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Seigfreid, Bingham, Levy, Selzer and Gee, P.C.
A long-time partner of the SouthWestern Association and its members, Seigfreid, Bingham,
Levy, Selzer and Gee, P.C., is a full-service law firm with a Dealership Practice division
dedicated to assisting equipment and hardware dealers with their legal matters. |
Most law firms, like most families, develop and live with a common set of values which
are communicated to all of their current members, and, if successful, on to the next
generation. I’m afraid that a vocal segment of our society assumes that lawyers’
values are motivated strictly by profit.
I don’t think so. This law firm – this family of lawyers – has been
primarily motivated for well over two decades by a desire to see its clients succeed, grow
and prosper. We work hard to make that happen.
Equally important, this firm was founded on the notion that pursuit of our
clients’ interests must always be accomplished within our shared values of integrity
and fair-dealing with all persons, including adversaries; respect for such old-fashioned
principles as "justice" and for our profession; and genuine concern for each
other and our extended families.
It has been personally rewarding to me in recent years to see that these bedrock
convictions are willingly ascribed to by the next generation of lawyers in this firm. I
can see that we have created something solid . . . something based on the highest ideals
of fairness, truth and honor . . . where the daily exercise of those ideals is not
inconsistent with success for us and the clients we serve.
This is a family and a record of which I’m very proud.
| Jim Seigfreid |
| Managing Director |
| Co-founder in 1974 |
We disprove the notion that you have to be a large law firm to have
"large firm" clients.
Larry J. Bingham, Gordon D. Gee, Robert C. Levy and Jack R. Selzer (l to
r, standing); James T. Seigfreid (seated) |
The common wisdom in the legal community in recent years has been that in order to
succeed, a law firm must either become a "boutique", that is, a small firm with
a highly specialized niche, or merge until it becomes large enough for "large
firm" clients. Neither alternative had much appeal for us.
We wanted to remain a
steadily growing "medium size" law firm and still attract the type of clients
that historically are considered "large firm" clients. We’ve done exactly
that. A number of years ago, the Kansas City Business Journal reported that only
one Kansas City law firm represents more of this area’s fifty largest companies than
we do. We had established, according to the Business Journal, a "formidable
niche" in the Kansas City legal community. |
How has a law firm that now has only 36 attorneys been able to establish such a
client base through a tumultuous decade of legal change? Here’s how.
We’ve grown up with many of our clients.
A look at our client list reveals
some of the largest and most successful companies in the area. But they weren’t
always the largest. With many of our clients, we started our representation when they,
like us, were just beginning their growth. We have advised them through mergers,
acquisitions and expansions, and can now look back on (in some cases) decades of mutual
growth and success.
We continue looking for new small to medium-size businesses which are beginning that
entrepreneurial climb, businesses with whom we can establish a team relationship on the
ground floor and move on to bigger and better things together. But in truth, much of our
past growth has come because of the expansion of our clients themselves, and their
referrals to other businesses in their fields.
We’re as conscious of our clients’ costs as we are of our
own.
Because we’re not a mega-firm, we don’t hire entire classes of
new associates to compete with each other and generate billable time. We hire only as many
new attorneys as we honestly anticipate that we – and our clients – will need.
That not only keeps our overhead down, it means we don’t have multiple attorneys
working on a single matter when one will do, keeping our clients’ costs down too.
Our major priority is finding a way to prevent problems.
All of the attorneys in our firm spend a great deal of time counseling and
advising clients how to operate their businesses so as to minimize problems and, if
possible, anticipate and prevent litigation, saving huge and unexpected costs later.
Advising clients how to set company policies consistent with employment laws, for example,
can save large and unexpected litigation costs later.
But when litigation is inevitable, we have an enviable record of
success.
Sometimes, litigation is the only way to resolve problems. And, of course,
sometimes litigation is the only way to right a wrong already done. When that’s the
case, we aggressively represent our clients – both businesses and individuals -- in
federal and state courts, as well as arbitration and mediation forums. And we have done so
with a record of success we’re very proud of.
Most important, we never forget who we are working for.
We are always mindful of the truth that as lawyers, we do not have a
tangible product which our clients can admire and compare with competitive products. All
we have to offer is the intangible concept of service. We realize that if we can’t
offer our service as needed, just as quickly as it is needed, then our clients aren’t
getting what they need and deserve.
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