2023 Up & Coming Awards: Joseph Feierabend, 40

Partner, Miller Schirger , Kansas City

Law School: University of Missouri School of Law

“Working with great lawyers and appearing before great judges is where I have been most inspired in my career,” says Joseph Feierabend. “Great mentors in the profession continue to inspire me in a way that I could not have anticipated when I first decided on this career path.”

In his current practice, Feierabend represents businesses and individuals in state and federal courts nationwide in disputes involving breach of contract, business torts and other commercial claims. He also has significant experience representing plaintiffs in insurance class action litigation, including having assisted in obtaining multi-million-dollar jury verdicts at trial and nationwide class action settlements totaling millions of dollars in aggregate cash compensation.

Feierabend points to a class action suit success as his biggest accomplishment for 2023. “We achieved a large settlement on behalf of a nationwide class of hundreds of thousands of policy owners,” he says. “We had filed and pursued 10 class action cases in several different states against the same insurance company. After several years of hard-fought litigation, including a successful trial result and appeal, we were able to settle those cases and put a significant amount of money back in the hands of policy owners.”

One of Feierabend’s favorite moments as an attorney came during a class action trial when — for the first time ever — he handled cross-examination of a key witness. “Hearing the jury verdict in our favor is my favorite moment,” he says. “The anticipation while waiting to hear after the jury comes back, and then getting a favorable verdict is pretty incredible.”

What is your favorite thing to do away from work?

Spending time with my wife and two kids — an 8-year-old and 5-year-old who keep me hopping. I am also an avid fan of all Kansas City sports teams. I recently took up racquet sports, tennis and pickleball, again. My guilty pleasure is watching professional wrestling.

What advice do you have for young lawyers?

Don’t be afraid to take a position. And then don’t be afraid to fight for it.