Member Profile: Richard H. Ralston

	Richard H. Ralston The Ralston Law Group LLC The Plaza West Building 4600 Madison Avenue, Suite 810 Kansas City, MO 64112 Tel: (816) 285-1230 Fax: (816) 285-1230	View Printable Resume GoogleMaps for this Location

ADR Services Include:

Mediation; Arbitration

ADA Disability Civil Rights Commercial/Business Construction

Contract Disputes Employment Environmental Health Care

Insurance Medical Malpractice Professional Negligence Securities

BIOGRAPHICAL:

Mr. Ralston has been involved in dispute resolution - settlement conferences, mediations, arbitrations, or trials (jury and non-jury) since graduation from law school in 1969. First legal position was as a law clerk for a US District Judge who was also an extremely capable mediator (settlement judge). As a member of the federal bench, continued mediation tradition in the Western District of Missouri by initiating a settlement conference program in federal court. In 1993, decided to devote practice exclusively to alternative dispute resolution. As a law professor, courses were primarily directed to litigation and federal practice. Taught evidence, civil procedure, federal jurisdiction, environmental law, and government litigation. As a federal judicial officer, docket consisted mainly of civil cases with very few criminal cases. Presided over the whole spectrum of jury and non-jury, minimum wage and overtime cases, antitrust and securities cases, and various personal injury cases. Presided over the first employment discrimination case tried to a jury in the Western District of Missouri in 1979. As a trial lawyer, represented both major corporations and individuals in all types of cases, usually of a complex and substantial nature.

Mr. Ralston has mediated all types of cases, large and small, ranging from complex commercial, environmental, and construction cases to medical malpractice, employment discrimination, and personal injury cases. The environmental cases have included issues of water and ground pollution at oil refineries or manufacturing sites owned and operated by major national corporations. Most of the cases were class actions on behalf of multiple plaintiffs. Many of the construction cases arose from the construction of entertainment theaters in Branson, Missouri, and from major construction projects in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The commercial cases have involved multi-tiered marketing systems or individual and class actions. The employment discrimination cases have involved race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, and disability cases brought under Title VII and the Civil Rights Aces, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or corresponding state laws. Mr. Ralston mediates cases in many states and has been involved as a settlement judge or mediator in more than 4,000 cases.

EDUCATION:

• B.A. in Journalism, University of Kansas, 1965;
• J.D., University of Missouri - Kansas City, 1969 (With Distinction);
• Editor-in-Chief, University of Missouri - Kansas City Law Review, 1968-69.

Memberships & Affiliations

• Former Chairman, Federal Courts Committee of the Missouri Bar;
• Former Member of the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association;
• Panelist of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution;
• Panelist of the American Arbitration Association;
• Member of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators;
• Member of the College of Commercial Arbitrators;
• Member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association;
• Member of the American Bar Association;
• Master of the Ross Roberts Inn of Court;
• Faculty Member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy;
• Member, The Association for Women Lawyers;
• Former Member of the Committee on Federal Model Jury Instructions;
• Member of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Missouri Supreme Court on Mediation Practice;
• Member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Committee on Professionalism and Civility;
• Member of the Missouri Bar Association;
• Speedy Trial Reporter to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska;
• Super Lawyers; Best Lawyers in America; Ingram's Best of the Bar; Frequent lecturer to bar associations, professional organizations, law schools, and insurance organizations.

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