The POWER List: Jonathan Sternberg

Jonathan Sternberg, Attorney PC, Kansas City 

Jonathan Sternberg’s solo practice focuses entirely on appellate litigation, ranging from domestic relations cases to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of city-employed EMTs. 

Early in his career, Sternberg made a name in a series of unusual cases, including a challenge to Kansas City’s voter-approved ordinance that banned smoking at nearly all indoor locations but exempted casinos. He also argued that that city health inspectors enforcing that ban were acting as unlicensed police officers when they issued citations. 

In 2018, he challenged a Jackson County Circuit Court rule that allowed attorneys to be appointed without compensation in juvenile cases. Sternberg’s advocacy prompted the court to alter the rule so that lawyers could seek removal for good cause. 

Also that year, he represented David Jungerman, a Kansas City businessman hit with a $5.75 million jury verdict and who was then accused of murdering the attorney who won the case against him. The appeals court affirmed the verdict, which came after Jungerman represented himself at trial on claims that he severely wounded a man on one of his business properties. 

Sternberg earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2007.