Ariel Rhines

Ariel practices in McDowell Rice’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution team, with a focus on construction and architecture/engineering law and product liability. Ariel also has experience handling intellectual property and data privacy matters, especially in the context of museums. Ariel worked as a research attorney for the Tenth Judicial District of Kansas before joining the firm, where she supported both the civil and criminal benches with legal research and analysis.

Andrew Zarda

Andrew represents clients nationwide with respect to real estate, corporate, financing, mergers and acquisition, business formation, and other business transactions. Andrew’s clients range from large scale developers and landlords, national banks and business owners to individual borrowers and tenants. Andrew also provides general counsel services for several Kansas City based companies.

Our client manufactures lightening arrestors. In November 2019, a lawsuit was filed in rural western Kansas stemming from a November 2017 fire that was allegedly related to a lightening arrestor manufactured by our client. Our client was not named in that lawsuit until June 2022, when claims were brought against it for negligence, strict liability, and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability.

In Kansas, the statute of limitations for product liability claims is two years from the date of the injury giving rise to the claim. Immediately upon becoming involved in the case, Ania filed a Motion to Dismiss, arguing that the plaintiff’s claims against our client were barred because the statute of limitations expired in November 2019, more than two and a half years before our client was sued. In an attempt to save its claim, the plaintiff argued that it did not know of the potential involvement of our client until April 2022 and thus, the amendment adding our client as a party should “relate back” to the date of the filing of the original lawsuit.

The Court granted our client’s Motion to Dismiss in its entirety, rejecting the plaintiff’s argument as inconsistent with Kansas law. As a result, judgment was entered for our client and its involvement in the lawsuit was ended before engaging in any discovery, saving significant costs and attorneys’ fees.

Congratulations to the following attorneys who have been selected to the 2022 Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists in their primary practice area. The announcement will appear in the 2022 Super Lawyers Magazine for Missouri & Kansas, published in December 2022.

Super Lawyers List:

• Jason L. Buchanan
• Thomas R. Buchanan
• Susan Saper Galamba
• Michael J. Gorman
• Robert D. Maher
• Jonathan A. Margolies
• Hugh L. Marshall
• Colby L. Rieke
• R. Pete Smith

Rising Stars List:

• Ania Wlodek Moncrief

 

McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan is pleased to announce that R. Pete Smith have been selected to the 2023 edition of the Best Lawyers in America.  Pete Smith is recognized for his expertise in Bankruptcy Litigation.

McDowell Rice is pleased to welcome J. Aaron Craig to our Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice. Aaron’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, including commercial, bad faith insurance, fiduciary, healthcare technology, product liability, medical device, consumer protection and general tort litigation. He is licensed in both Missouri and Kansas and is very experienced in e-discovery.

After clerking for two years at the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Aaron spent 7 years working at a big Missouri law firm, before co-founding & spending 3+ years at a boutique Kansas City law firm. He is a 2009 magna cum laude graduate of Creighton University School of Law, and a cum laude graduate of Missouri State. We are thrilled to have Aaron join our team.

Mike Gorman has been named Chair of the Missouri Bankers Association Bank Counsel Advisory Section for 2022-23. He will also chair the MBA’s Bank Risk Management Conference in November to be held in Columbia, MO. This conference will consist of lawyers and non-bankers discussing bank related litigation, regulation legislation, and other facets of bank related law. Mike served as the Bank Counsel Advisory Section’s Co-Chair in 2021-22 and joined the Missouri Bankers Association over 10 years ago. The Missouri Bankers Association is a statewide trade association and professional organization representing the interests of banks and savings and loan financial institutions in Missouri. During the fall conference, Mike will conduct a seminar on “Communication for Bankers.”

McDowell Rice is pleased to announced that Rebecca Martin has been named to Missouri Lawyers Media's 2022 POWER List for attorneys in Missouri Tax Law for a second year in a row. We congratulate Rebecca for her continued excellence in the field of tax law!

McDowell Rice celebrates our icon R. Pete Smith, who is being honored with a 2022 ICON Award by Missouri Lawyers Media for his exemplary career and longstanding commitment to the Missouri legal community. Pete has practiced his entire 52-year legal career at McDowell Rice and served as the firm’s President for decades before becoming the Chairman in 2012. Pete now enjoys focusing his time on the practice of law and leaving firm management to others.

For the full article, please follow this link to read it.

Michael Gorman was named Chair of the Missouri Bankers Association Bank Counsel Advisory Section for 2022. In addition, he will also chair the MBA’s Bank Risk Management Conference in October. Mike previously served as Co-chair of the Bank Counsel Advisory Section in 2021.

According to Mike: “Life is about relationships. The Bank Counsel Section of the MBA is a great way to develop relationships with bankers and banking lawyers, and to give something back to the banking community at the same time.”

McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan PC, is excited to announce the election of its Officers and Directors from its 2022 Annual Meeting. Thomas R. Buchanan will continue to serve as General Counsel and Robert D. Maher will continue to serve as Secretary.

R. Pete Smith will continue to serve as Chairman of the Executive Board with Susan Saper Galamba also continuing to serve on the board. In addition, Scott A. Long and Jason L. Buchanan were newly elected to serve on the board.

Reneé Sutherland serves as the firm’s Director of Administration.