Legal niches define Lowther Johnson after 30 years

Yet the scenery is no less impressive inside the 30-year-old law firm of which Groves is managing member. In the last six years, Lowther Johnson Attorneys at Law LLC has increased its number of attorneys by 33 percent and its support personnel by 50 percent, Groves said.

In 1975, Theodore L. Johnson III and Gerald Lowther (now retired) started Lowther Johnson with the help of a third attorney, Richard L. Franks. The trio opened the practice at Plaza Towers on Sunshine and Glenstone.

Johnson said that there were five or six employees in 1975. Today, Groves said that there are more than 50 staff members; 18 of them are attorneys. As employment grew, the company first moved to the John Q. Hammons building before settling into its Hammons Tower offices.

Casework

The firm has worked on cases for private individuals, corporations and government entities, including Greene County assessment disputes – the original assessed valuation of Battlefield Mall is one example – and damage claims from treatment or incarceration against the Greene County Jail, Johnson said.

Personal injury matters, adoptions, life insurance disputes, real estate transactions, family law, employment law, and banking matters are additional legal matters the firm has handled for private and corporate clients.

Even through its growth, the practice has sustained its original vision.

“I think the whole purpose of starting the firm, and it maintains our central theme today, was to provide the highest quality legal services at a reasonable fee,” Groves said.

Lowther Johnson’s ability to maintain those reasonable fees can be partially attributed to its local status – there is no big-city parent company to assume part of its earnings, Groves said.

An incentive-based compensation schedule also helps. “Technically, anybody in our firm can make as much as anyone else,” Groves said, declining to disclose firm revenues. “We don’t have as much of a pyramid. In some of the larger firms, you’ve got your top partners, and then you get to the bottom and you’ve got your associate.”

Groves said he believes the key to the firm’s success lies in its staff. “A lot of local law firms come and go, and I think one of the reasons we’ve been able to stay is because we get top quality attorneys,” he said.

Legal trends

In a trend that seems to be reflected throughout the industry, many of the firm’s attorneys are now focusing on specific niches within the legal profession.

“I personally believe that over the last 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of concentration in fields or areas of the law where people acquire and learn an emphasis,” Johnson said. He added that specialization is not necessarily an accurate description, because the term implies that the person earned a certification in a given field.

“You have Internet law and special properties – things that weren’t around 30 years ago. Condominiums, they were rare – all sorts of things have arisen that simply weren’t there. And because of that, I find more and more people are gravitating toward one section of the law,” said Craig Lowther, a member in the firm his father helped found.

The increased emphasis on specific niches can provide a level of comfort for both attorney and client.

“If you walk down one path that you’ve been down before, then you know what to look for,” Lowther said.

“We have people in real estate law, we have people who do personal injury law, employment law, family law – that’s the beauty of having a firm. If I have a client who comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I have some issue with bankruptcy. (Or) I’ve got somebody who’s filed bankruptcy. What do I do?’ I can go to one of our attorneys that does bankruptcy,” Groves said.

Changing laws – and even changes within the community – have created some variances in the types or amount of casework that Lowther Johnson has seen.

Bankruptcy seems to be a hot topic these days. Groves said that an overhaul of the bankruptcy system, set to take effect in October, has created an increase in cases. “And there will be until Oct. 17,” he added.

Johnson said that some types of cases, such as class-action suits, were more commonly seen in larger metropolitan areas before making their way to southwest Missouri.

Overall, Groves said that there are more settlements and fewer trials than there were 30 years ago. “I’d say that 90 (percent to) 95 percent of cases are settled,” Groves said.

But he expects to see a reversal of that trend, especially in medical malpractice and personal injury cases. Broader laws that make it less likely to obtain prejudgment interest, and certain statutory caps, may reduce an attorney’s incentive to work for a settlement prior to litigation, Groves said.