Troppito Miller Griffin, LLC

Focus and practice areas

Troppito Miller Griffin, LLC works from Kansas City, Missouri, and the firm dates its start to 1940. Its attorneys list more than 80 years of combined experience. That span covers a wide set of legal problems, and the firm's practice pages reflect the spread.

The work runs across several areas. The firm handles consumer and business bankruptcy, DUI and criminal defense, creditor rights and collections, and civil litigation. It also covers traffic matters, construction law, personal injury, workers' compensation, estate planning, business law and real estate law.

Listed case types

Under bankruptcy, the firm names Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings. Its litigation list includes breach of contract and class actions. The criminal work covers assault, drug and theft charges.

The firm also names transactional and personal planning work. That includes business formation, contracts, and mergers and acquisitions. It handles wills, trusts and probate. On the injury side, the firm names auto and truck accidents, medical malpractice and wrongful death. Its real estate work covers residential and commercial transactions.

How the team is built

Chris M. Troppito and Tony R. Miller are the firm's co-founders. The site carries their names in the firm brand. Several other attorneys fill out the roster, and most keep to a defined area of practice.

Chris M. Troppito handles collection matters, creditor rights, business and commercial litigation, and bankruptcy. Super Lawyers selected him as a Rising Star in 2011. Tony R. Miller is a Kansas City criminal defense attorney who previously served as a prosecutor. In my opinion that prosecutorial background gives a defense practice a useful read on how the other side builds a case.

Members with defined fields

S. Owen Griffin, a member of the firm, concentrates on construction matters. His work includes mechanic liens, surety bond claims and collections. He belongs to the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

Ryan D. Kiliany, also a member, handles personal and business bankruptcies. He belongs to the Kansas City Bankruptcy Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Western District of Missouri Bankruptcy Advisory Group. Each group ties directly to the bankruptcy work he lists.

Backgrounds and training

Two of the attorneys publish their schooling. Gabe Hinkebein earned a Bachelor of Arts from Southeast Missouri State University in 1997 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 2000. His practice covers business, employment and labor, estate planning, personal injury, and speeding and traffic tickets.

Kerry J. Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law. He works on estate planning and small business matters, and he takes DUI and DWI cases.

The firm also lists Mike McVey as of counsel, J. Timothy Yasso and Brandon J. Sulzer as attorneys, and Bret A. Hart as an associate attorney. The site names them without a full biography for each. As a reviewer, I read a roster of this size at a firm this old as a sign of continuity in the practice areas the firm names.

How the listed matters generally proceed

Some general context helps a reader weigh a firm that spreads across bankruptcy, criminal defense and construction. These areas move on different tracks, and the firm names attorneys for each.

Consumer bankruptcy runs through the federal courts. A Chapter 7 case sells eligible assets and clears qualifying debt. A Chapter 13 case sets up a repayment plan that usually lasts three to five years. Both go before a trustee and the bankruptcy court, and both start with detailed schedules of income, debt and property. Ryan D. Kiliany and Chris M. Troppito both list this work.

Construction, collections and liens

Construction disputes often turn on payment security. A mechanic lien lets a contractor or supplier attach a claim to the property it worked on. A surety bond claim reaches the bond that backs a project when payment stalls. S. Owen Griffin lists both, along with collections, and construction is his stated focus.

Creditor rights and collections face the other direction from bankruptcy. Here a lawyer acts for the party owed money. The work means filing claims, winning judgments and enforcing them. Chris M. Troppito lists this next to his business and commercial litigation, so a single attorney can carry a collection claim into court and pursue the judgment.

Defense and planning

Criminal defense and DUI matters run through the state courts. A case moves through arraignment, pretrial motions and either a plea or a trial. Tony R. Miller brings a former prosecutor's view to this side, and Kerry J. Williams adds DUI and DWI cases to his planning work.

Estate planning and probate belong to the civil side and rarely turn into a courtroom fight. A lawyer drafts wills and trusts while a client is living. Probate then carries an estate through the court after a death. It settles debts and distributes property. Gabe Hinkebein and Kerry J. Williams both list estate planning, which gives the firm two named hands for this work.

What the public record shows

A few markers on the site can be checked against outside sources. The firm dates to 1940. Chris M. Troppito holds a 2011 Super Lawyers Rising Star selection. Griffin and Kiliany carry named bar memberships that match their fields.

Two attorneys publish their degrees and graduation years, which gives a reader a way to confirm their training. The firm lists social profiles on Facebook and Twitter in its published site data. The site does not state admission years for its attorneys, so a reader who wants that detail would ask the firm. In my opinion the strongest signals here are the dated bar memberships and the two published degrees, because a reader can check each one.

Taken together, the site presents a Kansas City firm with roots in 1940 and ten named attorneys. Its practice covers bankruptcy, criminal defense, construction law, collections, estate planning, personal injury and real estate. Troppito and Miller founded it, and their two names anchor the brand the firm carries today.