Practice Areas:

Eric Engstrom has been in practice for over 38 years, starting as an associate with a large New York firm. He joined Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson & Kitch, L.L.C., on his return from military service in Vietnam, where he served as an Army Captain and earned two bronze stars.

Mr. Engstrom’s practice has included corporate and transactional work including buying and selling corporations in the U.S. and abroad, and representation of shareholders and management in disputes and work-outs. He has done extensive work as underwriters’ counsel, trustee’s counsel and tenant or corporate counsel for industrial revenue bond issues and hospital revenue bonds.

Mr. Engstrom has experience in various banking law issues and has represented bank trust departments in a variety of corporate and private trust matters. He has participated in several debt restructurings including such an arrangement for a large national utility cooperative. He has also worked on trust reformations and beneficiary settlements as well as general trusts and estates preparation through estate, probate and trust administration.

Mr. Engstrom has been active in bankruptcy matters for creditors and as counsel for unsecured creditors committees. He has been listed in multiple editions of The Best Lawyers in America^® in the areas of Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law, as well as in "Chambers USA" in corporate and merger/acquisitions matters and in "Who's Who in American Law" and "Who's Who in the Midwest.".

Mr. Engstrom has acted as counsel to non-profit entities for corporate and tax-exemption issues. He has served as general counsel, and now special counsel, to the WSU Board of Trustees and the WSU Endowment Association (now Foundation) and other university entities. In this role, Mr. Engstrom and other members of the firm worked on personnel matters, privacy issues, ADA access issues, open meetings and open records issues, board minutes and governance matters.  Counsel was given on issues relating to the Kansas Board of Regents, gifting and estate taxes. The firm also engaged in contract drafting and review for various Board of Trustees and Foundation activities including personnel, service contracts, real state transactions, environmental matters and revenue bond issues.

Since 2004, Mr. Engstrom has coordinated the firm's representation of the Wichita Area Technical College starting from before its separation from USD 259.  He has also represented other educational and non-profit institutions on employee termination governance and contract issues.

Mr. Engstrom is advisor emeritus for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He has been appointed by five Kansas Governors to the Kansas Historic Sites Board of Review over a twenty-six year period and served as chairman for much of that time and is currently vice chair and Governor's Designee.

In 1994, Mr. Engstrom received the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation and an award from the Kansas Preservation Alliance on whose board he also served. He was president and longtime chair of the executive committee of the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka and was active during the society’s two major new building expansions. He continues on that board.

Among significant reported cases with which he has been involved are:

• Unified School Dist. No. 480 v. Epperson, 583 F.2d 1118, (10th Cir. 1978)

• Smalling v. Epperson, 435 U.S. 948, 98 S.Ct. 1572 (1978)

• Unified School Dist. No. 480 v. Epperson, 551 F.2d 254, (10th Cir. 1977)

In 1999, he received the 30th annual Individual Recognition Award from the Wichita Arts and Humanities Council, its highest award.

Mr. Engstrom has served as president and board member of the Orpheum Performing Arts Centre in Wichita, a historic theatre project, and as a Governor-appointed member of the Kansas Eisenhower Commission and the Capitol Area Plaza Authority. He has been chair and board trustee of the Wichita Art Museum and served as the Museum's Interim Director during the fundraising and planning for the enlarged museum.  He presently serves on the Museum's Trustees Executive Committee and as counsel.

Mr. Engstrom served as longtime member of the board and chair of the Legal Aid Society of Wichita. He has been Vice President and Director of the Wichita Bar Association.

In 1975, President Ford appointed Mr. Engstrom to the United States Assay Commission. He served as a member of the Kansas Commemorative Coin Design Commission and co-chaired the design selection subcommittee. He has also written two books and numerous articles on numismatics.

Mr. Engstrom has lectured to many bar groups on commercial law, bankruptcy, non-profit and art law subjects. He is a member of the American, Kansas and Wichita Bar Associations and Wichita Downtown Rotary Club.