of industries, look to him for strategic federal, state, international and local tax advice. Browning routinely represents corporate and individual clients before the IRS, state taxing authorities and in U.S. Tax Court. Collaborating with accountants and other advisors, Browning advises on tax provisions in asset acquisitions, stock acquisitions, transfers of LLC membership interests and overall deal structure while implementing tax-saving strategies. 

Edelman counsels clients in bankruptcy and restructuring, real estate litigation and construction matters. In the business insolvency area, Edelman represents the interests of both corporate debtors and creditors seeking to maximize their return through bankruptcy and restructuring, preference litigation and other litigation relating to the debtor-creditor relationship. She also handles a variety of real estate litigation, including condemnation proceedings and large-scale tax appeals, and represents clients in construction litigation, including defending and prosecuting mechanic’s lien claims. 

Shulan has a robust litigation practice focusing on complex commercial disputes, insurance counseling and litigation, and appeals. He regularly represents individuals and organizations in high-stakes civil litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitration tribunals throughout the country. Experienced in all phases of insurance disputes, he also counsels insurers and policyholders on coverage and represents their interests in insurance recovery litigation. 

Willard has extensive experience advising clients in financial transactions and restructurings. In his lending practice, Willard represents corporate borrowers and domestic and international financial institutions in a variety of industries, including media and entertainment, real estate, manufacturing, technology, and retail. In his restructuring practice, he advises corporate and financial institutions in difficult insolvency, bankruptcy, and creditors’ rights matters. Willard’s background in finance, business, entertainment, and international transactions has made him a versatile advisor for a wide array of clients and organizations, including the world’s largest neurosurgical society and the historical trust of a former United States President. 


Capes Sokol is pleased to announce the addition of two lawyers to the firm. David C. Hollander and Chelsea M. Mannery join as associates in the firm’s litigation practice group.

Hollander works primarily with companies and individuals to resolve multi-faceted and complex civil litigation matters, including business and employment disputes. Prior to joining Capes Sokol, he worked as a litigation associate at a New York law firm, where he represented a variety of clients, including local government entities, on complex litigation matters. He has also served as a law clerk for Judge Catherine D. Perry of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, a law clerk in the Washington, D.C., office of former U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and a data privacy legal assistant in the New York City office of the United Nations Global Pulse.

Hollander received his law degree in 2017 from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was the executive articles editor of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy and an Exceptional Pro Bono Pledge Honoree. He graduated from James Madison University in 2012 with a B.A. in history.

Mannery focuses her practice on product liability and mass tort. Prior to joining the firm, she worked as an assistant city counselor in the St. Louis City Counselor’s Office. In that position she handled a variety of state and federal litigation matters, including personal injury cases, civil rights litigation, and appeals to the State Tax Commission of Missouri. In addition, she served as counsel for the St. Louis Police Retirement System Board of Trustees, where her duties included providing representation in administrative hearings. Prior to her law school graduation, Mannery was a judicial intern for Judge David R. Herndon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and a Rule 711 student attorney for the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Mannery received her law degree in 2018 from the Southern Illinois University School of Law. An active member of her law school class, she was an Octo-Finalist in the 2018 National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare & Adoption Law and the recipient of Second Best Brief for the 2016 SIU Intramural Moot Court Competition. She also received a pro bono award for having provided over 300 hours of service.

Mannery was admitted into the Order of Barristers in 2018. She graduated from Saint Louis University in 2013 with a B.A. in political science.


Capes Sokol is pleased to announce that Laura E. Krebs Al-Shathir and Sanford J. Boxerman, shareholders, have been elected Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. The ABF limits membership to only one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. Members are nominated by their peers and selected by the ABF Board.

The ABF Fellows is a global honorary society that recognizes lawyers, judges, law faculty and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. ABF Fellows hail from nearly 40 countries and hold a wide variety of influential roles.


Capes Sokol is pleased to announce that Sanford J. Boxerman, shareholder, has been selected to the Missouri Lawyers Weekly 2020 POWER 30 List for White Collar Defense, a list identifying the 30 most powerful white collar attorneys in Missouri.

THE POWER LIST, a new regular feature from Missouri Lawyers Media, was determined after the MLW editorial team interviewed lawyers and other leaders around the state, reviewed records of verdicts and settlements, and consulted the publication's archives.


Kansas City

Dan Cranshaw, of Kansas City, was appointed to the Missouri Development Finance Board by Gov. Mike Parson. Cranshaw is a shareholder at Polsinelli where he litigates products liability, toxic tort, and other commercial matters. He is also a member of the firm’s risk management committee and chair of its diversity and inclusion committee.

Cranshaw assists in setting the diversity and inclusion strategy for the firm and leads the firm’s new Social Justice Initiative. He has received multiple awards for his sustained efforts in advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. He is an active community servant, sitting on the boards of Swope Community Enterprises, Urban Neighborhood Initiative, School Smart KC, the American Jazz Museum, the Women’s Foundation, Shumaker Family Foundation, Cornerstones of Care Foundation Board, and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation Advisory Board.

Cranshaw is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law and Princeton University.


Gov. Mike Parson has appointed Shawn Foster of Lee’s Summit to the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority. Foster is a founding member and shareholder at Preuss Foster Law in Kansas City. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he teaches courses in trial advocacy and constitutional law.

Foster is professionally affiliated with several organizations and serves as a board member and legal counsel for the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and Lee’s Summit Soccer Association.

Foster holds a B.S. and M.S. from Central Missouri State University and a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. 


Armstrong Teasdale has named Brian Nye of Kansas City partner of the firm. He defends corporations in product liability, employment dispute, contract, insurance coverage, premises liability and complex mass tort litigation matters involving a wide range of claims. He also works as defense counsel for a Fortune 500 company on general litigation matters. Nye served as national coordinating counsel and local counsel for clients facing asbestos claims. In addition to his litigation experience, he helps clients minimize future litigation threats by assessing and managing the inherent risks of doing business.


Spencer Fane LLP is pleased to announce the partnership unanimously voted to re-elect Patrick J. Whalen to his third four-year term as chair of the growing firm.

Under Whalen’s guidance, Spencer Fane continues to set the pace in terms of growth and differentiation in the legal community while overcoming disruptive forces in the industry though an innovative and continually evolving business strategy. The firm thrives on empowering its leaders to work directly with the clients’ business leaders; maintaining low overhead and operational expenses; keeping a debt-free position pre-pandemic that was designed to intentionally allow the firm to remain nimble and agile; recruiting increasingly diverse talent in coordination with client needs; and providing legal services specifically in the markets where they do business.

“I’m thankful for the faith the partners have placed in me,” Whalen said. “Spencer Fane is built on a foundation of outstanding attorneys who have embraced a shared vision centered around humility —constantly focusing on our clients’ priorities. Our commitment to principles that bind us and the resilient culture our attorneys have sustained allowed the firm to maintain a position of strength at the onset of the pandemic and in the months since.”

Spencer Fane recorded double-digit percentage growth in revenue six of the past seven years, and in 2019, a 17.1% revenue increase made the firm one of the fastest growing firms in the country.

During Whalen’s tenure as chair, Spencer Fane significantly expanded its presence in Denver and has opened new offices in the following cities: Dallas, Texas; Houston, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; Plano, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Tampa, Florida; Austin, Texas; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota.

Under Whalen’s guidance, Spencer Fane continues to identify lawyers with a keen business sense and backgrounds in a traditional business setting to serve as leaders. This empowers talented lawyers to focus on high-level client work in priority practice areas, rather than divide their time by taking on leadership roles.


Mid-Missouri

Dale Roberts, of Ashland, was appointed to the State Board of Mediation by Gov. Mike Parson. Roberts has served as executive director of the Columbia Police Officer Association since 2013. Previously, he served as an adjunct assistant professor for the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and as chief administrative law judge and secretary of the Missouri Public Service Commission.

Roberts is a member of the American Legion Post 202. He is also a firearms law and concealed carry weapon instructor for the Sportsmen's Caucus of the Missouri Legislature. Roberts served 11 years in the military, including four years in the U.S. Air Force. He was honorably discharged with the Meritorious Service Medal in 1981.

Roberts holds a B.A. in classical studies from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law.

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