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On that Kansas City firm

By Steven R. Minor

This article on the Shook Hardy firm explains the firm's origins:

"The firm traces its roots back to 1889, when Frank Payne Sebree, a Marshall, Mo., lawyer looking to build his practice in a bigger city, moved to Kansas City and set up shop in a third-floor walkup with another solo practitioner. Over the years, the firm attracted a small stable of lawyers, including name partner Edgar Shook, who joined in 1934, and name partner Charles L. Bacon, who came on board in the mid-1950s.

However, it was David R. Hardy, a skilled trial lawyer with a larger-than-life personality, who did more to change the firm?s fortunes than anyone.

Hardy made a name for himself in the late 1950s by winning a $200,000 verdict?then a state record?on behalf of a motorcycle cop who had been badly injured in a collision with a cement truck. And when the first anti-smoking suit against a tobacco company in Mis­souri went to trial in 1962, Hardy was asked by Philip Morris to lead the defense."

My good friend and college roommate Sam Sebree, and his dad and brother - two more Frank Sebrees, have worked for this firm, and so I root for it and for them.

Full post as published by Southwest Virginia Law Blog on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).