Family Law Attorney Mandee Pingel, is Proud to Provide Compassion & Strong Representation For Her Clients Throughout The Kansas City Area. Her Goal is to Guide Families Through the Step-By-Step Process of Their Case While Providing Accessible & Personalized Legal Representation.

987b693e46b7df7418ab8ba2daed6f36.jpgMandee is also an active member of many major legal organizations and contributes both time and resources in support of many local charities and important social causes.  She has a reputation for her unwavering compassion, empathy and ability to listen, while also using her skills of unyielding legal advocacy by staying up to date on legal precedent and developments and having a reputation for always being prepared. 

To learn more about Mandee Pingel visit www.kansascityfamilylaw.com

Q: Can you share with our audience, the types of law you specialize in?
MP:
I work in domestic relations litigation. This includes everything involving family relationships, including divorces, child custody cases, domestic violence/protection from abuse cases, prenuptial and antenuptial agreements, estate planning and many other issues concerning family relationships. 

Q: What types of cases do you handle?
MP:
I enjoy the wide diversity of cases that I handle. I have the opportunity to work with interesting and varied families from all walks of life. I love that in any given day, I spend some time helping client’s problem solve, a part of my day in court and additional time negotiating agreements. I enjoy the diversity and the fact that every day is unique.

Q: What is your approach or philosophy to winning or representing a case?
MP:
I believe success comes from being prepared and ensuring reasonable, educated expectations. If a client does not have intelligent and meaningful advice about what to expect in the court process, even a success may feel like a failure to the party. Any opportunity to settle a case ensures that the client has an opportunity to provide input into the outcome. Beyond forecasting projections, success comes through hard work. This means being educated, knowledgeable, prepared, obtaining evidence to prove a client’s position and having awareness of the judge the case is being presented to. 

Q: What advice would you give to young women who want to pursue a career as an Attorney?
MP:
I am passionate about this topic! I didn’t realize early on in my career that women will cheer you on and help you succeed! Unfortunately, they teach you in law school to compete against the other students and to see them as your competition. Getting a strong, knowledgeable, and experienced female mentor in your life to guide you in your professional career can teach you more in a day than a year of school. 

There are so many things in the practice of law that happen beyond being knowledgeable of the law and arguing your client’s case. If you don’t have a mentor to guide you through this information, you will struggle- no matter how smart you are, how hard you work or how amazing your legal arguments are.

Never underestimate the value and power of getting female role models. If you don’t have one (or more), decide on women you respect and value and ask them to be your mentor. It is a privilege and honor for many women to help teach and guide younger women. Leverage the power of your network!

Q: What is it about your job that most excites you?
MP:
Helping clients and watching their lives change is the most exciting and rewarding thing about practicing family law. Many clients come to see me when they are at the lowest, hardest point in their life. They need someone who will listen, prioritize/understand their goals, and help them make a plan of action going forward. For many people, just knowing that there are steps and strategies to address their worries and concerns gives them instant, visible relief and stress reduction. When I have a day where I can meet with/help several clients with case planning or actually solving problems, I am able to make a difference in people’s lives. I have also been practicing long enough to watch some children that I helped as a baby become adults. I have had many clients who have stayed in touch for twenty years or more. 

Q: Can you tell our audience one of your most memorable moments your career?
MP:
My most memorable moment was getting a card from a client where she told me that if not for the difference I made, she was planning to kill herself. I got involved in her case, made a difference and she has hope and happiness for her future now. She totaled up the difference in the amount of settlement funds I was able to successfully obtain for her based on obtaining evidence, organizing, and creating charts and found that the settlement outcome she achieved was more than $250,000 larger than the previous “final offer’ settlement she received. Having an opportunity to work hard and achieve a successful outcome for a client motivates me to give my very best to every client every day!

Q: What’s one lesson you’ve learned in your career that you can share with our audience?
MP:
I’ve learned that relationships matter. Being unkind or unnecessarily uncooperative will always come back to haunt you as the family law community in Kansas City is small. Everyone knows each other, and you never know when you will have your next case with someone you failed to cooperate with, or a lawyer becomes a judge or is appointed as guardian ad litem. Your professional reputation and integrity is always worth more than being unnecessarily adversarial or fighting overly aggressively for a client. 

Q: What advice would you give to young women who want to succeed in the workplace?
MP:
Always be open to growing, learning, and expanding your horizons. Sometimes your viewpoint on something will change. Look at unique situations as opportunities to grow and maybe develop a new interest. For example, many years ago, I had a family friend ask me to be involved in a military divorce situation. I decided if I was going to represent my client, I would learn as much as I could. 

I read every military informational document I could get my hands on. Since that time, I have had an opportunity to represent more military service members or their spouse or dependent than I can count! It is not only a privilege to be able to serve and thank our military members by being a resource to them, but it has been a great opportunity to build a niche and be a resource to other family law attorneys in dealing with unique issues created for military members and their dependents touching family law cases.

Q: Can you tell us how you manage your work life balance?
MP:
This is a great question! This is something that many female lawyers struggle with, and I certainly did early in my career. I want to give so much to my clients and be available and accessible t them, but I also want to be an active, involved mother, wife, daughter and friend. I delegate things and try to be as organized as possible so I can best and most efficiently use my time on the things that matter most to me. Also, some amount of self-care whether it is exercising, resting, hobbies or otherwise is essential as working. Family law requires a lot of empathy and compassion, and you can only give to others and be a strong resource and advocate when you rest and get your own personal bucket filled or refreshed on occasion. 

Six Things About Attorney Mandee Pingel

1. What's your favorite family tradition? 
Volunteering to create a family legacy of giving.

2. What’s the most amazing adventures have you’ve ever been on?
Travelling internationally. It allows exposure to new sights, new smells and tastes, cultures and different ways of thinking and doing things that you would not otherwise learn about!

3. Among your friends, what are you best known for? 
My empathy and willingness to listen.

4. Do you read reviews, or just go with your gut? 
Some of each. I normally carefully research everything but the few times I’ve gone with my gut and made a spur of the moment decision have been some of the best outcomes. 

5. What’s your big passion? 
Caring about people and spreading kindness. When people are upset or unkind it’s exciting to find the difference you can make in another person’s life when you are kind. Often if you slow down to ask, a person being unkind has very little or nothing to do with the person they are directing their frustration to, but rather, they are having other issues or problems that are entirely unrelated to you.

6. What was your favorite subject in school? 
Math! It serves me well in family law dividing and calculating assets, support obligations and in a thousand other ways!

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