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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.
Larry Bingham
Co-founder in 1974
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Running Time - 6:15
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Mission Statement
The mission of Seigfreid Bingham is to provide timely,
quality, cost effective legal services and related business
counseling in a manner that achieves personal and professional
satisfaction for our clients and all who work at our
firm. We accomplish this by:
- Recruiting and retaining talented, ethical and
personable lawyers and staff who embrace our mission.
- Mentoring and training lawyers and staff.
- Forming partner relationships with our clients.
- Maintaining a culture that ensures personal and
professional growth, integrity and caring for each
other.
We disprove the notion that you have to be a large
law firm to have "large firm" clients.
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 with less than 50 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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