John C. Dods to Receive KC Legal Award

Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s John C. Dods has been chosen as one of 10 leaders of Kansas City’s legal community to receive The Daily Record’s inaugural 2004 KC Legal Leaders of the Year Awards.

The award recipients, which include attorneys, a professor and a legal administrator, were chosen by a panel of their peers for their outstanding contributions to both the legal community and the community at large.

Dods has practiced law with SHB since 1958. He is past Chair of the firm’s Litigation Division, was Chair of the Business Litigation Section, served as the firm’s Administrative Partner and was elected to a term on the firm’s Executive Committee. He has had extensive trial experience in federal and state courts in a variety of complex business and commercial cases, including RICO, antitrust, consumer fraud, securities, patent infringement and warranty and contract disputes. He is a past president of the Metropolitan Kansas City Bar Association, Legal Aid of Western Missouri, the Law Foundation of the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the International Visitors Council of Kansas City. He currently serves as Chair of the Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee.

The other recipients include: Jack Bangert of Sherman, Taff & Bangert, PC; Stephen Bough of Henning & Bough; Karen D. Griggs of Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice; Sylvester James, Jr. of The Sly James Law Firm; John W. Kurtz of Hubbard & Kurtz; John Phillips of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin; Professor Ellen Suni of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law; R. Lawrence Ward of Shugart Thomson & Kilroy; and Teresa Woody of Stueve Helder Siegel, LLP.

The 2004 KC Legal Leaders of the Year will be honored at a special luncheon and presentation at noon on Tuesday, April 13, at the Hyatt Regency. Attorney Carl Holmes will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon. Holmes prepared final arguments in Brown v. Board of Education, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate schools.

Tickets for the event cost $40 per person or $375 for a table of 10. They will be available by calling The Daily Record at (816) 931-2002.