Lee M. Smithyman

Lee Smithyman is an accomplished trial attorney. Based in Foulston’s Kansas City office, he is part of the firm’s litigation and employment practice group. With more than four decades’ experience, Lee provides counsel and representation for clients in the areas of complex business disputes, contracts, insurance coverage and claim litigation, energy and public utility law, and federal and state energy regulation.  An Air Defense Artillery officer who completed Airborne and Ranger training, Lee is also a licensed arbitrator and mediator through the American Arbitration Association. He is a member and past president of the Kansas Bar Association, a former member of the Tenth Judicial District Nominating Commission, and was appointed by the Kansas Supreme Court to the Kansas Board of Discipline in 2010.

Education

• Washburn University (J.D., cum laude, 1976)
• Carnegie-Mellon University (M.S. in Industrial Administration, 1970)
• Carnegie-Mellon University (B.S. in Administration and Management Science, 1970)

Admissions

• Kansas (1977)
• Missouri (1991)
• Oklahoma (2010)
• U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (1977)
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri (1991)
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (1987)
• U.S. Supreme Court (1997)

• Administrative/Regulatory
• Business & Corporate Law
• Insurance Regulatory
• Energy
• Environmental Law
• Litigation & Disputes
• Mediation/Dispute Resolution
• Oil, Gas & Minerals
• Renewable Energy, Electric Storage & Transmission

• Energy & Natural Resources
• Insurance

• Smithyman & Zakoura, Chartered, Founding Partner, 1986-2022
• Unites States Army, Captain, 1970-1974

• Tenth Judicial District Nominating Commission, 2004-2016
• Kansas Supreme Court Board of Discipline, 2010-present
• Kansas Bar Association, Board of Governors, 2005-2010; President, 2012-2013
• The Missouri Bar
• Johnson County Bar Association, Ethics Committee Investigator, 1996-2020
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
• Wyandotte County Bar Association
• Earl E. O’Connor Inns of Court, Master Emeritus 
• Selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers® List, 2005-2022 (a Thomson Reuters business)
• Martindale-Hubbell® AV Rating, 1980-2022

2024

• Recent Developments for In-House Counsel: Attorney-Client Privilege, DEI Challenges, and Disciplinary Challenges (A Case Study) (Foulston Siefkin LLP, Corporate Counsel Series: Ethics)