Edwardsville becomes home to group of former Gallop attorneys
by Paul Felsch

In July, Chris Byron, Brian Kalb and Chris Petri decided to leave Gallop, Johnson & Neuman in Clayton, Mo., to join Dave Gerber in establishing their own general practitionership in Edwardsville, Ill. - Byron, Gerber, Petri & Kalb.

Despite sprouting from the corporate and real estate firm of Gallop, Byron Gerber offers broad services. While Gallop performs mostly defense work, Byron Gerber offers both defense and plaintiff services and works on more class actions than Gallop. As a smaller practitionership with eight total personnel, Byron Gerber also has more flexibility in choosing its clients and prices, and this seems to have been one of the lures that led the four partners to their Edwardsville decision.

One might be led to believe that the break with Gallop was a tumultuous one. However, this could not be further from the truth. Byron, Petri and Kalb are still on good terms with Gallop; they and Gerber simply saw a tremendous business opportunity in Edwardsville and wanted the chance to work in a smaller, more centralized practice. Moreover, the new firm also has a St. Louis office and will rent office space in the same building as Gallop.

Chris Petri (University of Missouri-Columbia graduate) says the chance to work with close colleagues rather than 80 people was something very appealing. All four partners agree that the new firm not only has more flexibility in choosing its clients and prices, but there is also more flexibility in time management. Additionally, an Edwardsville practice appealed to the partners because of the fewer amount of attorneys compared to St. Louis.

One might also be led to believe that starting a new practice in a different state would prove even more trying. After all, why not keep the new firm in St. Louis? Aside from the fewer amount of attorneys in Edwardsville, two of Byron Gerber's partners have strong ties to the city - Chris Byron (Washington University) and Dave Gerber (Saint Louis University).

Byron has been a long-time resident of Edwardsville, and his father is Madison County Circuit Court Judge Nicholas G. Byron. Gerber, formerly of Kasten Gerber in O'Fallon, serves as Edwardsville's corporation counsel and city attorney and works exclusively for Byron Gerber now. Brian Kalb also has ties of his own to Illinois with a law degree from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. In fact, the only one who seems foreign is Petri, but since he was valedictorian of his Mizzou law school class, the other partners joke that they had to let one smart guy into the bunch.

With all of the ties to the Edwardsville and Illinois area, and with the wealth of experience the four partners bring, the new practice has hit the ground running. Byron, Petri and Kalb were able to transfer their clients from Gallop, and all four partners would like to see their practice and personnel grow, depending, of course, on the amount of business received.

"With the quality of our personnel, our ties to the legal community, and our Edwardsville and St. Louis offices, we'll provide outstanding representation for our clients in both Illinois and Missouri," Petri says.

It looks like they're off to a good start.