This article has been republished from The KC Counselor | April 2025 | Volume 34 | Issue 4
The Scene: A darkened law office . . . it is early . . . the silence punctuated by a steadily increasing (and familiar) sound of whistling and snapping fingers: Ebullience personified. Smiling.
“Hey Dirk - what’s up?” This occurs after every groundbreaking verdict Dennis has received – meaning, this has played out well over a hundred times in our adjoining offices at Popham. Surely anyone would want to relive the many “victories” Dennis has pulled out, but here’s the difference: His same upbeat attitude – his same burning desire to learn and teach others lessons to perfect our craft – is there after a rare “defeat.” He seizes the moment to get better – and to share with trial co-counsel and others who yearn to get better, who trust Dennis to teach them how.
Dennis burst onto the trial scene 43 years ago, after KMBC-9 co-anchor Christine Craft was infamously removed because she was “too old, too unattractive and not deferential to men.” Christine writes in her book about first meeting Dennis: “[J]ust turned thirty . . . already deemed by some as a courtroom boy wonder [who] combined a terrific personality with immense energy, tenacity, ambition, and a sense of fair play.” True then and true now – 43 years later.
Dennis and Christine won two nationally publicized verdicts from two separate juries – only to have them ripped away on appeal. But that “loss” catapulted Dennis into his niche as the leader in employment rights trial work that we at Popham have witnessed since he came to us in 1985.
Dennis is passionate about trials – but also about the need for physical fitness to withstand the rigors. He played competitive handball for 45 years; lawyers’ league basketball to age 45; he took up Okinawan karate at age 44, achieved black belt at age 46, and 2nd degree at age 52. Double hips and left knee replacements have not slowed him down. He and his lady Vicki bicycle and lift weights religiously around Kansas City and distant parts of our world.
Dennis is proudest of founding in 1993 the KC affiliate to the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA). Since the 90’s, he has mentored and unleashed a multitude of what one defense colleague with a national defense practice called, “the fiercest and most able plaintiff’s employment bar anywhere.” But he is also proud to have argued at the United States Supreme Court a significant case on “other employee” evidence (known as “Me Too” testimony), and to expand that same evidentiary law in the Missouri Supreme Court in 2015. He is justly proud of starting national NELA’s Trial Boot Camp program, running bi-annually since 2014.
Dennis remains the passionate trial lawyer, and the passionate and able legal scholar. We are privileged to have witnessed the legal equivalent of a Six Million Dollar Man/cyborg: We have identified someone capable of being better, stronger and faster – the first bionic lawyer able to leap stacks of law books. And yes, he uses his journalism background to find just the right language to support his arguments.
Dennis is my friend. We have seen each other’s families grow (his two sons; my son and daughter), with our children finding their own fulfilling careers, and delivering grandchildren (to him for now). We have celebrated achievements and vowed to keep doing better. Dennis does exactly that. He has paved the way for a new generation of lawyers dedicated to improving the lives of others. He leads by deeds; he leads by attitude; he leads by work ethic; and he leads by generously sharing hard-earned lessons to attorneys throughout the Country. Dennis Egan truly is the Dean of the Trial Bar but, more so, the Trial Dean of one the most important disciplines in the nation.
About the Author
Dirk Vandever has been a law partner and friend of Dennis Egan for decades. He was also recognized by The Missouri Bar as Tom Strong Trial Lawyer of the Year (2024) and a past recipient of Dean of the Trial Bar.
