Leland F. Dempsey

Mr. Dempsey is a founding member of the firm and has been practicing in the area of medical malpractice and major/catastrophic injury litigation for twenty-five years.   

He has been chosen as “Best of the Bar” in the field of medical malpractice by his peers and has been recognized as an “Outstanding Lawyer of America”.  He is “AV” rated by the Martindale-Hubbell attorney rating service, the highest rating available in both ability and ethics.  He has also been selected as a “Superlawyer” for the greater Kansas City area and is listed in Strathmore’s Who’s Who of American lawyers.  He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys and is co-chair of the Amicus committee for that organization. 

Mr. Dempsey is a 1982 graduate of Tulane University and is licensed to practice in both Missouri and Kansas.  He is also licensed to practice before the United States District Court in Missouri and Kansas, the United States Federal Court of Claims and the 8^th and 10^th Circuits of the Federal Courts.   

Mr. Dempsey was lead attorney in numerous high profile cases in the Kansas City area resulting in over $50 million awarded to his clients in settlements and judgments in 2006 alone.

Robert D. Kingsland

Mr. Kingsland is a co-founder of the Dempsey and Kingsland firm and has practiced in the area of medical negligence, catastrophic injury and death litigation since 1984.

Mr. Kingsland is rated “AV” by the Martindale Hubbell attorney rating service.  Mr. Kingsland has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys since 1999 and he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Jackson County Law Library for more than 8 years.  He has lectured on topics pertaining to trial practice and is a co-author of various articles published in the MATA Journal.

Mr. Kingsland is a 1975 graduate of Georgetown University and a 1981 graduate of Georgetown University Law School. He is licensed to practice in the State of Missouri. Additionally, he is licensed to practice before the United States District Courts in Missouri and the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Kingsland has litigated numerous cases in which the awards have equalled or exceeded $1 million.  In 2007, Mr. Kingsland negotiated a $5 million settlement in a wrongfuld death case arising from an eighteen-wheel-truck/passenger car collision.  Missouri Lawyer Weekly listed this case as one of the five largest settlement cases in the State of Missouri for 2007.

Mr. Kingsland has successfully litigated numerous complex medical negligence, catastrophic injury and death cases in various state and federal courts both in Missouri and Kansas.

Matthew L. Hood

Mr. Hood joined the firm in 2005 and has centered his practice in the area of medical malpractice, product defect and major/ catastrophic injury litigation.

Prior to joining Dempsey & Kingsland, he served as law clerk to both the Honorable Sandra C. Midkiff of the Jackson County Circuit Court and the Honorable Harold L. Lowenstein of the Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri. Additionally, while in law school, Matt served under the Honorable Scott O. Wright for the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and for the Environmental Protection Agency, both positions obtained through competitive internship programs at University of Missouri Kansas City and Denver University Law Schools.

Mr. Hood is a graduate of University of Missouri Kansas City Law School and is licensed to practice in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado. He is also licensed to practice before the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Jason P. Osteen

Mr. Osteen is a senior associate with the firm and has a tort litigation practice with an emphasis in the areas of trucking and motor vehicle collisions, medical malpractice, and nursing home negligence.

He was born and raised in the Kansas City area. Mr. Osteen received his bachelor's degree with distinction from the University of Kansas in 1996, where he was a recipient of the U.S.C. Scholarship, a merit-based academic scholarship awarded to sophomore students. He was also elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate, the nation's oldest and most prestigious academic fraternity. Mr. Osteen received his juris doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999.

Mr. Osteen has assisted in the trials of cases in state and federal Court, he has handled cases in state and federal court, and he has argued before the Supreme Court of Missouri. He has also tried numerous workers' compensation cases and has achieved multiple permanent total disability awards and settlements that resulted in lifetime financial benefits to his clients.

Mr. Osteen is admitted to practice in Missouri and Kansas state courts as well as the United States District Courts for Kansas and the Western District of Missouri. He is a member of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys and has written amicus briefs on behalf of that organization and is also a published author in that organization's journal. Mr. Osteen is also a member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

Ashley L. Ricket

Ms. Ricket has been practicing law in the Kansas City area since earning her Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law in 2006 where Ms. Ricket was a member of the Law Review from 2003 through 2006. Ms. Ricket received her undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in 2002, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.

Her primary areas of practice with Dempsey and Kingsland, P.C. are medical malpractice and major/catastrophic injury litigation. Ms. Ricket began her career with Dempsey and Kingsland as a law clerk to Leland Dempsey in 2004 and later accepted a permanent associate position upon graduation from law school. Ms. Ricket has worked extensively with lead attorney Leland Dempsey from 2004 to the present and has developed significant experience with litigation in the areas of medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, and vaccine litigation before the United States Federal Court of Claims in Washinton, D.C.

Ms. Ricket was instrumental in achieving a reversal with resulting Judgment in favor of a quadriplegic child resulting in a $43.1 million award in the important vaccine case of Rodriguez ex rel. Rodriguez v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 67 Fed.Cl. 409 (2005). This settlement is believed to be one of the largest such awards in United States history.

Ms. Ricket is licensed to practice before the Missouri Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. She is also a member of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, the Missouri Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.