John Shamberg is co-founder and senior member of the firm, founded in 1949. He is a trial lawyer who has devoted his legal career to civil litigation and has engaged in major cases that have expanded the rights of injured persons and shaped the development of tort law in the state of Kansas.

He is a graduate of Washburn Law School, where he was president of the student body, following which he was law clerk to Honorable Walter A. Huxman, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

Among the notable cases he has handled is the one abolishing governmental immunity in Kansas in proprietary cases, thus allowing injured persons to sue a state agency for the first time in the state's history.

John was one of the lead counsel for victims in the 1981 Hyatt sky walk collapse disaster in which 218 persons were killed or injured. He and Lynn Johnson of the firm successfully handled more than 20 cases involving serious injury to small children who accidentally ingested a drain cleaner product and, through their efforts, forced the manufacturers to reduce the toxic nature of the product and to package their product in a child-proof container.

John has lectured widely before bar associations, on both the state and national level, on trial techniques and emerging concepts of tort law, and has authored several papers on these subjects.

Throughout his career, he has participated in activities of the organized bar, having served for many years on the Board of Governors of the Kansas Bar Association and as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He served from 1985 to 1993 as a member of the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission, which selects nominees for appointment by the Governor to the Kansas Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court of Kansas.

For his service to the legal profession, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the Kansas Bar Association in 1989, the highest honor conferred by that organization, and he was the first recipient of the Arthur G. Hodgson Distinguished Service Award of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association, conferred in the same year. For his service to his law school, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Law, conferred by Washburn University, and the law school's Distinguished Service Award. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since the first edition was published in 1983.

During World War II, 1942-46, he rose from draftee to major and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for service in the Pacific Theater.

Lynn R. Johnson

Lynn R. Johnson, a member and partner in the firm since 1970, is nationally recognized as a trial lawyer and for his lifelong devotion to the protection of individual rights and the enforcement of individual and corporate responsibility. As a trial lawyer, he has devoted his career to representing individual by fighting for their right to safe products, safe health care, and safe lives through the civil justice system.

Lynn's work for individual consumers has led to responsibilities and opportunities outside the firm, too. He was elected by Kansas attorneys in 1993 to chair the Kansas Supreme Court Nominating Commission. When vacancies occur on the Kansas Supreme Court or the Kansas Court of Appeals, the governor must choose the next justice or judge from three nominees chosen by the nominating commission.

Lynn's formal education - which began in a one-room schoolhouse - led to an undergraduate degree from Kansas State University and a juris Doctorate with honors from Washburn University School of Law. He is a life member of the alumni associations of both universities. He is currently serving as president of the Washburn Law School Association. 

Education

Kansas State University, B.S. in Accounting, June 1967
Washburn University School of Law, J.D. with Honors, June 1970

Professional Activities

Washburn Law School Association, Life Member

Board of Governors 1987-1998
President 1994-1996
President-Elect 1992-1994
Vice President 1990-1992

American Bar Association
Johnson County Bar Association
Wyandotte County Bar Association
Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
Missouri Bar Association
Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys

Kansas Bar Association

Board of Governors, 1995-1998 Board of Governors, District 1, 1995-1998
Board of Editors, Journal of the KBA, 1977-1988
Legislative Committee, 1986, 1988-1994
Litigation Section Chairman, 1982-1983
Nominating Committee, 1985-1988

Kansas Trial Lawyers Association

Board of Governors, 1975-1995 Crown Center Seminar Chairman, 1973-1977
Education Committee, 1994-1995
President-Elect, 1977-1978
President, 1978-1979

Association of Trial Lawyers of America

Board of Governors, 1987-1991
American Inns of Court Committee Chairman, 1988-1991
Amicus Curiae Committee, 1991-1993
Committee on Courts, 1994-1995
Ethical Conduct Committee, 1989-1992; Chairman, 1991-1992
Federal Rules, Jurisdiction and Venue Committee
Co-Chair, 1989-1990; Member, 1990-1994
Public Relations Committee, 1992-1994

 

Victor A. Bergman

Involvement in professional organizations and providing leadership to other attorneys is also part of my commitment. I have been the chairman of the Board of Editors of the Journal of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association, and am currently editor of the product Liability and Consumer Law Column. As a member and chairman of the Bench and Bar Committee of the Johnson County Bar Association, I have worked to improve relations between attorneys and judges. Members of the bar have elected me since 1988 to serve on the Judicial Selection Committee for the tenth Judicial District of Kansas and, through this work, I have been involved in the selection of judges to serve the citizens of Johnson County, Kansas. I have written articles published in legal journals and regularly give lectures to other attorneys at professional seminars on subjects dealing with trial practice.

John M. Parisi

I began as an associate with Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman in 1989, and became a partner in 1994. I practice in the areas of personal injury , medical malpractice, products liability, false claims act, (qui tam) cases, nursing home abuse cases and environmental law.

Prior to obtaining my law degree in 1989, I was a professional archaeologist for ten years. I conducted numerous archaeological excavations of historic Euro-American and prehistoric Indian Sites, primarily in Missouri and Kansas and participated in an archaeological survey for prehistoric sites in the Republic of Egypt in the Western Sahara Desert. As a lawyer, I have utilized the research and practical skills I developed as an archaeologist to the benefit of my clients.

Although I enjoyed being an archeologist, I became a lawyer primarily so that I could help real people whose problems exist in the present, rather than focusing on the lives of those people who lived in the past. Since becoming a lawyer I have dedicated my practice to representing seriously injured clients. I have been privileged to handle a wide variety of cases during my legal career. I have successfully brought to conclusion complex cases both for individual clients and as class actions. I have obtained substantial recoveries for my clients in a wide variety of cases, including defective drugs, defective products, negligent health care, and environmental contamination. I have also represented a number of whistleblowers that have recovered millions of dollars to the United States Treasury.

I am also committed to improving the legal community. I currently serve on a number of bar association committees and leadership positions. I serve as a commissioner of the Kansas Lawyers Victim Compensation fund and serve on the Johnson County Bar disciplinary committee. I have just finished a year as President of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. I believe that lawyers have a duty not only to their clients, but also to the civil justice system and their community.