Kristie Remster Orme Elected as Firm’s First Female President; 2017 Executive Board Members Announced; Patrick C. Guinness Elected as Shareholder

At its 2017 Annual Meeting, McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan, PC, proudly announced that Kristie Remster Orme was elected as the President of the firm. The firm’s Shareholders elected Ms. Orme as the first woman to serve as the President in the same year the firm celebrates its 70th anniversary (1947 – 2017).
During her 19 years with the firm, Ms. Orme has been active in firm management, serving as the firm’s General Counsel, as a member of the Executive Board of Directors and a mentor for young lawyers at the firm.
“I am proud to lead McDowell Rice into the future as we continue to achieve excellence in advising and providing legal services to our clients in the greater Kansas City area and across the country,” said Ms. Orme.
Ms. Orme is an experienced litigator, focusing on complex commercial litigation and representation of banking and financial service providers. Ms. Orme has extensive litigation experience in the state courts of Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, in federal courts across the nation, including the Bankruptcy Courts of both Missouri and Kansas, and before arbitration panels. She also has appellate experience in both state and federal courts. She makes it a priority to work with clients to develop early litigation strategies which are designed to maximize results while minimizing costs.
Ms. Orme is a member of the firm’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Banking & Financial Services Groups. Ms. Orme represents individuals and business clients from the private sector as well as governmental agencies in complex contract, antitrust, tax, real estate, RICO claims, alter ego/successor liability, business torts, defamation, malicious prosecution/abuse of process and other commercial disputes nationwide. She also represents banks and individuals in loan enforcement workout and litigation matters. She is a former assistant attorney general and also represents businesses and individuals responding to regulatory inquiries and investigations by governmental agencies.
Ms. Orme is a member of the Kansas Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, the Iowa Bar Association, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, and the Johnson County Bar Association. She is a Litigation Counsel of America Fellow, and has been named to the Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers® list for the past four years, and the Rising Star® list for three years. She is AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and is also listed on the Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers.
Ms. Orme earned her J.D., from the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was Order of the Coif, a member of the National Moot Court Team and a Teaching Assistant for both Trial and Appellate Advocacy courses. She earned her B.A., cum laude, from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, where she was a Presidential Fellow.  She is admitted to practice in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th and 10th Circuits, the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. District Courts for the Western District of Missouri and the District of Kansas.

Concurrent with the election of Ms. Orme as President, the firm also announced that R. Pete Smith as Chairman, Thomas R. Buchanan, Jonathan A. Margolies, and Greg T. Spies were re-elected to the Executive Board of Directors. Also re-elected were Charles W. Smiley as Secretary and Ronald S. Bronstein as Treasurer. Additionally, Michael J. Gorman was elected as Executive Vice President and Donald G. Scott was elected as General Counsel.

The firm is also pleased to announce that Patrick C. Guinness was elected as a Shareholder.