Areas of Practice

• Estate Planning
  
• Probate
  
• Trust & Estate Administration
  
• Fiduciary Litigation
  
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
  
• Estate & Gift Tax Planning

​Education
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (1983), J.D.

• Managing Editor of the UMKC Law Review

University of Miami, Florida School of Law (1985), L.L.M. in Estate Planning
 
William Jewell College (1980)- B.S. in Accounting

Bar Admissions
Missouri
Kansas 

Experience
Bob Kirkland is the Founding Partner of the law firm of Kirkland Woods & Martinsen LLP, which has offices in Liberty, Missouri, Springfield, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas. He is licensed to practice law in Missouri and Kansas. He works with a variety of individual clients, handling the preparation of Wills, Living Trusts, Durable Powers of Attorney, Irrevocable Trusts, Charitable Trusts and Minor’s Trusts, and counseling clients in the areas of gifting techniques, asset protection, charitable planning and business succession planning. He also advises fiduciaries in estate, conservatorship and trust administration matters.

Mr. Kirkland is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel ("ACTEC"), is a past Missouri State Chair of ACTEC, and a past member of the ACTEC Board of Regents and ACTEC Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Employee Benefits Committee, Sponsorship Advisory Committee (Chair), Digital Property Task Force, Membership Selection Committee, Long Range Planning Committee, and Communications Committee of ACTEC. He is listed in the last twenty (20) editions of The Best Lawyers in America and the most recent additions of Super Lawyers. Mr. Kirkland has successfully completed the Effective Probate Mediation Training course sponsored by ACTEC, and frequently serves as a mediator of trust and estate disputes.

Bob also served as the ACTEC Observer to the Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets, is serving as the ACTEC Observer to the Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Electronic Wills.

Among several professional and civic activities, Mr. Kirkland serves as a Vice Chair of the Missouri Bar Probate and Trust Committee, and a member of the editorial board of Trusts and Estates magazine.

Mr. Kirkland is a frequent author and lecturer in the estate planning and charitable giving areas. He has lectured on a variety of topics at seminars sponsored by ACTEC, The Heckerling Institute, ALI-CLE, Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, The Missouri Bar, The Kansas Bar Association, The Oklahoma Bar Association, the Hawaii Tax Institute, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, the Notre Dame Estate Planning Institute, the Duke University Estate Planning Conference, the Florida Fellows Institute, the UCLA Institute on Estate Planning, The MO-KAN Trust Conference, the American Heart Association, and the Estate Planning Councils of Greenville, New York City, Baltimore, Louisville, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

Mr. Kirkland holds a B.S. in accounting from William Jewell College (1980), a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (1983), and an L.L.M. in estate planning from the University of Miami, Florida School of Law (1985). During his tenure at the UMKC School of Law, he served as Managing Editor of the UMKC Law Review.

Distinctions

• The Best Lawyers in America
• Super Lawyer

Affiliations
ACTEC Fellow

• Sponsorship Advisory Committee (Chair)
• Digital Property Task Force
• Membership Selection Committee
• Long Range Planning Committee
• past Missouri State Chair
• past member of the ACTEC Board of Regents and Executive Committee
• Communications Committee of ACTEC

Missouri Bar Probate and Trust Committee, Vice Chair
Trusts and Estates magazine, member of the editorial board
Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
Kansas City Estate Planning Society