The Kansas City Business Journal’s Best of the Bar Selection Process

A partner at Bryan Cave LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, Craig O’Dear represents defendants and plaintiffs in a broad range of state and federal litigation cases. Craig O’Dear has also received numerous commendations for his accomplishments in the legal field, including recognition from the Kansas City Business Journal Best of the Bar in business and product liability litigation. 

The Best of the Bar listing acknowledges hardworking and dedicated lawyers and provides clients with a resource for identifying the best legal services firms in the Kansas City area. Attorneys must directly apply to the program or receive recommendation from their law firm in order to be considered. Eligible lawyers include those in private practice with at least 10 years of experience in professional practice. Ongoing or past disciplinary proceedings may be cause for removal from consideration. 

Applicants will undergo judging from a panel of judges picked by the Kansas City Business Journal. Judges base their selection on factors such as civic judgement, professional reputation, and involvement in significant cases or transactions. The Kansas City Business Journal transitioned to this selection process from a purely peer-nomination process in 2017. As part of the new process, Best of the Bar will reduce the number of lawyers receiving recognition and emphasize practice areas of most interest to business clientele.

Common Defenses for Breach of Contract Claims

For more than three decades, Craig O’Dear has been practicing law in Missouri. A partner at Bryan Cave LLP, he represents defendants and plaintiffs in state and federal courts across the United States. Over the years, Craig O’Dear has handled cases involving a variety of claims, such as breach of contract.

Below are a few common defenses for breach of contract claims:

- Duress: If one of the contract parties signed a contract under duress, it is not enforceable. Duress means one party pushed the other into signing a contract against his or her will. Threats of legal proceedings, blackmail, or threats of physical harm are all forms of duress.

- Mutual or unilateral mistake: Mutual mistakes occur when both parties make a mistake about the contract’s terms. A unilateral mistake occurs when one party is mistaken about the contract. Both of these can be grounds for a valid breach of contract.

- Fraud: Misrepresenting certain aspects of a contract tricks one party into thinking a contract is in their best interests when it's not. Knowingly doing this is fraud and invalidates the contract.

- Impossibility: Contracts are formed with the expectation that each party will perform their role. But sometimes unforeseen circumstances prevent one party from fulfilling their part, thus making the contract impossible.

American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) - Masters in Trial series

A partner with Bryan Cave LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, Craig O’Dear has nearly 30 years of experience in commercial litigation in areas such as product liability and intellectual property. As a legal professional, Craig O’Dear is a member of organizations such as the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). 

Founded in 1958, The American Board of Trial Advocates strives to improve the technical and ethical standards of the advocacy field and to preserve the civil jury system. To accomplish its goals, ABOTA offers continuing legal education (CLE) programs to its members, such as the Masters in Trial program.

The Masters in Trial series helps improve the advocacy skills of lawyers by letting them observe a full trial conducted by leading attorneys, completed in one day. The program includes jury deliberations and participation along with training on how to understand the jury process. The Masters in Trial series helps law students by providing a roadmap to success.

Champions of Justice Concert Raises Money for MIP

Since 1988, Craig O'Dear has served as partner at the law firm Bryan Cave LLP, based in Kansas City, Missouri. Outside of the office, Craig O'Dear sits on the advisory board of the Midwest Innocence Project (MIP).

As a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Kansas City, MIP strives to investigate, litigate, and exonerate wrongfully convicted people in a five-state region. It focuses on those in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Since the process to prove an innocent person has been wrongfully convicted of a crime is costly, with some exonerations costing upwards of $325,000, MIP works with many volunteers to give the wrongfully convicted their freedom back.

Given the nature of this nonprofit, MIP relies largely on financial contributions and fundraising events to carry out its work. One of these events is its annual Champions of Justice Concert, which in 2017 occurred on November 16 at the Madrid Theatre in Kansas City. The Champions of Justice is a group of individuals who support MIP’s mission, and these people encourage others to contribute to a personal fundraiser, with the hopes of each raising at least $2,000. Attendees of the concert enjoyed an open bar and live music from groups including Fritz Hutchison and Lauren Krum, Erica Joy, and My Oh My.

Super Lawyers Honors Top Attorneys throughout the Country

A Missouri-based attorney with over three decades of experience, Craig O’Dear has served as a partner at Bryan Cave LLP in Kansas City since 1988. Over the course of his career, Craig O’Dear’s work in commercial litigation has earned him recognition from several professional organizations, including Chamber and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, and Super Lawyers. 

A rating service operated by Thomson and Reuters, Super Lawyers identifies attorneys throughout the country who have attained a high level of peer recognition and professional achievement. The service currently recognizes outstanding attorneys in more than 70 practice areas. Profiles of those selected by Super Lawyers appear in Super Lawyers magazine as well as other leading city and regional publications. 

In compiling its list, Super Lawyers first evaluates a candidate pool of top attorneys who have been nominated by their peers. In order to protect the integrity of the nomination process, attorneys cannot nominate themselves and are prohibited from soliciting nominations or campaigning for the honor. 

Those attorneys who make it through the nomination process are then evaluated based on their experience, verdict and settlement history, educational background, honors and awards, certifications, and other indicators of professional achievement. Super Lawyers also evaluates each candidate’s disciplinary history before finalizing its list of top attorneys. No more than 5 percent of attorneys in each state are accepted for inclusion in the annual Super Lawyers list.

Craig O'Dear - Attorney in Kansas City, Missouri

Craig O'Dear

A partner with the Kansas City law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, Craig O’Dear has served as leader of both the Bryan Cave Product Liability Client Service Group and the Commercial Plaintiffs Litigation Group. He also serves as a member of the firm’s Strategic Growth Team and previously lead the Kansas City Office recruiting committee. Before joining Bryan Cave in 1988, Craig O’Dear spent six years as an associate with the Kansas City commercial and product liability litigation firm Stinson Mag & Fizzell.

Craig O’Dear’s areas of professional focus include intellectual property litigation, breach of contract/fiduciary duty, fraud, federal and state wage/hour law, antitrust law, and alleged consumer protection violations. Outside of his work as an attorney, he sits on the Advisory Board of the Midwest Innocence Project. From its headquarters in Kansas City, this nonprofit organization fights for the rights of wrongly convicted prisoners across the United States.