Mandee Pingel

Mandee Pingel, a seasoned trial lawyer and legal expert based in Kansas City, Missouri, has dedicated almost 25 years to practicing family law. She obtained her license to practice in Missouri in 2006 and in Kansas in 2009. Mandee is renowned for her compassionate and creative approach to her clients and the needs of their case, earning a stellar reputation in the industry. Beyond being a tireless advocate, she emphasizes the importance of considering the broader family unit’s needs, both in the short and long term.

Mandee’s legal journey began with a strong educational foundation. She earned her Bachelor’s in Political Science from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, graduating with honors. Subsequently, she pursued her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, where her dedication and proficiency earned her a position in the top twenty percent of her class. Mandee excelled in her studies, securing the top grade in many classes, working on three law review journals, and actively participating in civic volunteer and community involvement activities.

Specializing in family law matters, Mandee Pingel holds licenses to practice in Missouri and Kansas. Her expertise spans high-conflict divorce, post-divorce modification, paternity disputes, adoption proceedings, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, child custody, visitation arrangements, child support matters, litigating the unique needs of military families and safeguarding grandparents’ rights. Throughout her career, she has navigated various judicial forums, including circuit and district courts, courts of appeals, and the highest family law courts in Missouri and Kansas.

After more than 15 years as a law firm partner, Mandee Pingel founded Pingel Family Law, LLC, in 2021. As an actively contributing and practicing attorney, she aligns the firm with her core values of empowerment and compassion. The firm specializes in family law, matrimonial issues, and divorce cases, striving to support families during crucial life transitions. Mandee is committed to treating clients, staff members, and professionals with fairness, respect, and unwavering dedication and compassion.

In her roles as a spouse and a mother of three, Mandee Pingel brings a deep sense of commitment and personal connection to her profession. This intrinsic perspective allows her to empathize wholeheartedly with clients, providing personalized and exceptional service. Beyond her legal practice, Mandee actively seeks volunteer opportunities and engages in philanthropy, embodying her commitment to giving back to the community both on and off the clock.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

I wake up, get my children ready and to school, head to court or the office and try to focus and work intently throughout my day. Often, I will work through lunch, try to multi-task and accomplish as much as possible while on the clock. At 5:00 p.m., my goal is to leave the office and focus on my children until bedtime. Often, after I put my kids to bed, I’m back to working remotely, trying to meet any emergency needs of my clients that have developed during the day, before earning the opportunity to have some rest!

How do you bring ideas to life?

I try to live out my beliefs in everything I do. I teach and show my children the balance of enjoying life and working hard, while caring about the people around us. In my work life, I try to be responsive, efficient and compassionate, being a good role model for the associates and employees in my firm, as well as my colleagues. By working hard with dedication and living out your core values on a daily basis, it is easy to be consistent and achieve big goals.

What’s one trend that excites you?

AI (artificial intelligence)! While there is no substitute for human interactions, kindness and a listening ear with compassion when needed in family law, I am hopeful that some of the tasks that we do, including writing letters and motions, will become more cost-efficient and time-efficient through the use of AI, allowing our office to serve more clients and do it in the best way possible.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I don’t watch TV! I realized a long time ago that while relaxing, it can eat up many hours of your day if you allow it to. If I have spare time, I would rather be “doing something” such as cooking, spending time with my children or getting peripheral work/business goals completed.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Have more confidence in yourself. When you work hard, provide compassion and spread kindness, it is a contagious combination that colleagues, clients and others in the community will naturally gravitate towards and support. There is no better marketing tool for yourself that you can pay for or create than to truly be a good person to all of those around you!

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

By studying relentlessly, you can become a leading innovator in almost anything you want to succeed at within your field. I was first asked to help a friend’s brother with a military divorce I said that I wasn’t knowledgeable in this area and she begged me to help her brother. I decided that if I was going to help him, I needed to be the most knowledgeable I could be in the area of military family law. I spent the next many months studying relentlessly and am now a proud leader in the Kansas City area in assisting our nation’s military personnel and their family with military issues.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Work through conflict, disagreements and misunderstandings. If I have had a less-than-excellent conversation or interaction with a colleague, I will always reach out to him or her to figure out where our interaction went wrong and re-group/clarify misunderstandings. Your professional working relationships last the remainder of your career and you never know when you will need a connection you have in another case or situation. Never burn a bridge!

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I take a walk, take a break, spend some time with my children, re-group and re-focus.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

I try to be a top-of-the-mind resource for everyone I know. I have an open ended offer to colleagues, friends, current and former clients that I will always find them a legal resource, even if their need is outside of my area of expertise. This allows me to facilitate other networking and referrals, as well as help the person reaching out to me. When colleagues, judges or other professionals reach out to me with questions or needs, I always endeavor to promptly respond and assist them. When you provide assistance to other people when needed, they will often repay your assistance with referrals and you remain top of their mind when they have needs within your area of expertise.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Early on in my career, I did not adequately recognize the value and benefit of networking and how to build mutually beneficial networking/cooperative relationships. When I realized I was not harvesting the most significant asset available to me in growing my business, I began relentlessly researching and pursuing opportunities to build valued networking relationships. My take away lesson is when you focus on relationship building, the other pieces of your marketing and business growth fall into place.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Attempt to automate and create efficiency wherever possible. I realized I spent many, many hours providing clients similar types of advice and rather than continuing to have clients incur the costs of me providing the information (and me using limited time to say things over and over, I created a series of client education handouts. They allow me to impart needed and valuable information, cost-efficiently. The handouts save me time and the clients money!

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Right now, I’m loving programs and software opportunities that have AI components. I am continuously researching and trying various platforms to meet my needs. I don’t know that I’ve found the perfect AI solution yet, but I’ve found many really great options that support time-efficiency and cost-efficiency.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

Professionally, my best $100 is always buying lunch for my office. When you work with a team who feels appreciated and taken care of, they can pour into taking care of our clients and each other with compassion and empathy when they receive, as well as give it. Small gestures such as providing a meal mean so much for the people that are working hard for you!

Personally, my best $100 is for some type of self-care. When I am able to replenish and refresh myself, I am best able to pour into all of the people who count on me, including my clients, colleagues, staff, family and the other people I have the privilege of interacting with on a daily basis.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

My current favorite book is my Military Divorce handbook (two volume set). It is over a thousand pages and it is essentially “the Bible” of military family law. With many servicemember clients, I use and reference this handbook set on an almost daily basis.

Key learnings:

• Be intentional and authentic about your values and priorities and live and work in a way that consistently reflects those intentions;
• Leverage the value of networking and building relationships to grow your business, when you focus on the people, business growth falls into place.
• Take care of the people around you who matter to you. Be a good person, lead by example and people will support you and help build your brand because they believe in you, not just as a business person but as a human being.