Pat Fanning is a trial attorney who advocates for the client’s position with passion and conviction. Pat has tried—and his clients have won—several jury trials and commercial arbitration hearings. But Pat also understands the risks and high stakes that accompany the decision to take a case to trial. He therefore strives at all times to resolve client issues efficiently and logically. While Pat is a staunch defender of the critical role the jury system plays in our democracy, he also understands the value of solving problems outside of the courtroom whenever possible.

Pat protects the rights of individuals and businesses, large and small. He focuses his practice on complex business disputes and toxic tort matters where cutting-edge technology and science issues typically intersect with contract law and traditional notions of fair play and personal responsibility. For the past several years, Pat has expanded his practice to defending and protecting the rights of a Fortune 500 information technology company in its software disputes with other businesses.

Pat is a proud Kansas City native and second-generation trial attorney. Pat’s late father was a sole practitioner who instilled in Pat the importance of understanding the human story at the heart of every single dispute, no matter how complicated the underlying facts. Pat’s father also spent Pat’s formative years schooling him in the art of cross-examination (the hard way).

Pat started his career at Lathrop & Gage LLP and served as a partner from 2007 to 2010. Before re-joining the firm in 2021, Pat was a partner for eight years at a prominent Kansas City litigation firm and later served as a founding partner of PEAK Litigation LLP, a commercial and tort litigation boutique.

Areas of Focus

Services

Sectors

Experience

  • Pat’s client won a complete defense judgment on an opponent’s business tort claims seeking to recover more than $132 million in damages following a two-week Zoom trial.
  • Pat’s client won a jury verdict in the District of Kansas federal court following a one-day jury trial where the opposing party argued it should not be required to follow the terms of a contract where it claimed to have never received the full contract at the time the parties signed their business deal.
  • Pat’s client won a preliminary injunction after a multi-day hearing to protect Pat’s client’s ability to continue to serve its clients using software provided by a vendor who had threatened to cut off the client’s ability to continue to serve its customers.
  • Pat successfully resolved several arbitration matters and lawsuits that arose as a result of Pat’s client’s $1 billion acquisition of another business.
  • Pat’s client won an AAA arbitration award after a week-long arbitration that focused on the opposing party’s effort to back out of a software contract after the client had already implemented the software.
  • Pat’s client secured an extremely favorable settlement in the middle of a jury trial in a toxic tort case following Pat’s opening statement that called into question the fundamental issues with the opposing party’s liability theories.
  • Pat’s client won a jury verdict and money damages following a two-week condemnation jury trial in Kansas state court. Pat represented a publicly traded company in recovering damages caused by the condemning authority's taking of client's interest in the property without compensation.
  • Pat’s client won a jury verdict and an award of money damages after a lengthy trial in federal court in an international dispute between a Kansas corporation and a state-owned factory located in The People's Republic of China.
  • Pat’s client won a jury verdict and an award of money damages after a week-long trial in Kansas state court in a dispute arising from the client’s business partner’s decision to pretend the client had transferred his entire ownership interest in the business when he entrusted his business partner with a majority share.

Credentials

Education

  • University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law (J.D., 1998)
  • University of Missouri - Columbia (B.A., 1995)

Bar Admissions

  • Kansas
  • Missouri

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Recognitions

  • Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Rated, Preeminent
  • The Legal 500 United States, 2014,
  • Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, 2017, 2020-2021; "Rising Star," 2008-2010, 2013-2014

Presentations

  • Co-presenter, "Welcome Remarks," and "You Can't Spell 'Inevitable' Without A.I.," Lathrop GPM 2024 State of Litigation, May 21, 2024
  • Co-presenter, "When Goliath Borrows David’s Slingshot: Big Business and its Offensive Use of State Consumer Protection Acts," Lathrop GPM 2023 State of Litigation: Draft Edition, April 12, 2023
  • Co-presenter, "Pre-Game: Welcome Remarks," Lathrop GPM 2023 State of Litigation: Draft Event, April 12, 2023

Community Involvement

  • Visitation Catholic Church Faith Formation Committee, 2017 to present
  • Visitation Catholic School Cross-Country Head Coach, 2019 to present
  • FIRE Foundation Board of Directors, 2015 to 2021
  • Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Centurions Leadership Program, 2005-2007