Karen A. Plax is a highly respected Missouri attorney who practices family law exclusively. Ms. Plax is well-known for her handling of complex family law litigation especially involving business valuation and contested custody. In recent years, Ms. Plax also offers Collaborative Law services.

With 30 years experience in the family law field, Karen A. Plax is a skilled litigator and negotiator. Because a marriage breakdown is one of life's most personal and stressful experiences, a domestic relations lawyer requires particular strengths beyond legal expertise. Ms. Plax also has an extensive background in understanding the psychological and emotional difficulties often associated with marital dissolutions and contested custody actions.

Karen Plax is noted for her constructive and creative problem solving and her attention to detail. She recognizes that her clients have a great deal at stake in a divorce--their children, family home and often a business. She and her well-trained support staff assist her clients in analyzing their situations and identifying their particular needs.

As a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a national organization of the top divorce lawyers in the United States, Karen Plax continues to develop her professional skills. The AAML has rigorous standards and admits as fellows only those attorneys who have passed intensive screening and testing. She is also an AAML certified Matrimonial Arbitrator. Ms. Plax is a former president of the Missouri Chapter of the AAML.

Since 1991, Ms. Plax has been included in The Best Lawyers in America in the family law category. Lawyers are selected for inclusion based on an extensive nationwide survey and the evaluations of judges and attorneys in the field. Ms. Plax is also listed in the Millenium Edition of Who's Who in American Law. Ms. Plax was selected as one of the top divorce attorneys in the Kansas City area in Kansas City Business Journal surveys in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2005 the Missouri Bar Family Law Section honored Karen Plax as Family Law Practitioner of the Year.

Active in many professional organizations, Karen Plax was vice-chair of the Missouri Bar Family Law Section and a past chair of the Family Law Committee of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and a member of the American Bar Association Family Law Section and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. She has also served on the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the KCMBA. Ms. Plax chaired a KCMBA Committee to revise the financial forms and required discovery in family law cases for the Jackson County, Missouri Family Court. She served as Legislative Chair of the Missouri Bar Family Law Section in 1997 and 1998 during which a major reform of the dissolution statutes was accomplished.

The President of the Missouri Bar Association cited Ms. Plax for her special efforts in family law legislation in 1997. In 1998 Ms. Plax received the University of Missouri - Kansas City Law Foundation Public Service Award and in 1999 the Association of Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City selected Ms. Plax as its Woman of the Year. The Missouri House of Representatives also cited her for her contributions to law and society.

The Missouri Supreme Court appointed Karen Plax as Chair of Division 3 of the 16th Judicial Circuit Bar Committee which reviews ethical conduct of lawyers in that Circuit, a post she retired from in December, 1998. The Presiding Judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit also appointed her to the Jackson County Family Court Rules Committee.

Karen Plax has lectured frequently on family law for the Missouri Trial Judges' College, the Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Area Bar Association, the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. She has also been a lecturer at the Missouri Trial. Some lecture topics addressed by Ms. Plax in the last several years include:

• Collaborative Law Training
• Marital and Nonmarital Property
• Update on Legislative Changes affecting Family Law
• Nuts and Bolts of a Family Law Practice - Including Use of Technology
• Local and Supreme Court Rule Changes - Impact on Family Law
• Discovery: How much or How Little?
• Removal of Children from the State
• Use of Depositions in Litigation of a Dissolution
• Federal Child Support Requirements & Guidelines
• The Art of Visual Persuasion in a Trial
• Family Law Cases - Year in Review
• Tax Aspects of Family Law Cases

Ms. Plax has written articles for the Journal of the Missouri Bar and the Missouri Bar Family Law Newsletter.

Ms. Plax is president of the Collaborative Law Institute of Missouri, Inc., an organization dedicated to encouraging negotiated settlements in divorce. See www.collablawmo.com for additional information on this innovative concept.

Karen A. Plax graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law with distinction in 1976. She is admitted to practice in Missouri and before the United States Supreme Court.