The POWER List: Rik Siro

Siro Smith Dickson, Kansas City

Rik Siro earned his law degree in 1982 from Hastings College of the Law in California and practiced law in that state before migrating to Kansas City.

Siro’s cases often include trial work. He won a $4.9 million jury verdict for the former general manager of a Kansas City shopping center who alleged she was terminated after refusing to use money from parking meters to cover the center’s operating costs, rather than go to charity. Missouri Lawyers Media ranked as the fifth largest plaintiffs’ verdict of 2020, though the award was reduced to about $940,000 after trial due to a state cap on some of the damages.

In 2021, Siro obtained a $250,000 settlement for a Black Kansas City firefighter in his suit against the Kansas City Fire Department alleging discrimination. In 2014, he won $850,000 for a Buchanan County woman when trying to get rehired by the state highway department, squaring off against fellow POWER List honoree Denise Drake.

And in 2010, he had an unusual trial in Johnson County involving a civilian custodial worker at a National Guard armory who faced sexual harassment. The jury awarded the plaintiff $500,000 in punitive damages but no actual damages.