Our firm was founded in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1920 by H.D. Rummel, who had just finished serving as Judge of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. Since our founding, the firm has grown significantly. Today, our firm boasts nearly 125 lawyers and has offices in Charleston, Martinsburg, Morgantown, and Parkersburg, West Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky and Winchester, Virginia.
While our founding members originally focused on commercial, banking, and mineral-related issues, we quickly developed substantial practices in litigation, labor, workers' compensation, real estate, and bankruptcy law. Expanding client needs fostered the development of capabilities in several additional areas, including: taxation, fidelity and surety law, construction law, public finance, environmental law, education law, and intellectual property law. We now offer extensive services in tourism law and government relations, and constantly evaluate the legal needs and business success factors of our clients' industries to continue our desire to meet our clients' needs.
Our long standing commitment to the region has been consistent throughout our history. Our Charleston office building, built in 1996, is located at the hub of the business and legal community and represents our long-term commitment to Charleston.
Built in downtown Charleston, our office is within easy walking distance of the county and federal courthouses and the city's downtown business community. Our firm employed a design-build process for our building that mirrors our team management approach by incorporating all of the building processes into one focused task. Service to clients is reflected in the design of the building, including reception areas, conference rooms and client parking, which were designed to accommodate our clients' needs and comfort, with easy access to elevators, restrooms, private telephones and kitchen facilities.
Our firm's commitment to incorporating high technology into the practice of law means cost-effective, high-quality representation for clients. A full complement of state-of-the-art technology enhances our office-to-office communication, provides our legal staff with the capability to fax, conduct legal research electronically, communicate on-line with clients, conduct research on the Internet and take advantage of a central CD-ROM access from their desktop computers. Through our firm Intranet and shared technology capabilities, including video conferencing, we can provide the combined experience and knowledge of our entire team to serve our clients regionally or worldwide from any of our office locations. Our new video conferencing abilities permit personal and effective communications without the attendant travel costs. We were the first major firm in West Virginia and one of the first in Kentucky to have a web site that provides up-to-date information about the law and our firm. We provide the resources of our nearly 125 attorneys and our support staff at the fingertips of each of our attorneys and clients.