Irvin (Irv) Belzer is a member of the firm's Management Committee and leads its Litigation Section. His litigation work involves mortgage lending disputes including securitized lending, corporate litigation involving mergers and acquisitions, and major contract disputes in the banking, healthcare, real estate and telecommunications industries. He has more than 30 years of experience in handling business disputes and complex commercial litigation, including class actions. He has tried numerous cases in Kansas and Missouri, and in state and federal courts and arbitrations throughout the country.
Mr. Belzer is repeatedly named in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, as one of Missouri’s top commercial litigators. He has consistently been named to “Best Lawyers in America” for Missouri and to “SuperLawyers,” which recently listed him as one of the top 100 lawyers in Missouri and Kansas and one of the top 50 in Kansas City. He served as Managing Partner of the Kansas City office of Bryan Cave from 1999 through 2005 and as co-leader of the Commercial Litigation Client Service Group from 2001 to 2005.
Mr. Belzer is counsel to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, a board member of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, a member of the President’s Advisory Counsel for Oberlin College, Vice Chair of the Board of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and Vice Chair of the Board of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee. He served two terms as Chairman of the Board of The Learning Exchange, Inc. and has been a board member of the Kansas City Area Development Council and the Law School Foundation for the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He is past Board Chair of the Jewish Family Services and recipient, with his wife, Sue McCord-Belzer, of the Alfred Benjamin Friend of the Family Award from that organization. In 2011, he and Sue received the Distinguished Community Leader Award from Phoenix Family Housing. He was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to serve on its Regional Lawyers’ Disciplinary Committee.
Mr. and Mrs. Belzer have two sons, Michael Belzer and Jeremy Belzer. Mr. Belzer received his J.D. with honors from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1976 and his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1970.
Bar and Court Admissions
Missouri, 1976
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri
Education
University of Missouri-Kansas City, J.D., with honors, 1976
Oberlin College, B.A., 1970