Photo Attribution:
Dee Moore
Jessica Jones
Butler Snow law firm has opened a new location in the downtown Birmingham area.
The leaders of the firm specifically targeted Birmingham as an ideal location for the firm’s expansion, said Todd Smith, President and CEO of Butler Snow Birmingham.
“Birmingham is a growth market for them to really come into a city where they can do excellent client service and client work and there are really great opportunities for them here,” Smith said. “They’ve targeted Birmingham over the last few years as part of their strategic move.”
The official launch of the Butler Snow Birmingham firm, held at the Birmingham Museum of Art on April 24, also included a $50,000 donation from the firm to the city’s museum.
“One of the hallmarks of the firm is they’re really tied into the community; they’re very committed and dedicated, so they’re always looking for ways they can enhance their relationships with the arts in the community,” Smith said.
Founded in Jackson, Mississippi, Butler Snow has provided representation for clients in all 50 states and internationally. The firm represents clients across a wide range of areas including real estate, general litigation, and product liability. The firm now has locations in several states and one office in London, England. The firm’s recent expansion into Birmingham has been in the making for a while, said Don Clark, chairman of Butler Snow.
“We’re just really happy to be in Birmingham,” Clark, said. “We’ve been wanting to be over here with a larger presence for quite some time. “We started with one or two lawyers here and we were at about four or five lawyers when we had the opportunity to acquire this larger group that joined us recently and we have been so thrilled to have such prominent attorneys from this area join the firm and that’s why we’re having this launch of the office and it will be the first time we can say that we’re a full service firm in Birmingham and that’s something we’ve wanted for a long time, both on the litigation side and the business side.”
In addition to providing the best resources to its clients, community is an essential part of the firm’s vision.
“Butler Snow is a firm that prides itself on internal teamwork, which I think we have, but at the same time we want to be very involved with the community where we’re located,” Clark said.
The firm is also involved in civic and charitable activities as well and has its own foundation Clark said. Later this year, the foundation will begin receiving grant applications from local organizations that assist the needy.
The Butler Snow firm has expanded from five attorneys in the city to 25. The firm’s rapid growth of the knowledgeable and experienced attorneys is the highlight of being a part of the team, said James Barton, head of the litigation department.
“I’ve done product liability work for national and international companies, but primarily in Alabama,” Barton said. “I’ve done some work across the country but most of the work I’ve done has been here in Alabama and Butler Snow with its footprints, and 17 different offices and 280 lawyers, this firm has got tremendous resources and capabilities and it’s just one of the firms that any large corporation, national or international, can come to and get the resources that they need to defend their litigation, so it’s a thrill to be with an outfit of such high caliber lawyers with a go anywhere capacity. That’s an asset to the Birmingham market.”
Butler Snow has received numerous titles including, One of the Top Ten Busiest Product Liability Practices in Law360 Litigation Almanac, one of Best Review’s top 69 law firms “Standing the Test of Time”, and has also been named as a “Go-To Law Firm of the World’s Leading Companies 2013” by ALM. Clark attributes the firm’s success not only to the firm’s solidarity, but by offering services that are beneficial to clients.
“The culture at Butler Snow is really different than most firms,” Clark said. “We really depend on teamwork. We have a system that encourages teamwork. We also are very active in our efforts to be able to quote alternative fees to clients. The alternative fees include such things as flat fees where a client can get some certainty on what their bill is going to be… so that has contributed greatly to our success, along with the culture of the firm that encourages teamwork, so the clients benefit from that. It’s always clients first at this firm. We’re proud of that and I think that’s one of the factors that’s really contributed to our growth.”
