Charles W. German

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Charley German has a cassette tape in his top desk drawer. It’s a recording of an appearance before the Eighth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on April 10, 1990. His work on this particular case would cover more than one third of his 32 years in the legal profession. It’s some of the work he’s most proud of. Though in the end, it was a case that he did not win.

It was a death penalty case. German had been assigned to represent a Missouri man who had been convicted of murder and was sentenced to be executed. His work focused first on appealing the conviction and then appealing the death penalty sentence itself. “When a human life is on the line, you do everything in your power to make sure they get the very best representation possible,” German said.

This kind of case was very different from the financial transactions, capital markets, and corporate governance work he specializes in. But the focus, the hands-on approach, the attention to detail this case required were things German had been preparing for his entire legal career. And they would serve as the foundation for the creation of Rouse Hendricks German May PC.

“I hate the term ‘boutique’ firm,” German says, “It sounds kind of wimpy. And we’re far from that. We specialize in ‘bet the firm’-type cases. High-end, high-stakes corporate litigation that requires experience and a proven track record.”

Charley German’s track record as a litigator began in 1979 with Stinson Mag & Fizzell in Kansas City, working on everything from a massive school district desegregation case to representing financial institutions involved in the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s.

In 1992, German and five colleagues formed Rouse, Hendricks, German, May & Shank, P.C.

“There are certain things at large law firms that you just can’t do,” German said. “Plaintiff’s work on a contingency basis, for example. We were litigators. And we wanted to create a firm focused on that, with a hands on approach that we knew would bring success.”

Mr. German has been recognized as a “Best of the Bar” for commercial litigation in 2002-2008 in the Kansas City Business Journal’s annual survey of local lawyers. He was also recognized as one of the “Top Ten” Missouri lawyers in 2000 by Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly, included in the Missouri-Kansas Superlawyers compilation for 2005-2008, listed in International Who’s Who (Legal) for 2005-2007, in Chambers USA (Leading Lawyers) for 2003-2008, and in Best Lawyers in America for 2004-2009 commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. He also received the Kansas City Downtown Council Urban Hero Award. And in 2009 German was awarded KC Legal Leader of the Year by The Daily Record, and the Robert C. Welch Volunteer Attorney Project Award, in part because of his work with the KCMBA Homelessness Project.

The Homelessness Project is a particular source of pride for German and RHGM. German worked to create a program that paired volunteer attorneys with non-profit agencies serving the homeless. And he designed a Warrant Relief Project that has helped dozens of homeless men and women work with volunteer attorneys to handle outstanding warrants that were barriers to finding work and affordable housing.

German says it’s crucial that attorneys always remember the human side of the work they do. And that’s one of the reasons he keeps that 19-year old cassette tape in his desk.

“Every once in a while I’ll see that tape in my drawer,” German said of the tape of one of his appeals court appearances in the death penalty case. “It’s a good reminder that behind each of our cases are real people. People who deserve the effort and focus and attention that we know we can give them.”

Areas of Practice:

Complex Corporate and Commercial Litigation
Capital Markets
Tax
Health Care
Professional Responsibility
Class Actions
White Collar Criminal Defense

Bar Admissions:

Missouri, 1977
Kansas, 2005
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit
U.S. District Court Western District of Missouri
U.S. District Court District of Kansas

Education:

University of Missouri Columbia School of Law, Columbia, Missouri, 1977
J.D., Doctor of Jurisprudence
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
Law Review: Missouri Law Review, Member

Drury College, Springfield, Missouri, 1974
B.A., Bachelor of Arts
Honors: Summa Cum Laude

Published Works:

Important Developments--Court Procedure (Co-Author) 41 Tax Lawyer 947 (1988)

Videotape Evidence in The Courts (Co-Author) 6 American Journal of Trial
Advocacy 209, (1982), Reprint 26 South Texas Law Journal 453, (1985)

Professional Associations and Memberships:

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, 2007 – 2008
President

Attorney Experience & Judicial Clerkship:

Stinson, Mag & Fizzell, 1979 – 1992
Honorable William R. Collinson, United States District Court for the Western District
of Missouri, Law Clerk, 1977 - 1979