Founding member of Gorny Dandurand
Steve Gorny is the founding member of Gorny Dandurand (formerly The Gorny Law Firm.) He graduated magna cum laude from Washburn University School of Law in 1994, where he served Assistant Comments Editor for the Washburn Law Journal. Prior to attending law school, he earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and sociology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Throughout his career, Steve’s trial work has brought about unprecedented results. In 2002, Steve’s client was awarded the largest medical negligence verdict in Cole County, Missouri. In 2006, Steve and a former partner obtained the seventh largest trial verdict in the United States, and the largest non-punitive wrongful death verdict in Missouri history. In 2018, he obtained the largest, and perhaps only, plaintiff’s verdict in Ford County, Kansas. In 2021, Steve represented a young boy severely injured at a daycare and secured a verdict on his behalf in excess of $41,000,000, which is believed to be the largest single-plaintiff verdict in the history of Kansas. In 2022, Steve obtained verdicts for clients injured by physicians in Shawnee County, Kansas ($1,035,000), Wyandotte County, Kansas ($4,000,000), and Jackson County, Missouri ($749,000).
In the Community
Steve is very active in local charities and his community. For more than a decade, he was an Executive Committee member and for two years was the President of the Mid-America Chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The LLS named him its 2003 Robert McKinney Volunteer of the Year, its 2007 Team-in-Training Volunteer of the Year, and in 2008, bestowed upon him the prestigious Amy Fithian Award for his many years of dedication and service to The Society. He served on the board of Friends of Johnson County Developmental Supports, an agency that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities find housing, career, and personal development opportunities.
A life-long runner, Steve has run numerous marathons and ultra-marathons in support of charitable causes. Throughout 2006, he ran one 26.2-mile marathon each month to raise more than $35,000 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In 2009, he completed a 100-mile ultra-marathon to benefit The LLS in honor of a family friend battling the disease. In 2012, he ran across the State of Kansas, a total of 234.7 miles, to raise more than $85,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in honor of his father who suffered from the disease.
In the Legal Community
Steve is well regarded within the legal community. He has been invited to speak locally and nationally on a variety of topics, with a particular focus on collisions involving trucks, other commercial vehicles, and strategies in medical negligence cases. Steve has published numerous articles, book chapters and papers designed to assist other lawyers with their practices.
Steve is a member of the Missouri Bar, the Kansas Bar Association, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, the American Association of Justice, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, The Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, and the Association of Plaintiffs Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America. For ten years, he served on the Executive Committee of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys and was its President in 2018-2019. Steve also served MATA’s community outreach branch as the chairman of Missouri Trial Lawyers Care and was given a Volunteer Service Award in 2009 and in 2018 for his service to the community. Steve has been selected to the prestigious Best Lawyers in America every year since 2009. He has been selected as a Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyer every year since 2006. He has been named to Kansas City’s Best of the Bar, and is listed as a Top 100 Attorney in Missouri and Kansas. In 2023, the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys bestowed upon Steve its highest honor, The Thomas G. Strong Trial Attorney Award.
Steve is admitted to practice before the Missouri Supreme Court, The Missouri Court of Appeals, the Kansas Supreme Court, the Kansas Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Why I Became a Trial Lawyer
When I was sixteen years old, my assistant principal came to my science class and asked me to follow him to the school office. When there, I encountered my mom and instantly knew something was wrong (no I was not in trouble – I was a model student!). They sat me down and my mom told me that something had gone wrong during my grandfather’s routine surgery to remove a colon polyp. We left school and went home and packed our bags. We traveled to visit my grandfather in the hospital where he remained in a coma. He existed in that coma for more than two months when doctors confirmed for my grandmother and parents that my grandfather Adam would never again have normal brain function. They made the painful decision to let him go. About three months after my grandfather died, my grandmother was sitting on her front porch when a young, professional looking man approached the house. He asked if she was Adam’s wife. She confirmed that she was but that her husband was not home because he had passed away. The man informed her that he understood that because he was the anesthesiologist during my grandfather’s surgery. He confessed to my grandmother that he had made a serious error during the operation and that his mistake had put my grandfather in the coma from which he never recovered.
When I was twenty years old and an avid runner, I was taking an afternoon jog through my hometown. I had a green light to cross an intersection and proceeded into the street. The next thing I knew, I was on the hood of a truck, then flung backwards into the street. Apparently, its driver was making a right turn on red and looked to his left to see if any traffic was coming. Of course, he did not bother to look to his right to see if any pedestrian traffic was coming. I ended up in the hospital with a severely hyperextended back and cuts and scrapes all over my body and severe bruising of my sternum and ribs.
These two events ‒ seeing how the carelessness of others robbed a family of a loved one and caused significant physical and emotional pain – solidified my desire to be a trial lawyer and counselor of law. Those of us at my firm recognize that when you call, you are not doing so to share a happy story. Instead, somebody’s actions have caused pain and heartache to you and your loved ones and you are looking for someone to guide you through those circumstances and bring about some semblance of justice. We take great pride in answering those calls and helping to bring about a fair, compassionate solution to the problems you are facing.
Speeches and Presentations
2019 Tort Reform Legislation; MATA & MODL Perspectives, MATA
Changing the Language, ATAA
Choosing the Right Expert, UMKC
Civil Litigation in the Era of COVID-19, MATA
Closing Argument in Trucking Litigation, MATA
Commercial Vehicle Turning Collisions, ATAA
Conspicuity in Trucking Cases, Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys
Conspicuity in Trucking Cases, ATAA
Cost Effective Marketing for Small Firms, TAOS Group Business Retreat
Deposing the Records Custodian, AAJ
Discovery Practice, Johnson County Bar Association
Ethical Pitfalls: Learning From Mistakes, KCMBA
Expert Approaches in Tobacco Litigation, American Association for Justice
Fan Appreciation: Referring Lawyers, TAOS Group Business Retreat
Financial Decisions in Small Practice, TAOS Group Business Retreat
Finding False Medical Chart Entries, Rockhurst University Nursing School
Hours of Service: Commercial Drivers, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
How Jurors Deliberate, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
How Truck Collisions Differ from Vehicle Crashes, Johnson County Bar Association
Is the Roadway to Blame?
Is the Roadway to Blame?, Auto Crash Litigation
Knowing Your Adversary: What the Defense is Doing Before and After the Truck Crash, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
Lessons Learned from Starting a New Firm, KCMBA
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society National Convention Address
Make their Safety Director Your Best Witness, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
Managing the Stress of Running a Small Firm, TAOS Group Business Retreat
Mock Closing Argument, Missouri Bar Association
More than a Punchline: A Lawyer’s Worth, Kansas City Business Association
New Senate & Congress in Place – Time to Take Action, MATA
Pain & Suffering Testimony from Family Members, Melvin Belli Society
Potential Trial Problems & Issues – Complex Litigation (Advanced Trial Skills), Missouri Office of State Courts
Proper Lane Change: Establishing Liability in Lane Change Collisions, ATAA
Proper Lane Change: Establishing Liability in Lane Change Collisions, ATAA
Punitive Damages for Not Retaining Documents, ATAA
Punitive Damages Permitted Based Upon Failure to Maintain Documents Required by FMCSR, Article for AAJ TLG Journal of Trucking Litigation
Recounting Defense Detours, AAJ
Referral & Associated Counsel Fees, MATA & Johnson County Bar Association
Rerouting Defense Detours, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
Selecting and Utilizing Trucking Experts, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
Selecting and Utilizing Trucking Experts, ATAA
Technology in Trucking Litigation, AAJ Trucking Litigation Group
Telematics & ECM Data, ATAA
The Art of the Decline Letter, TAOS Group Business Retreat
The Ethical Rules of Referral Fees, KCMBA
The Search for Insurance, MATA
Think Before You Speak, Arkansas Trial Lawyers
Virtual Mediation During a Pandemic, MATA
Voir Dire Carried Throughout the Case, Michigan Attorneys for Justice
What Judges Expect from Lawyers, Johnson County Bar Association
What Lawyers Want From Judges, Missouri Judicial Conference
What the Defense is Up To, Missouri Bar Association
What You Say Can be Used Against You: Inconsistent Statements, Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys
When the Chips are Down: Practicing in a Depressed Economy, MATA
Words Matter, ATAA
