• Feb 19, 2026

Our clients know her as the incomparable Office Manager who keeps us on track at M&S, as well as an incredibly astute jury consultant for our courtroom trials. But to hundreds more in Wichita and around the world, she’s also known as elite Martial Arts Master Grace Wu-Monnat and founder of the Grace Wu Kung Fu School. The school celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and Wichita Mayor Lily Wu (no relation) has honored Grace with a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Wichita. The school, at 122 N. St. Francis in Old Town, has trained hundreds of children and adults in all forms of Kung Fu, Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Bagua and Wude (martial ethics).

“Congratulations to Grace Wu Kung Fu School on 40 remarkable years of teaching, inspiring and building community,” Mayor Lily Wu said. “Master Grace Wu-Monnat’s commitment to excellence, discipline and character has touched generations of Wichita families, and we are proud to honor her legacy.”

Fittingly, the certificate of appreciation comes during the week in which millions worldwide are celebrating the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse. The symbolic timing is appropriate, as the Horse embodies enthusiasm, speed and fieriness – just like the teachings of Kung Fu, Grace said.

“The study of Chinese martial arts emphasizes physical health, mental strength, joy and character,” Grace said. “The ancient arts can be learned and practiced at any age, which makes this a sport that can be enjoyed by individuals and families alike.”

Grace encourages people to take up martial arts as a family activity, drawing on her own family experiences which include several generations and multiple Grandmasters. While growing up in China, she began training at age 3 under her mother, Professor Wang Ju-rong, a New China’s first generation Wushu Grandmaster; her father, Dr. Wu Cheng-de, a prominent Wushu Master and orthopedic doctor; and her grandfather, Grandmaster Wang Zi-ping. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education with an emphasis on Chinese martial arts from Shanghai Teachers University. After emigrating to the United States, she established the Grace Wu Kung Fu school in Wichita in 1986 and completed a master’s degree in physical education from Wichita State University in 1991.

In 2024, Grace received a lifetime achievement award from KungFuMagazine.com, sponsor of the international Tiger Claw Elite Championships & Shaolin Kung Fu Games Grand Champion. She was also inducted into the Amateur Athletic Union’s Chinese Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2008.

Grace and our founder, Dan Monnat, have also shared the philosophy of Chinese martial arts throughout the legal profession by incorporating the concepts of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” into the firm’s courtroom defense strategy. Dan and Grace have also developed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Kung Fu Strategies for Trial,” a continuing legal education program offered through the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other organizations. The seminar is often featured at national and regional legal conferences.

  • Feb 17, 2026

Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered is proud to announce the addition of associate attorney Ashley Grams, whose rapid rise as a formidable criminal defense advocate has already distinguished her as one of the profession’s most promising young trial lawyers.

“In a minute with Ashley Grams you know she has the heart and intellect of a true criminal defense trial lawyer,” says firm co-founder Dan Monnat. “In another minute you see her outstanding academic credentials, work ethic, and early excellent ‘not guilty’ verdicts already establishing that she is headed for elite courtroom performance.”

Ms. Ashley Grams has seriously pursued fairness and justice for people for a long time. Although Ms. Grams grew up in the friendly, small, rural Georgia community of Waleska, Georgia, after graduating from Cherokee High School in 2019, she headed straight for the University of Georgia where she took only 2 years to be awarded a degree, summa cum laude, majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in Sociology.

Just a couple of weeks later, Ms. Grams quickly made the move to Lawrence, Kansas, to attend the prominent University of Kansas School of Law. At the University of Kansas, Ms. Grams studied how to help others find fairness and justice in courtrooms  by taking numerous courses focusing on criminal law, by excelling as a competitor on one of the University of Kansas’ mock trial teams in only her second year of law school, and for the entirety of  her third and final year of law school vigorously defending adults and juveniles in criminal cases in Kansas courtrooms under a student license supervised by the Legal Aid Clinic.

Naturally, after graduation, Ms. Grams was much in demand and quickly able to secure employment with the Salina Regional Public Defender’s office helping people who most needed her courtroom skills. There, for almost 2 years, Ms. Grams continued to hone her already formidable trial skills by defending poor people accused of felonies, particularly property crimes and drug crimes, and bringing in verdicts of “not guilty.”

At Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered, Ms. Grams intends to continue fighting for fairness and justice by defending people accused of crimes in municipal, state, and federal courts.

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, Monnat & Spurrier was founded by criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat and legal scholar Stan Spurirer. The firm has gained a reputation for its successful defense of such high-profile clients as:

  • the acquitted young man wrongfully accused of murdering a four-year-old child by cruelly beating or shaking her—the so-called “Shaken Baby Syndrome”
  • the completely acquitted late-term abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller
  • the unfortunate innocent person whose home was mistakenly raided by police when he was mistakenly accused of being the notorious BTK serial killer

In addition to Monnat, Spurrier, and Grams, the firm includes trial lawyers Eli O’Brien and Braxton Eck.