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Shane Mecham

Shareholder, Firm President, Attorney

Commercial Litigation, Construction Litigation, Fidelity & Surety

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(816) 460–1810

Shane Mecham

Shareholder, Firm President, Attorney

Commercial Litigation, Construction Litigation, Fidelity & Surety

Shane confronts complex legal issues with straight forward practical solutions.

“I thrive on clients counting on me in critical situations,” he said. “It is rewarding to win a result that exceeds clients’ expectations.”

Shane joined Levy Craig in 2010, after working at a large Kansas City, Missouri, law firm. He has first-chaired jury and bench trials in state and federal courts in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa and has argued cases before appellate courts in multiple states and federal circuits. He has also led numerous mediations and arbitrations. Shane has developed particular expertise in handling construction, insurance, surety, and fidelity issues, a skill honed through representing clients from individuals in personal cases to Fortune 100 corporations in national litigation.

Based on that experience, he says, “I treat every case with a combination of sophisticated legal analysis and common sense.”

You can count on me when your rights, your assets, or your business is on the line.

Career Achievements

  • Won multimillion-dollar arbitration award for client, including punitive damages
  • Won one of the fifteen largest plaintiff verdicts in Missouri in 2014
  • Won one of the ten largest defense verdicts in Missouri in 2013
  • First-chaired a jury trial in Wyandotte County, Kansas, winning a verdict of zero percent liability and $0 damages in the client’s favor
  • Successfully settled director and officer liability and fidelity bond claims on behalf of FDIC
  • Took dozens of depositions, including numerous plaintiffs’ depositions, as part of nationwide chemical exposure litigation
  • Defended nearly 200 claims in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time
  • Wrote, argued and won summary judgment motions for clients in Missouri and Kansas
  • Represented players as a NFLPA-certified contract advisor

Activities

  • Ross T. Roberts Trial Academy, Mentor, 2015-2024
  • Member, Fidelity Law Association
  • Member, Fidelity Surety Law Committee
  • President, DEBATE Kansas City, 2014-2022
  • President, Missouri Brain Injury Advisory Council, 2013-2014. Appointed by Governor and confirmed by Senate in 2011
  • Board of Directors, DEBATE Kansas City, since 2011
  • Participant, Ross T. Roberts Inn of Court, 2011-2012
  • Certified Contract Advisor, National Football League Players’ Association, 2006-2008
  • Member, American Bar Association, since 2004
    • FSLC Communication Committee Co-Chair, 2022-2024
    • FSLC Miscellaneous Bonds Committee Co-Chair, 2019-2024
    • YLD Alternative Dispute Resolution Vice-Chair, 2012-2013
    • YLD Torts, Trial, & Insurance Vice-Chair, 2010-2011
    • Arts, Entertainment, & Sports Law Chair, 2008-2009

Published Works & Presentations

  • Co-Author, Nebraska, The Electronic Payment Bond Deskbook, ABA Fidelity Surety Law Committee pp. 253-259 (Spring 2023)
  • Presenter, “Help Me Help You: Obligations of the Obligee to the Surety,” Surety Claims Institute (June 24, 2021)
  • Presenter, “After Narula: Best Practices when Principals Face FCA Liability,” ABA FSLC Winter Meeting (Feb. 4, 2021)
  • Co-Author, How to Handle a Principal in Receivership, ABA Committee News Fidelity & Surety Law pp. 14-18 (Spring 2020)
  • Co-Author, “Tackling Defective Work”, presented at American Bar Association FSLC Spring Meeting (May 2019)
  • Co-Presenter, “Top 10 Mistakes When Making Performance and Payment Bond Claims,” American Bar Association Webinar (May 26, 2016)
  • Co-Author, “Beauty is Only Skin Deep: Selected Issues Regarding Building Exterior and Interior Finishes,” presented at FSCL Mid-Winter Meeting (Jan. 2016)
  • Co-Author, “Financing the Principal,” in Bond Default Manual 212 (Mike F. Pipkin, Carol Z. Smith, Thomas J. Vollbrecht, and J. Blake Wilcox eds., 2015)
  • “Strict Liability and Used Car Dealers After the Crysler and General Motors Bankruptcies,” Journal of the Missouri Bar, Jan.-Feb. 2010, at 14
  • “Head Case: An Agent’s Guide to Protecting Their NFL Clients From Concussions and Associated Risks,” 76 UMKC L. Rev. 3, 699-709 (2008)
  • “The House that Consensus Built: Consensus Building in Stadium Construction,” 38 Urban Lawyer 4, 1087 (2006)
  • Co-Author, The Debate Handbook Guide: Policy Debate Research Tools (1998-1999)

Education

  • J.D. with honors, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas, 2004
    • Editor of the Texas Law Review
  • B.S. in Political Science magna cum laude with general honors, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, 2001
    • National Parliamentary Debate Association National Champions, 2000; All-American, 2001

Honors

  • Recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine in Missouri and Kansas for Surety and Business Litigation, 2011-2024
  • Selected in The Best Lawyers in America, 2016-2024
  • National Forensics Association Hall of Fame, 2016
  • DEBATE Kansas City Volunteer of the Year, 2013-2014
  • Named “Up and Coming” by Missouri Lawyers Weekly in 2011

Bar Admissions

  • United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, 2020
  • 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, 2020
  • Nebraska, 2018
  • 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, 2018
  • Missouri, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, 2017
  • Missouri, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri Bankruptcy Court, 2010
  • Kansas, 2005
  • Kansas, United States District Court for the District of Kansas, 2005
  • United States District Court for the District of Kansas Bankruptcy Court, 2005
  • Missouri, 2004
  • Missouri, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, 2005