Managing Member
Jim has been trying lawsuits in state and federal courts for the past 26 years. He has an extensive litigation practice, handling complex business lawsuits, medical malpractice, insurance defense, construction, and employment litigation. Jim routinely represents business clients in contract matters, partnership disputes, breach of contract, fraud, and the defense of employment claims. Jim has helped his clients successfully resolve numerous business disputes, including the trial of ownership disputes and numerous other business issues that resulted in multi-million-dollar verdicts for his business clients.
Jim also spends a large portion of his practice defending hospitals, medical practices, nursing homes, individual physicians, and other healthcare professionals. The vast majority of claims against Jim’s healthcare clients result in outright dismissals or defense verdicts at trial. Jim’s clients include local hospitals and several of the largest physician-owned specialty practice groups in the Kansas City area.
Jim represents clients in all sorts of claims under commercial general liability (CGL) policies and professional liability insurance.
Jim also has significant experience representing defendants in construction litigation, where his clients include contractors, sub-contractors, architects, and engineers.
Jim’s employment litigation practice includes representing businesses against claims brought by current or former employees for discrimination, harassment, and other forms of hostile work environments. He has also defended business clients in claims related to pay and commission disputes. Finally, Jim has extensively litigated employee non-compete matters including seeking temporary restraining orders and injunctions to keep former employees from breaching their non-compete and non-solicitation agreements.
Jim has routinely been recognized for his work by both his peers and judges. Jim has been included in The Best Lawyers in America and selected by his peers for inclusion in SuperLawyers every year since 2010. He has also been chosen for inclusion in “The Best of the Bar” by the Kansas City Business Journal on numerous occasions. Jim holds an AV preeminent rating (highest available) from Martindale-Hubbell based on the confidential opinions of both members of the Bar and Judiciary. Jim was also a previous member of Ingram’s Magazine’s 40 under 40.
Jim started his career at a large national firm. He then spent 14 years as a shareholder at a mid-sized firm that specialized in medical malpractice and insurance defense. Jim co-founded Myers Longhofer, LLC with Rachael Longhofer in 2022.
Significant Accomplishments
Included in the 2021-2022 Editions of The Best Lawyers in America
Selected as a SuperLawyer each year since 2010
Included in The Kansas City Business Journal’s Best of the Bar on numerous occasions
Named Top Attorneys in Missouri and Kansas by KC Magazine
Selected to the 2011 Forty Under 40 class by Ingram's Magazine
Appointed as Municipal Judge for the City of Roeland Park, Kansas at age 27. At the time, Jim was the youngest known judicial appointee in Kansas history.
Martindale-Hubbell AV preeminent rating.
Relevant Experience
Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict.
Represented an interventional radiologist in a wrongful death case stemming from vertebroplasty (spine procedure) during which bone cement migrated from the injection site, traveled through the venous system, and ultimately lodged in a patient’s heart and lungs.
Breach of Non-Compete & Defamation.
Won a $1,452,786 jury verdict for a healthcare company against one of its former physicians for breach of his obligations under a non-compete agreement and defamation for false allegations the physician made about his former employer to state and federal regulators.
Misappropriation of Trade Secrets & Partnership Dispute.
Secured a confidential settlement weeks before a federal trial was about to start for a client whose former business partner misappropriated trade secrets and used confidential information for his companies' benefit after the parties ended their business relationship.
Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict.
Won a defense verdict in a medical malpractice case for a physician who allegedly failed to diagnose breast cancer.
Breach of Fiduciary Duty & Negligence.
Won a $2,548.354 jury verdict for a business owner against their former lawyer for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence related to the lawyer’s handling of a lawsuit over a patent for a recreational boating product.
Conspiracy.
Secured the dismissal of a lawsuit against a physician that alleged a conspiracy between the physician and an insurance company to keep the patient from getting needed treatment.
Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict.
Won a defense verdict for an orthopedic surgeon regarding an alleged leg length discrepancy after a total hip replacement.
Personal
Jim and his wife have two daughters. He enjoys traveling, golf, and competing in triathlons. Jim is a nationally ranked triathlete having competed in the Ironman World Championship on numerous occasions. His golf game? Well, let’s just say it still needs a lot of work.