Our Firm focuses on complex civil litigation. We have experience in class actions, mass arbitrations, and complicated cases involving multiple parties. We also assist other law firms with challenging legal disputes. Our firm has secured over $500 million in verdicts and settlements. We hold an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and have been named one of the “Best Law Firms in Missouri” by U.S. News & World Report.
John M. Klamann
John M. Klamann is the founder and president of The Klamann Law Firm, P.A. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1978 where he was President of the Student Bar Association, awarded the Glen W. Dickenson Scholarship, and a recipient of the Justice Donnan Stevenson American Judicature Award. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Missouri Bar Association, the Kansas Bar Association, and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Among other places, he is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Missouri, the Supreme Court of Kansas.
In addition to his practice at The Klamann Law Firm, Mr. Klamann has frequently been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law, where he currently teaches Complex Litigation. He is the author of three Am Jur Trials articles on trying complex cases: J. Klamann, “Broker-Dealer Fraud: Churning,” 36 Am Jur Trials 1 (1988); J. Klamann and K. McClain, “Cost Recovery Litigation: Abatement of Asbestos Contamination,” 40 Am Jur Trials 317 (1990); and J. Klamann and B. Braud, “Third-Party Accountant Liability: Prospective Financial Statements Used in Securities Offerings,” 45 Am Jur Trials 113 (1992). In addition, Mr. Klamann has been a frequent speaker at CLE seminars, EPA-sponsored educational programs on asbestos, and other national conferences of doctors, industrial hygienists, engineers, and other professional groups. He is currently working on a Handbook of Complex Litigation.
Mr. Klamann has been included in the Kansas City Business Journal’s “Best of the Bar” listing since 2002. Mr. Klamann has also been listed in the “Best Lawyers in America” for more than ten years.
Mr. Klamann lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife, Brigid. They have six children.
Andy Schermerhorn
Andy Schermerhorn graduated from the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law in 2009 where he was a member of the Order of Barristers, a member of the National Moot Court Team, and a member of the Law Review. While in law school, Mr. Schermerhorn served as an intern under the Honorable Sandra Midkiff, 16th Judicial Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, and for the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri, Kansas City.
Andy is now a member of the Missouri Bar Association, the Kansas Bar Association and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. He is licensed to practice in the States of Missouri and Kansas and has been admitted Pro Hoc Vice in the states of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and New York.
Andy has served as co-lead class counsel in numerous class actions since joining The Klamann Law Firm. He successfully argued for the certification of a Missouri state-wide insurance class action and won the certification of a Kansas state-wide product defect class action. In addition to his success in achieving class certification, Andy has also managed the settlement of both a state and federal class actions.
Andy is perhaps best recognized as a skilled legal writer and oral arguer willing to take on difficult and ad hoc briefing and oral argument assignments. In a case involving the art assets of Thomas Hart Benton, for example, Andy was hired and successfully defended the Benton beneficiaries in Federal Court against a RICO claim brought by UMB Bank.
Andy was also responsible for all of the briefing in both federal court and in arbitration in the mass arbitration action against DST Systems, Inc. Andy made written and oral arguments in the DST cases to Federal District Judge Brian Wimes, Federal District Judge Nanette Laughrey, Federal District Judge Andrew Carter (NY) and to both the Eighth Circuit and Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Andy also argued, and won, every single arbitration appeal. In every case in which an arbitrant lost, Andy successfully won a reversal on appeal, and in every case in which an arbitrant won, Andy successfully obtained an order affirming the award.
Andy was also the sole legal writer and oral arguer in the case brought several years ago by Humphrey, Farrington & McClain on behalf of several former NLF players against the Kansas City Chiefs. In that case, Andy successfully convinced Federal District Judge Anita Brody (PA) that unlike all other NFL players, the players represented by our team of attorneys were entitled to sue their employer directly, and avoid the issues wrapped up in the various state workers' compensation laws. At around the same time, Andy worked with Ken McClain on a case against the NCAA. Andy briefed and successfully argued that the NCAA owed a duty of care to student athletes, which includes the duty to warn of concussions and to protect against second impact syndrome. It was the first such instance of an order finding that the NCAA owed a duty of care.
All this is to say that Andy has discovered a true passion for the kind of work that a lot of lawyers disdain; he enjoys the writing and oral argument. And Kent Emison, Ken McClain, Gene Graham, Ted Kapke, John Klamann, and many others can all attest to the quality of his work.
In addition to his practice at Klamann & Schermerhorn, Andy is a member of board of the LGBTQ Bar Association of Greater Kansas City.
Andy grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri. He and his partner Jack now live in Overland Park, Kansas.