The POWER List: Richard Van Pelt

Van Pelt & Van Pelt, Springfield

Rick Van Pelt was the first to receive the lifetime achievement award from Court Appointed Special Advocates in southwest Missouri. It wasn’t his first or his last award in his family law career.

Aiming for settlements and going to trial if necessary, Van Pelt represents parties in disputes involving divorce, settlement negotiations, mediations, modifications, paternity, business divisions, prenuptial agreements and adoptions.

Van Pelt earned his law degree in 1983 from the University of Missouri. He has been heavily involved in alumni leadership at his undergraduate alma mater, Pittsburgh State University, which recognized him in 1997 as one of its Outstanding Alumni. At the time, he was president of CASA in southwest Missouri. He also has received the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association’s Equal Access to Justice Award.

In 2015, The Missouri Bar awarded him the Roger P. Krumm Family Law Practitioner of the Year Award.

Van Pelt is a diplomate, one of a hundred total, for the American College of Family Trial Lawyers. Van Pelt is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a member of The Missouri Bar family law section.