MoveMakers & NewsMakers August 16, 2019

Kansas City Area

Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that Bernardo Zito Porto has joined its Kansas City office as an associate in its financial services and capital markets group and its litigation, insurance, and international practices.

Before coming to Husch Blackwell, Zito Porto practiced in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He focuses his worldwide practice on all stages of complex commercial litigation and proactive risk assessment on insurance coverage matters. He has handled a wide range of commercial matters in and out of the courtroom, including breach of contract actions, corporate governance, securities, contributory and comparative negligence, statutory bad faith, data protection, tag-along rights, takeover disputes, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, late notice and declaratory judgment.

Zito Porto earned his LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School and his LL.B. from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He served as a teaching fellow and assistant director of the LL.M. program for the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law in 2016-2017 and is a member of the International Relations Council of Kansas City.

St. Louis Area

Past Missouri Bar President Reuben Shelton was elected by the members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. last month in Philadelphia to be the fraternity’s 34th Grand Polemarch during its 84th Grand Chapter Meeting and Conclave. Shelton was elected to the two-year term after serving as senior Vice Polemarch for four years.

Shelton’s election “was a positive,” said Richard L. Snow, the fraternity’s former executive director and a Philadelphia resident. “He brings a business acumen that we have watched for years. He is the right person at this time to continue to build on what Kappa Alpha Psi has been building more than a century. He’s always been an asset to the organization.”

Shelton, 64, was initiated into the 108-year-old fraternity at the University of Kansas in 1974. He has previously served as polemarch in St. Louis and as polemarch over a region of seven Midwestern states. A St. Louis native, Shelton recently retired as Monsanto’s lead counsel for litigation where he also served as general counsel of the Monsanto Citizenship Fund.

As 2014-15 president of The Missouri Bar, Shelton led the organization during the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal shooting of unarmed Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.

“I learned so much from that experience working for healing on both sides, legally and in the community,” Shelton said. “The fraternity does work in social justice and has done so for years. I want to continue that work.”

Shelton said he plans to continue to guide the fraternity’s community outreach efforts already in place. His areas of emphasis include helping families displaced by natural disasters, bringing more attention to mental illness, focusing on social justice issues and the continued development of young men both in the fraternity and non-members. Read more

Other States

McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips (MVP Law) is excited to announce the opening of its West Des Moines office to provide prompt and efficient legal defense in workers’ compensation cases throughout Iowa.

The firm also welcomes two new attorneys to serve as shareholders in its Iowa practice: Lara Q. Plaisance returns to the firm after six years of practice exclusively in in Iowa workers’ compensation law. Kathryn R. Johnson joins the firm after practicing insurance defense in the areas of workers’ compensation and tort litigation in Iowa for the past eight years. Read more

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