Kenneth McClain
Proven VerdictsAbout Kenneth McClain
Kenneth B. McClain is a nationally known personal injury trial lawyer and shareholder in the Independence, Missouri firm of Humphrey, Farrington & McClain. Over a career spanning more than 30 years, he has tried numerous high-profile cases and won multi-million dollar verdicts, several of which have appeared on the National Law Journal's annual Top 100 Verdicts list. His total awarded verdicts and negotiated settlements since 1986 exceed $1 billion. McClain has pioneered litigation for victims of mesothelioma, diacetyl/popcorn lung, and other toxic exposures.
In 2016, a jury in Springfield, Missouri, awarded one of his clients $20.6 million after she developed an autoimmune disorder from a toxic chemical dumped near her home. He also secured a landmark settlement for the family of a Maryland college football player who died from concussion-related injuries, resulting in significant non-monetary safety provisions adopted by the college, the NCAA, and two helmet manufacturers. He is admitted to practice in Missouri, multiple federal district courts, five federal circuit courts of appeals, the United States Supreme Court, and the bars of Newfoundland, Labrador, Manitoba, and Ontario.
Proven verdicts and settlements
Humphrey, Farrington and McClain secured a proposed $250 million settlement on behalf of roughly 207,000 Jackson County homeowners whose property-tax assessments illegally exceeded Missouri's 15% annual cap in 2023 and 2024.
As co-lead class counsel, Kenneth McClain helped secure a $145 million settlement, approved by a federal judge in October 2024, for roughly nine million Kia and Hyundai owners whose vehicles lacked standard engine immobilizers.
A New York jury awarded $60 million to business sellers Dennis Demetre and Lori Lewis after finding HMS Holdings Corp. breached the earn-out provisions of a stock purchase agreement; HMS later settled the judgment for $20 million.
Attorneys Kenneth McClain, Jonathan Soper, Chelsea Pierce, and J'Nan Kimak secured $35.72 million in confirmed ERISA arbitration awards for 177 current and former DST Systems employees whose 401(k) profit-sharing plan collapsed after fiduciaries concentrated more than 45 percent of plan assets in a single pharmaceutical stock that lost roughly 94 percent of its value.
A Boone County jury awarded $35.25 million to the family of Anita Gibbs, a Kansas City elementary school principal killed when a CenTra Trucking driver failed to slow for stopped traffic on Interstate 70 in 2006, after Ken McClain of Humphrey, Farrington and McClain used offensive collateral estoppel to limit the trial entirely to damages.
Two Missouri salon workers who spent over a decade using a professional hair-smoothing product the manufacturer marketed as formaldehyde-free settled their product liability claims for $30 million after one developed reproductive cancers and the other gave birth to a child who later developed leukemia.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
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