A Conversation With ... Chip Sheppard

Tell me about Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown PC. What type of law do you focus on?
We are a full-service firm for the businessperson and their entities. I focus my practice on business transactions and disputes, including real estate, securities, employment contracts and intellectual property. It’s basically all issues that arise out of business relationships.

What factors led you to choosing a law career?
I originally went to law school to help me in a business career. I enjoyed law school so much I changed course and decided to stick it out and be a lawyer. It is very interesting and every day is a new experience. Nothing about it was boring or cookie cutter.

What common legal mistake have you seen among business owners?
It’s a lot more cost effective to visit with your attorney on issues you don’t think are necessarily legal in nature just to make sure they are not, than it is for the lawyer to come in and try to fix a transaction or relationship after it’s blown up.

Litigation is expensive and messy. Documenting the relationship with a transaction in advance will in the long run save you a lot of money and avoid unnecessary or unintended risks.

How can businesses protect their intellectual property rights? What common advice do you have?
Generally speaking, there are several ways to protect yourself: Patents, copyrights and trademarks are examples. One example of an exception to that would be the Coca-Cola formula, which they have never patented. They have just done an incredibly good job of keeping it safe and no one has ever busted their formula.

Those are the protections you generally use, but in addition to that, it is really important to carefully draft confidentially and noncompetition provisions for key employees that are going to have access, or help develop, to trade secrets and have confidential customer contact information.

The best advice is to contact your lawyer to explain your intellectual property concerns to you and then follow their advice, because each situation is going to depend on the specific circumstances of that business.

You have been practicing law for 29 years now. What memorable cases stand out to you?
Client confidentiality limits this answer severely. One of the most memorable was a 1990 verdict against a brokerage firm for more than $1 million for an unsuitable risky investment strategy started with retired clients. It was my first big securities fraud case and because of the press – it was in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Springfield paper and the Arkansas Gazette – it sparked a lot of additional cases against that brokerage firm and a lot of cases against other brokerage firms.

Another case that was just interesting because it was so unique and bizarre was the Tony Orlando v. Wayne Newton wiretapping and breach of oral theater agreement case. We represented Wayne Newton in that federal court matter.

One of the more recent cases I was on was the new city ordinance concerning immigration that targeted businesses that hired illegals. I was one of the attorneys that sued the city and the court entered an order stopping the enforcement of any of the important parts of that ordinance.

You’re president-elect of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association. What advice about bar involvement do you have for potential members?
My advice would be it’s just very rewarding personally to get involved on a volunteer basis and work with others to make things happen. The biggest volunteer project I have worked on was being part of the team that brought the Missouri Court Plan to Greene County. That was just very rewarding to be part of making history and improving the way we select judges in the county.

What are you looking forward to most as president?
I am looking forward to working with a great executive director and a board of directors filled with very bright, caring Springfieldians. It really is a talented bunch and it will just be exciting to see what sort of creative ideas we can come up with to deal with the issues that are affecting the legal community locally.