KC Reporter

Kirk Presley decided to campaign for a 16th Circuit Judicial Commission position because he wanted to help perpetuate a congenial, practical and well-reasoned experience on the bench.

“The most important criteria for a successful judge in my estimation is a sense of fairness and an earnest desire to make the right decision based on precedent and our state’s public policy,” Presley told the KC Reporter. “That coupled with unwavering integrity, which I try and emulate every day, is a recipe for continued success in selecting judges we can all be proud to appear before.” 

Presley was elected a commissioner by members of the Jackson County bar in 2018. His candidacy went unopposed.

Kirk Presley | Submitted

“There is perhaps no more important job than screening the applicants who will ultimately assume the bench,” he told his fellow attorneys at the time he was campaigning. “I would like to take on that job on your behalf.”

When among his fellow commissioners interviewing a potential judge, Presley looks for a depth of experience across various practice areas as well as a sense of fairness and professionalism.

“The most important thing for me to keep in mind is that judges have a difficult job across all practice areas, not just personal injury,” he said. “They have to deal with criminal, domestic, probate, and administrative matters as well as their civil jury trial docket.”

Presley says he also values a potential judge’s genuine desire to get decisions right, because that’s what he hopes for when he’s trying personal injury cases in court before a sitting judge.

“I always tell applicants I appreciate hearing from anyone they want to have contact me in support of their application,” he said. “That way I get a sense of their work outside of my practice area.”

As an award-winning trial lawyer who founded Presley & Presley law firm, Presley says he tries to take terribly complicated events and make them understandable so that justice and the ultimate truth in a case can be perceived clearly.

“The thing I dislike the most is lawyers who fight over things that don’t matter – and this goes for both plaintiffs’ attorneys and defense attorneys,” he said.

What Presley likes most about being a lawyer is helping people through terrible experiences in their lives. 

“Our practice focuses on serious disabling injuries or the wrongful death of a family member so it is just about the worst thing imaginable,” he said. “My job is to guide them to recovery, both legally and emotionally, and help get them to the other side of a tragic occurrence with fewer things to worry about.”

Presley once represented a wife who lost her husband when he was burned by super-heated steam at the Iatan Power Plant in Platte County. When she went with Presley to inspect the plant where her husband previously worked, Presley held her as she sobbed.

“I told her then we would make it right,” he said. “Two years and a two-week trial later, I held her as she sobbed again when the jury brought what was then a record wrongful death verdict in Platte County and I felt like I had made good on my promise. I still get cards and notes from her every year with updates on her family.”

Counselor Presley has been included in The Best Lawyers of America since 2009 and has received the peer-rated honor of AV-Preeminent from Martindale-Hubbell among many other honors.