Polsinelli Shughart PC welcomes Daniel S. Dooley and M. Kathryn Pruett to the firm as associates in the Financial Services department. The pair will focus on loan enforcement and the protection and enforcement of creditors’ rights. Three loan enforcement attorneys joined the firm in April. Dooley and Pruett joined the firm’s enforcement group located on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. A third associate, Cristel Shepherd, joined the enforcement group in the firm’s Denver, Colorado office.
“There is a tremendous amount of distressed debt held by commercial lenders today,” said Brett Anders, who co-chairs the firm's enforcement group. “That means that both lenders and their lawyers need to ensure that they are adequately staffed to service that debt. The addition of Daniel and Katie continues a trend in the growth of our group. They both bring energy and knowledge, and we are very excited to have them.”
Dooley and Pruett join a national practice that ranges from Los Angeles to Seattle, and New York City to Miami. The attorneys help connect clients to regional, national, and international financial markets and products. The firm’s Financial Services department represents lenders and borrowers in virtually every phase of finance relationships.
Dooley brings experience assisting clients on a wide variety of civil litigation matters including creditors’ rights, complex commercial disputes, commercial fraud investigations, employment disputes, ERISA disputes and bankruptcy litigation. He has extensive experience in state and federal courts across the country. His clients include a wide variety of FDIC and non-FDIC lenders, telecommunications providers, insurance and reinsurance companies, consumer electronics companies, private equity funds and bankruptcy trustees.
“I am excited to join Polsinelli Shughart’s creditors’ rights and loan enforcement practice,” said Dooley, who grew up in the Kansas City area. “Polsinelli Shughart’s broad and sophisticated Financial Services department, and particularly its creditors’ rights and loan enforcement group, was a natural fit for my experience and will provide me the opportunity to grow my practice on a national level.”
Dooley earned his law degree from Indiana University, cum laude, where he was Managing Editor of the Indiana Law Journal. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. He previously practiced at the Chicago office of Freeborn & Peters LLP.
Pruett brings experience in the courtroom, previously representing plaintiffs in personal injury litigation. Pruett was part of a team who obtained a $20 million verdict in compensatory damages in a personal injury case in Little Rock, Arkansas. In addition, Pruett brings experience in insurance coverage defense, construction law, toxic torts, labor and employment disputes, creditors’ rights, professional liability, products liability, as well as in commercial, civil and complex litigation.
“I was looking for an opportunity to develop and grow a practice. Polsinelli Shughart seemed like the right fit based on the firm’s national reach and sophisticated Financial Services department,” said Pruett.
Pruett earned her law degree from the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law in 2007, and was the Note and Comment Editor of the UMKC Law Review. She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism from Southern Methodist University in 2003. She was captain of SMU Women’s Tennis Team, Academic All-Conference, Honor Roll Society, and associate news editor of The Daily Campus.
Pruett is a member of the Missouri Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, American Association of Justice, Association of Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City, and the Jackson County Bar Association.
For more information contact Public Relations Manager Heather McMichael, 816-395-0618,
About Polsinelli Shughart PC
With more than 530 attorneys, Polsinelli Shughart PC (www.polsinelli.com) is a national law firm that is a recognized leader in the areas of business law, financial services, real estate and business litigation. Serving corporate, institutional and individual clients, Polsinelli Shughart is redefining the business of law by sharing ideas, goals and outcomes with its clients. The firm builds enduring relationships by creating value through legal services - with passion, ingenuity and a sense of urgency. The firm has offices located in Kansas City; St. Louis; Phoenix; Chicago; Denver; Washington, D.C.; New York; Wilmington, Del.; Overland Park, Kan.; St. Joseph, Springfield, and Jefferson City, Mo.; Topeka, Kan.; and Edwardsville, Ill.