Kansas City Law Firms

Guide to Kansas City Law Firms

If you need a lawyer in Kansas City, the number of Kansas City law firms in the phone book can be completely overwhelming. Not every law firm is going to offer you the services you want and the atmosphere you prefer. This guide can help you to understand the differences between the services offered at large and small firms and between specialty and general practice firms. At the end of this guide, you will learn how to research Kansas City law firms and find a lawyer to represent you.

Big Kansas City Law Firms

Large law firms have many lawyers and even more subordinate employees. The largest Kansas City law firms have over 200 lawyers at the partner level alone, along with numerous associates, paralegals, and legal secretaries. You may want to use a large law firm if one or more of the following is true:

ñ You do not require a lot of personal contact with your lawyer and will accept speaking to a subordinate or legal secretary when you call, at least some of the time.

ñ You require legal work to be done in a very specialized field, or in multiple fields at the same time.

ñ You want lawyers with an extensive network of connections to experts who can help you to win your case.

ñ You do not mind paying high legal fees—especially if you need a partner to work on your case instead of a less-experienced associate.

Large law firms offer many services that smaller firms cannot, but it will generally come at a price in terms of both actual money and a loss of more personal touches.

Small Kansas City Law Firms

If you need for your law firm experience to be more personalized, you may want the benefits of a smaller law firm. Small Kansas City law firms offer a way for you to have a lawyer you can more easily contact, and can also offer lower prices. You may want to investigate smaller firms if:

ñ You want a lower fee or you are hoping to be charged on a flat-fee, rather than hourly, basis

ñ You have a more common legal issue, rather than something requiring experts in a very specific field.

ñ You want to be able to talk to your lawyer directly, rather than speaking with paralegals, legal assistants, or legal secretaries.

ñ You want to find Kansas City law firms where the staff will know your name and case and generally have a more personal touch.

ñ You only have legal issues in a single area, rather than multiple different areas requiring different lawyers or specialists.

General Practice Firms

A century ago, the vast majority of legal practices were “general practices,” meaning that they accepted all types of cases. Today, most law firms choose to specialize in a single area of law or several related areas, but will not accept simply any type of case. However, some general practitioner Kansas City law firms still exist, especially at the very largest firms and at the very smallest.

Larger firms can easily engage in more general practice by simply hiring more lawyers so that they have practicing attorneys working in nearly every area of law. The smallest firms, especially those with only one or two lawyers who may be newly graduated from law school, may take any case that comes to them in order to build experience. These Kansas City law firms are often a good bet if you have several types of legal issues that require resolution.

Specialty Practice Firms

Now that most law firms specialize in only a few areas of legal practice, specialty practice Kansas City law firms may be your best option if you have a specific legal issue that you want addressed. Among other specialties, you can find law firms specializing in divorce and family law, bankruptcy, patent and intellectual property law, corporate law, tax law, estate planning, criminal defense, personal injury, medical malpractice, or real estate law.

These practices will not take all types of cases. Some may even be highly specialized practices that only accept a particular type of case in a field. For instance, some Kansas City law firms specialize exclusively in DUI cases and only work with clients accused of DUI offenses, rather than working on criminal defense more generally. A specialist offers the benefit of extensive experience with similar cases to yours.

Finding Law Firms

If you start your search by looking for law firms that are advertising on television or billboards, you may want to change your tactics—a good advertisement doesn't necessarily indicate a good lawyer. Instead, you may want to ask your family or friends for advice on who to hire. Many people use lawyers, and you may be able to find Kansas City law firms that have helped your friends or relatives in the past. This kind of word-of-mouth referral is often the best way to find a lawyer near you.

You may also want to use an internet search engine to look for Kansas City law firms specializing in the field of law your case pertains to. This will give you listings of lawyers who can help in your case, and a website will generally give much more information than a billboard or television advertisement. You can generally find biographical information about lawyers working for the firm, and many firms also discuss the cases they have won on their websites.

You can also investigate websites for tone—especially if you are not used to dealing with lawyers, you may be seeking Kansas City law firms that are more helpful and friendly, while businesspeople may want a law firm that is serious and stable.

Referral Services

If you cannot find a lawyer with word-of-mouth or if an internet search brings up too many results for you to sort out, you may want to contact the Kansas or Missouri bar association (depending on which state you live in) to get a lawyer referral. These referrals will give you a low or no-cost consultation with an attorney that can help with your case.