Harvey L. Kaplan, a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend, a nationally renowned trial lawyer
and a tireless leader of Kansas City’s Jewish community, died Friday, October 16, 2026, at home,
surrounded by his loving family, after a short but courageous battle with cancer. He was 83.
Harvey was born November 11, 1942, in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Irving A. and Belle
(Korach) Kaplan. He grew up in Independence, Missouri, where his family owned the pharmacy on the
square, and moved back to Kansas City in the sixth grade. He attended Hale Cook Elementary School and
Southwest High School, where he served on the student council and, as a senior, was elected Student
Mayor of Kansas City in a citywide vote.
At the University of Michigan, Harvey joined Zeta Beta Tau and produced the Soph Show, Guys and
Dolls. He earned a B.S. in pharmacy, then turned to the law at the University of Missouri-Columbia
School of Law, where he was a member of the Missouri Law Review and won the Roscoe Anderson
Award for the best oral argument in trial practice.
After starting his career at Deacy and Deacy, Harvey joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon, where he spent the
next 45 years. He helped the firm grow from a single office of 26 lawyers to multiple offices with several
hundred attorneys. As a senior partner and chair of its pharmaceutical and medical device litigation
practice, he became one of the most sought-after trial lawyers in the country. He loved being a trial
lawyer, and it showed: Who’s Who Legal named him its Global Product Liability Lawyer of the Year four
years running and called him “the leading lawyer in the world for product liability defense.” He was a
Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers and
served on the board of the International Association of Defense Counsel. He was also a member of the
inaugural class of the Lawdragon 500 Hall of Fame and a recipient of the University Of Michigan College
Of Pharmacy’s Distinguished Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award.
The honors that meant the most to him came from his own firm, which dedicated the Harvey L. Kaplan
Conference Room in 2015 and created the Harvey L. Kaplan Rainmaker Award in his name. Of all his
professional achievements, he was most proud of the younger lawyers he mentored, relationships he
cherished. In the mid-1990s, long before diversity was a priority across the legal profession, he became
the first chair of Shook’s Diversity Committee At the conference room dedication, colleagues
remembered that he knew the name, and the story, of every member of the building staff. He saw
everyone.
Harvey met his beloved wife, Michele Markel, in Kansas City, and after a whirlwind ten-week courtship
they married on May 24, 1969. He was a proud girl dad to Beth and Danna and an adoring grandfather
who never missed a moment that mattered, from births and birthdays to graduations and every
milestone in between. He loved beautiful clothes and a good shopping trip, fine food, and travel,
especially to London, New York, Italy and Israel. And he loved his workouts with John Benz at Personal
Advantage, where he was affectionately known as “the mayor,” a title earned more for his conversation
than his reps.
Besides his family and his practice, nothing mattered more to Harvey than the Jewish community. He
was President of Jewish Family Services and Chair of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/AJC in
Kansas City, work that led him to the national AJC Board of Governors and the board of AJC’s
Transatlantic Institute. He also served on the boards of Menorah Medical Center, Hyman Brand Hebrew
Academy and the Truman Library Institute, where he delighted in giving tours, and his were the best in
the building. He was a member of Congregation B’nai Jehudah. In retirement he studied Italian,
continued to travel the world with Michele and their friends, and never slowed his work with AJC and
the Truman Library. Above all, he loved his family, and he taught them to love one another, to
appreciate beautiful things, to explore the world, and to accept people for exactly who they are.
He is survived by Michele, his wife of 57 years; his daughters, Beth (Michael) Liss of Kansas City,
Missouri, and Danna (Matt) Kriser of Highland Park, Illinois; his grandchildren, Ella, Jack and Alex Kriser
and Zachary and Drew Liss; and his brother-in-law, Jay (Carey) Markel. He was preceded in death by his
parents. As Harvey himself put it, he was one lucky man.
Funeral service was held Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 2 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Jehudah, with burial
following at Rose Hill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to JCRB/AJC, the Jewish
Federation of Greater Kansas City, the Truman Library Institute, or the charity of your choice.
(Arrangements entrusted to The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211)
Obituary published by Louis Memorial Chapel.
