The POWER List: J. Kent Emison

Langdon & Emison, Lexington

Kent Emison’s success for his plaintiffs cuts across his entire career.

When his $11.3 million verdict for the families of two people who burned to death after a car crash was reversed on appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court took up the case of Baker v. General Motors. In 1997, the high court unanimously sided with his clients after it weighed if a Missouri court could order a former GM employee’s testimony when they were barred from testifying in another state.

In 2016, the family of an infant who died in a crash with a farm tractor-trailer won a $5.2 million settlement with Emison’s help. It echoed his 2011 success in a $7 million verdict for the family of a man who died in an Arkansas tractor-trailer crash.

Emison earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1981 and partnered with fellow POWER honoree Bob Langdon about six years later.

Emison is a past president of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys and served on its executive committee for 10 years. He’s also led committees of the American Association for Justice.