Michael Kuckelman

Michael J. Kuckelman practices as a trial lawyer with Kuckelman Torline Kirkland in Overland Park, Kansas, and is one of the firm’s founding members. His listed experience includes property insurance and business disputes, as well as cases involving aviation, railroad crossings and nursing home negligence. The malpractice matters listed in his biography concern physicians, attorneys and veterinarians. Outside those disputes, he has helped families with adoptions on a pro bono basis.

Seven years of his career grew out of what was intended to be a three-month assignment. Blackwell Sanders sent him to develop its European litigation practice in 2000, after he had joined the firm as an associate in 1990 and become an equity partner. In 2001, certain Lloyd’s of London syndicates turned to him for a strategy to recover losses from the September 11 attacks. A commercial recovery suit followed in early 2002. Kuckelman was subsequently among the lead attorneys appointed by the Southern District of New York to litigate the World Trade Center cases; the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee ultimately negotiated a $1.2 billion settlement for the plaintiffs.

His studies began in accounting: Washburn University awarded him a BBA in that subject in 1986, and he passed the Kansas CPA examination the following year. He earned his law degree at Washburn in 1990. His bar admission history includes Kansas that same year, Missouri in 1991, and England and Wales in 2001.