Kansas City Law Firm Van Osdol & Magruder Continues its Support of Local Entrepreneurs
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
By Bob Beachy, chief strategic officer of Van Osdol & Magruder
Van Osdol & Magruder is making moves to make Kansas City a city of entrepreneurs, together with other organizations in Kansas City. Attorney Chris Brown has been on the ground at four local events to help entrepreneurs with their legal needs. He has recently presented to the Kansas City Chapter of Under 30 CEO and to the UMKC Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and he moderated two panel discussions at the KCMBA where attorneys and successful entrepreneurs shared their legal knowledge with new startups. Chris also recently volunteered as a legal mentor at Startup Weekend Kansas City, where Van Osdol & Magruder offered a free package of legal services to one of the winners. To learn more about the firm’s Entrepreneurial Law practice click here.
Kansas City Law Firm Van Osdol & Magruder Win $2.4 Million Judgment for Client
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
By Bob Beachy, president of Van Osdol & Magruder
Kansas City lawyers Mike Joyce and Anne Linton Pond Hendrickson recently won a $2.4 million judgment in a wrongful discharge, battery and employment discrimination suit involving a local woman who was dismissed from her position with a Kansas City company. The decision came from the Federal District Court in Kansas City, Kansas where a jury awarded the victim over $1,000,000 plus punitive damages to be determined by the Court.
Statutes in Kansas required the jury’s award to be reduced to $384,000, but after an assessment by the Federal District Judge, the damages against the company were recalculated to be over $2 million. Thus, the total judgment amounted to more than $2.3 million.
Normally, our law firm takes on cases representing employers, but the horrendous treatment of this individual by a multi-million dollar company compelled us to step up and take a stand for one of our local citizens.
Kansas City’s Van Osdol & Magruder Attorney Named To Donald H. Chisholm Planned Giving Council For Children’s Mercy Hospital
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
By Bob Beachy, president of Van Osdol & Magruder
Congratulations to The Biggest Little Law Firm® in Kansas City attorney Mindy Ward for recently being named to the Executive Committee of the Donald H. Chisholm Planned Giving Council for Children’s Mercy Hospital. The Kansas City attorney has been with Van Osdol & Magruder since 2003 and brings her expertise in taxation and estate and business planning to the table. For Mindy’s full bio click here.
9 Van Osdol & Magruder Attorneys Named To 2011 Super Lawyers & Rising Stars List
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Posted By: Bob Beachy
Thanks to Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers Magazine for recently naming nine Van Osdol & Magruder attorneys to the 2011 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars list.
Super Lawyers selects attorneys using a rigorous, multiphase rating process that includes peer nominations, evaluations and third party research. Each candidate is evaluated based on peer recognition and professional achievement. The below awardees represent the top 5 percent of lawyers in Missouri and Kansas. Congratulations to you all!
2011 Super Lawyers & Rising Stars:
Robert M. Beachy – Super Lawyer
Thomas R. Willy- Super Lawyer
Michael P. Joyce – Super Lawyer
Shawn L. Stogsdill – Super Lawyer
Paul R. Himmelstein – Rising Star
Anne Linton Pond Hendrickson – Super Lawyer
David Kim – Rising Star
Duncan W. McQueen – Rising Star
Mindy M. Ward – Rising Star
Google will extend ultra-fast Internet project to Kansas City, Mo.
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Posted By:Shawn Stogsdill
Van Osdol & Magruder P.C. would like to congratulate Kansas City, Mo. for being selected to collaborate with Google on the one-gigabit-per-second, ultra-high speed, fiber-to-the-home broadband network.
According to an article from the Kansas City Business Journal, “Kansas City will get hooked up to the much-touted Google Inc. fiber-optic network that previously was announced for Kansas City, Kan., officials announced Tuesday.”
Google will extend ultra-fast Internet project to Kansas City, Mo.
New Kansas City Mayor Sly James held a Tuesday morning announcement at Union Station to explain the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) news, which he said makes the city the most attractive on the planet to entrepreneurs and is a “huge win for the entire region.” The service — more than 100 times faster than what’s available to most Americans — will launch early next year, pending City Council approvals; the cities on either side of the Missouri-Kansas state line are the only two slated for the initiative.
“It’s kind of hard to overstate how big this announcement is to our future,” James said. “As a result of this announcement, we have become the most attractive city to entrepreneurs. Think about it — in the next year, our city and region (are) going to have the fastest Internet connection in the world.”
Officials credited Kansas City Power & Light, the first investor-owned utility to join in on such a project, as playing a key role in attracting Google’s efforts. KCP&L is owned by Kansas City-based Great Plains Energy Inc. (NYSE: GXP).
KCP&L will offer Google access to its poles, infrastructure and existing fiber network to get Kansas City customers connected. The agreement means significantly lower costs and rollout time.
“Rather than having to build out their own delivery system, this innovative agreement will allow Google and KCP&L to work together to deploy service over KCP&L’s existing infrastructure, significantly reducing costs as well as time for engineering, permitting and construction,” said Mike Chesser, chairman and CEO of Great Plains and KCP&L.
James also said “tireless efforts” by Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Circo helped land the project.
“Our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community, and develop working partnerships with the local government, utility and community organizations,” Google said on its website about the project. “We believe we’ve found this in both Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.”
Google’s vice president for Access Services, Milo Medin, made the official announcement Tuesday in Kansas City.
“Just a few weeks ago, when we announced that we would bring our first ultra-high-speed network to Kansas City, Kan., I promised it would be the start and not the end of our efforts,” Medin said. “We love this market and wanted to deploy our service in the broader region and have been working to make that a reality.”
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., said that it has not finalized pricing for the service but that it will be “competitive” with what consumers now pay for Internet access.
The news comes a month and a half after Google made its announcement in Kansas City, Kan. The network there is scheduled to be up and running in early 2012, and that announcement had fueled speculation that the network would extend across the state line.
The Google Fiber for Communities project creates a 1-gigabit-per-second, fiber-to-the-home broadband network that could have broad implications for business and entrepreneurial efforts.
Kansas City technology lawyer Greg Kratofil Jr. of Polsinelli Shughart PC said that the news is a game-changer for the region but that the tool provided by Google must be turned into economic development.
“Our challenge — and opportunity — is to take this advantage we will have in Kansas City and create economic development,” he said. “We will do this by supporting technology entrepreneurs with capital, programs and government as a partner.”
The tech community is ready, but the entire community should get engaged, he said.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t be too long until it came into Kansas City, Mo.,” Missouri Rep. Mike Talboy, D-Kansas City, said of the news. “I’m just happy they got it done.”
Kansas City was among about 1,100 U.S. cities to apply for the Google project last year. Early this year, Kansas City was contacted by Google, and officials were involved with meetings and negotiations leading up to the Tuesday announcement.