George Barton Honored As Washburn University Alumni Fellow

Photograph: George Barton.George A. Barton, '77, Kansas City, Missouri, was honored as the Washburn University Alumni Fellow from the law school on October 27, 2011. Sponsored by the Washburn University deans and the Alumni Association, the Alumni Fellows program recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in their career fields. The Alumni Fellows program brings successful alumni to campus to meet with students, faculty, and other alumni and share their expertise formally and informally in the classroom and other campus settings.

Barton graduated magna cum laude from Washburn University School of Law in 1977. Since that time he has been a practicing attorney in Kansas City, Mo., specializing in complex commercial litigation. Barton has had extensive experience in the preparation and trial of complex commercial lawsuits, including class action cases, antitrust cases, royalty underpayment cases, and breach of fiduciary duty cases, which have included complex litigation cases filed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, and Oklahoma.

During the past 15 years, Barton has devoted an extensive part of his practice to representing mineral interest owners in royalty underpayment cases against both coal producers and natural gas producers. Barton was lead counsel for 25 mineral owners in a royalty underpayment case recently tried in Yuma County District Court in Wray, Colo., which culminated in an important decision by the Colorado Supreme Court clarifying the contractual obligations of natural gas producers to calculate and pay royalties to mineral interest owners in the State of Colorado. Rogers v. Westerman Farm Co., 29 P.3d 887 (Colo. 2001). Barton has also successfully represented thousands of other oil, gas, and coal royalty owners in Colorado and nationally, including the successful trial and appeal of a substantial punitive damage verdict against a major coal company. Reis v. Peabody Coal Company, 997 S.W.2d 49 (Mo. App. E.D. 1999).

Barton is currently the sole shareholder of The Law Offices of George A. Barton, P.C., a three-person law firm in Kansas City, Mo., which specializes in complex civil litigation, primarily representing plaintiffs. Barton was a Visiting Advocate at Washburn Law in 2006.

Posted August 25, 2011; updated November 1, 2011.