Uthoff, Graeber, Bobinette & Blanke

Focus and practice areas

Uthoff, Graeber, Bobinette & Blanke is a general practice firm in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm says it has served the St. Louis area for over 40 years. It handles matters in both Missouri and Illinois.

The named practice areas cover business law, trust and estate law, family law, civil litigation, employment law, criminal defense, tax appeals, injury law, real estate law and workers' compensation. That is a wide list for a firm of seven partners. In my opinion, the pattern that holds it together is business and tax work, with litigation and personal matters attached around it.

Where the tax and business work sits

Several partners list overlapping business, tax and estate practices. The firm says some of its partners hold accounting, tax or finance degrees alongside their law degrees, and that it applies this to business and high-asset matters. Tax appeals appear as their own listed area.

Tax appeal work in Missouri generally starts with a local assessment, moves to a county board of equalization, and can go on to the State Tax Commission. Deadlines are fixed by statute and evidence usually turns on valuation records, comparable sales and appraisal testimony. A firm with accounting training on staff has the vocabulary for that kind of file.

How the partnership is built

The about page lists seven partners: Gary S. Uthoff, Kenneth H. Graeber, Richard B. Blanke, William Kent Uthoff, David K. Adam, Paul L. Schmitz and Charles W. Bobinette. Each has an assigned set of practice areas. Two of the four names in the firm's title still appear on the partner list, which gives a reader some sense of continuity.

Gary S. Uthoff practices in business organizations, estate planning, probate and estate administration, and taxation law. His attorney page gives a J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1971 and a B.A. in zoology from Southeast Missouri State University in 1968. He was admitted in Missouri and Illinois in 1971, and to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri the same year.

The other partners and their assigned work

Kenneth H. Graeber covers business litigation, employer protection, real estate litigation, family law, personal injury and civil appeals. That is the broadest litigation profile on the list. Civil appeals appearing next to trial-level work suggests the firm keeps appellate matters in house.

Richard B. Blanke handles business and commercial matters, business organizations, estate planning, probate administration and taxation law. William Kent Uthoff and David K. Adam list nearly identical areas: business and commercial law, contracts, tax law, estate planning and real estate law. Three partners with substantially the same transactional profile gives the firm depth in one direction.

Paul L. Schmitz takes the criminal and constitutional side. His listed areas are criminal defense litigation, constitutional law, civil rights law, employment law, civil litigation and FTC compliance. Charles W. Bobinette appears on the partner list as a partner, with his name carried in the firm title.

What the practice areas involve

Readers arriving at a general practice firm often want to know how their type of matter actually moves. The following is general background on the areas this firm names, and it describes ordinary procedure rather than any claim about the firm's own outcomes.

Estate and probate matters

Estate planning work in Missouri usually produces a will, one or more trusts, powers of attorney and a healthcare directive. Probate administration runs through the circuit court in the county where the person lived. The personal representative files an inventory, gives notice to creditors, settles claims and then distributes what remains. Timelines are set by statute and contested estates take longer.

Business organizations and contracts

Business organization work covers entity choice, formation filings with the Secretary of State, operating agreements and buy-sell terms among owners. Contract work runs alongside it. Where a partner also carries tax credentials, entity choice and contract drafting tend to be handled with the tax treatment already in view.

Criminal defense and civil rights

Criminal matters in Missouri move from arrest and charging through arraignment, discovery, pretrial motions and either a plea or a trial. Constitutional and civil rights claims often proceed in federal court under Section 1983, where a plaintiff has to identify a specific right and connect it to conduct by a state actor. Those two areas sitting with one partner is a common pairing.

Family law and personal injury

Family law files in Missouri include dissolution, custody and support, with parenting plans and financial disclosure forms required by the court. Personal injury claims turn on liability, medical documentation and the insurance position, and Missouri applies a comparative fault rule. Both areas appear under Kenneth H. Graeber's listing.

Practical details from the site

The firm runs two offices, one in downtown St. Louis and one in Clayton. Clayton is the St. Louis County seat and holds the county courthouse, so a second office there puts the firm near the court where much of its Missouri civil and family work would be filed.

The about page says the firm accepts credit cards and offers evening and weekend appointments. As a reviewer, that is a detail worth flagging: appointment hours outside the working day matter to clients who cannot take time off, and firms do not always publish them. A Facebook link appears in the footer of several pages.

What the site does and does not put on record

The strongest verified material here is the roster. Seven partners are named, and six have practice areas attached to them. Gary S. Uthoff's page carries full education and bar admission detail, and his listed areas match what the about page shows for him. That internal consistency is a small but real signal.

The site gives "over 40 years" for its time in St. Louis without naming a founding year. Bar admission dates and law schools for the partners other than Gary S. Uthoff are absent, as is a stated entity type for the firm. Readers who want those figures would need to ask directly or check Missouri bar records.

The firm publishes no case results, settlement figures, rankings or client numbers, so this review makes no assessment of outcomes. What can be confirmed is the shape of the practice: a seven-partner general practice firm in St. Louis with two Missouri offices, licensure in Missouri and Illinois, and a listed emphasis on business, tax and estate matters with litigation, family and criminal work alongside.