Harmison & Pearman to merge with Kansas City firm

Photo courtesy HARMISON & PEARMAN PC

Harmison & Pearman partner Greg Pearman says its merger with Kansas City-based McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips PC is expected to be completed Nov. 1.

SBJ file photo

Jerry Harmison Jr. is exiting his firm after being named a Greene County judge.

• 
• 

RELATED

New Greene County Judge Harmison to exit firm

As new Greene County Judge Jerry Harmison Jr. prepares to exit Harmison & Pearman PC, his firm has struck a merger deal with Kansas City-based McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips PC.

Harmison & Pearman partner Greg Pearman said the merger has a targeted completion date of Nov. 1.

“They do workers’ compensation, so they do the same type of work that we do and we have many of the same clients,” Pearman said. “The primary reason will be to provide added value to our clients who need assistance in this part of Missouri and in the surrounding states.”

Pearman on Sept. 15 declined to provide further merger details and could not be reached for comment by deadline this morning.

The merger follows Gov. Eric Greitens’ appointment of Harmison as the new associate circuit court judge for the 31st Judicial Circuit covering Greene County. Harmison, who co-founded Harmison & Pearman in 2003, will be sworn in Sept. 29. He succeeds Judge Dan Imhof, who retired Aug. 31, according to Courts.Mo.Gov.

“Whenever a person is appointed to a judge position, you exit the law firm in which you’re working,” Harmison said in a previous SBJ interview. “Your law partners continue with the business in some fashion.”

McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips, which operates a Springfield office at 4650 S. National Ave., was founded in 1901. The company also has one office each in St. Louis, Omaha, Nebraska, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its practice areas also include business and corporate, real estate and administrative law, according to its website.