INJURY LAW ASSOCIATES - Key Persons

Michael graduated with a degree in Biology with honors from Kearney State College in 1984. He attended law school at the University of Kansas School of Law. His legal career began in Wichita, Kansas where he worked as a bankruptcy litigator for a commercial litigation firm. He moved to Kansas City in 1990 where he worked as a trial lawyer in an insurance defense firm for 3 years. Michael spent almost 25 years as an in-house attorney for 2 separate insurance companies defending the companies and their customers in all forms of personal injury cases including uninsured and underinsured motorists, motor vehicle accidents, and slip & falls. He is using that experience now to represent injury victims in claims and lawsuits against those same insurance companies. During his career, Michael has tried more than 40 jury trials and more than 50 bench trials. He has argued cases before the Kansas and Missouri Court of Appeals, as well as the Kansas Supreme Court.

Rachel Smith founded her law firm in 2005 to help people who are injured by others. She has represented thousands of clients and recovered millions of dollars for her clients. She handles car, truck, and motorcycle wrecks as well as boat, ATV, and other recreational vehicle crashes. Rachel also works on traumatic brain injury cases, slip and fall cases, dog bites, sexual assault, nursing home negligence, school bus accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents. As a former competitive cyclist, Rachel is committed to improving safety for cyclists. Rachel is committed to constant learning and innovation that will benefit her clients. She regularly attends seminars, trial colleges and other educational opportunities to make sure she and her team are on the cutting edge of handling complex cases. Rachel studies with the Trial By Human team and is a graduate of the Keenan Edge College Series. Rachel has been selected as a "Super Lawyer" every year since 2009. She was also selected as one of the "40 under 40" by the National Trial Lawyers and was selected as a "Woman Who Means Business" by the Kansas City Business Journal in 2012. She has been honored as "Best of the Bar," and a Top 100 Trial Lawyer by the National Trial Lawyers Association. Her law firm was awarded the "25 under 25" award in 2019, which honors the top 25 companies in Kansas City with fewer than 25 employees. Rachel graduated from Kansas State University with Honors and then obtained her Juris Doctorate and Masters Of Business from The University Of Kansas. She was a Rice Scholar at KU Law School She continues to mentor law students from her alma mater. In her free time, Rachel enjoys spending time with her family. She has four children and two dogs. Her hobbies are cooking and entertaining, spending time in her garden, reading and traveling. Practice Areas Bicycle Accidents