Practices

Steven G. Emerson

Partner

DIRECT CONTACT
816.691.3407
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KANSAS CITY OFFICE
1201 Walnut, Suite 2900
Kansas City, MO 64106

Recognitions Articles/Presentations overview

Steve is a partner in the firm's Litigation Division. For more than 30 years he has served as the lead attorney in state and federal courts throughout the country defending propane and natural gas companies faced with lawsuits seeking substantial damages for personal injuries, death and property damage. Steve also has substantial experience representing insurance companies and their insureds in diverse negligence and product liability cases. He also has handled numerous breach of contract, commercial and employment related litigations.

Representative Experience

Steve is currently the lead defense lawyer in a 2009 natural gas explosion that leveled half of a city block in the historic section of downtown Bozeman, Montana, killing one person, destroying six buildings, damaging dozens of businesses, and giving rise to almost three dozen lawsuits and scores of additional claims by more than 200 individuals, businesses and government entities.
Stinson represents one of the world’s leading manufacturers of brake systems for heavy trucks, trailers and buses. When one of the client’s customers began experiencing malfunctions of an air brake component, the client traced the problem to a latent defect in a part it had purchased from a small distributor which had in turn obtained it from an international manufacturer. Steve filed suit on behalf of the client against both the wholesale supplier and the manufacturer, ultimately recovering 100 percent of the client’s substantial recall expenses in 2010 before the scheduled trial.
In 2009, Steve and one of his partners prevailed in a commercial arbitration that enabled his client to continue offering tax refund anticipation loans to tens of thousands of its clients; prevailed in the defense of a court tried case in which the plaintiffs sought indemnification for millions of dollars of damages they had been ordered to pay to victims of a gas explosion; and obtained summary judgment on behalf of an interstate pipeline accused of selling unodorized propane involved in a tragic explosion that caused the victim to be disfigured and to incur almost $5 million in medical bills before his death.
In 2008, Steve represented a gas company in a double carbon monoxide wrongful death case involving a propane-fired boiler that had been installed with a combustion air duct less than 25 percent the size required by code. Following two damaging expert depositions, the plaintiff's estates settled with Steve’s client for less than 10 percent of previous demands. In another case, Steve’s client, a retail gas company, was sued for property damages and lost profits of about $5 million when a commercial building burned down after a forklift cylinder that had been filled by his client leaked propane. Steve chipped away at the plaintiffs’ damage claims, located and deposed witnesses who turned the case toward his client’s co-defendant, and arranged for forensic demonstrations that challenged previous theories. Those efforts enabled Steve to settle the case for about 20 percent of the claimed damages. Steve subsequently recovered about one-third of the settlement amount from the co-defendant through a subrogation claim. In a third case, an employee who had been promised equity in a start-up company that proved to be spectacularly successful sued the company for $17 million after receiving options instead of stock. Steve dismantled most of the plaintiff’s case, which was settled for a tiny percentage of the initial demand.
In 2007, Steve successfully prosecuted an orthopedic brace manufacturer that had purchased approximately $30,000 worth of ultrasonically welded hook and loop straps from a large manufacturer for incorporation into private-label soft orthopedic braces. The case was tried to a unanimous verdict in federal court in favor of Steve’s client in May of 2007 and Steve's client recovered $600,000, twice the defendant's highest pre-trial offer.
In 2005, Steve defended a case in which the plaintiff, a former highway patrol trooper, claimed that he had become permanently disabled with mild brain damage, chronic fatigue, loss of hearing, vision problems, balance difficulties and gastrointestinal disorders after being contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins generated by Steve’s client, a municipality. The plaintiff’s non-negotiable mediation pre-trial demand was $5 million. Following a two-week trial in which the plaintiffs' counsel asked the jury for a minimum of $14 million in damages for the plaintiffs, the jury deliberated for less than four hours before returning a verdict in favor of Steve’s client. The trial judge set the verdict aside on the grounds that it was “against the weight of the evidence,” but Steve appealed that ruling and appellate court reinstated the original jury verdict in favor of Steve's client.
In 2001, Steve tried a jury trial in Alexandria, Louisiana, in which six people received horrendous burns while staying in a rental cabin. The plaintiffs' medical bills were approximately $2.5 million at the start of the trial. The plaintiffs' last pretrial demand to Steve's client was for $30 million and gradually escalated to $45 million by the close of the evidence. After hearing two weeks of evidence, the jury deliberated for only 48 minutes before returning a verdict in favor of Steve's client on all counts. The verdict was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Education

New York University, J.D., 1975
Root-Tilden Scholar

University of Kansas, B.A., 1972
Phi Beta Kappa

Of Note

Steve has tried 30 jury trials and has resolved hundreds of cases to his clients' satisfaction through arbitrations, dispositive motions, mediations and informal settlement discussions. He has been admitted pro hac vice as the lead defense attorney in federal and state cases in 26 states and has supervised the defense of litigation in a number of others.

Bar Admissions

Missouri, 1975
Kansas, 2008

Professional Affiliations

The Missouri Bar
Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
Lawyers' Association of Kansas City
Propane Gas Defense Association