McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan, A Professional Corporation, was founded in 1947. Founder and Kansas State Senator, Joseph H. McDowell, a civil rights advocate, combined forces with Claude L. Rice, a preeminent Bankruptcy attorney, to establish the initial Kansas City, Kansas office. Mr. Rice, a Bankruptcy trustee, founded and later sold EPI, an organization which electronically processes financial accounting and transactions for Bankruptcy estates. R. Pete Smith, a community activist, and Bankruptcy authority, presides as Managing Shareholder and President of McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan, A Professional Corporation. Currently a member of the American College of Bankruptcy, Mr. Smith joined the firm in 1964, and simultaneously taught at the University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School, and authored ABA, KBA and CLE publications. Mr. Smith graduated magna cum laude from UMKC, was first in his class at UMKC Law School, and served as Editor In Chief of the Law Review. Mr. Smith figured prominently in the growth of the Firm, which now has offices in Kansas City, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas.
The Firm is noted for its independence, individuality and entrepreneurial emphasis uniting practice areas which involve money and finance: Banking, Bankruptcy, Commercial Transactions, along with practice areas which promote personal and community development and growth: Business Law, Employment Law, State and Local Governmental Law and Real Estate Law, the Firm makes significant contributions to and for the communities and region which it serves. The Firm's litigation attorneys are noted for their versatility and their tenacious advocacy of causes which involve the entire spectrum of Civil Trial Practice.