Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig, LLP

Butler is a civil litigation firm. We are unique because our practice is devoted entirely to defense and insurance litigation. Our clients are corporations, insurance companies, and insured individuals. Our representation has taken us across the United States, to Canada, Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean. We aspire to provide the highest quality counsel while, at the same time, meeting the administrative demands of our institutional clients. After 40 years, our record speaks for itself.

At Butler, service, teamwork and principles are not mere words. They're who we are and what we do. Service is what we bring to our clients, to one another, and to the community at large. Teamwork describes the way we interact with one another. And our seven guiding principles define how we serve and work together, 100 percent of the time.

Community is also important. How do we define the Butler community? It isn't a way of speaking or dressing. Nor is it a boundary or location. Our community, in the sense we mean it, is defined by common principles, common goals and common purposes. Our focus is on integrity, and our goal is fulfilling the legal needs of our clients. Our purpose is building and sustaining a professional practice at the highest level. Moreover, the Butler community includes receptionists, bookkeepers, assistants, paralegals and our entire administrative staff. And best of all, the Butler community includes our clients.

Butler embraces diversity in our nation, in our communities, and in our hiring practices. Why is diversity important in the workplace? Why do we embrace it as a fundamental objective? Why is it inherently good for people from varying backgrounds to work together? We believe when people who are diverse work together, their shared tasks become the things that bind them. The work at hand, and the collaboration of bringing it to a successful end, creates an improved community and a higher quality work product for our clients. In that sense, diversity dissolves differences. And, in the process, it enriches our lives and opens our minds.

Butler is also committed to charitable giving and aiding others who need our support. This is more than charity, more than philanthropy. It requires some measure of personal sacrifice ? sharing one's time and energy to benefit others ultimately to the benefit of all. That's why we encourage our lawyers and staff to be leaders and volunteers in community projects and professional organizations. We also believe that our participation provides a demonstrable benefit to our clients.

How rare it is, that a person makes a decisive and dramatic personal change; a seemingly instantaneous alteration of his life's direction and avocation. But that's what happened when, in 1979, the former minister of the First United Methodist Church of Phoenix, his wife and two young sons, packed every stick of their possessions and pointed the car to Tampa, Florida. It was there that the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Jurisprudence founded the law firm which today is Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig.

At a glance, it would seem that two careers could scarcely be more opposed than the Church and the Law; the one dealing, as it does, in spiritual comfort; the other in earthly conflict. But yet a closer look reveals how, in the case of Paul Butler and the firm he made, there are deep-seated commonalities. One is service; service to others and service to clients. The welfare and protection of the client's interests are, and always must be, at the root of all we do in providing a professional service. Nothing is too great for the client to ask and nothing is too hard that it cannot be achieved with diligence, devotion and teamwork.

Another fundamental principle linking such disparate worlds is integrity. Paul said: "In our law practice, we will not end with advising our clients what the law allows them to do. We will, in the proper instance, counsel them on what is the right thing to do." For more than thirty-five years, this motif has set Butler apart and garnered both appreciation and respect from clients.

Not surprisingly, as a young lawyer, Paul had been drawn to the problems of the disadvantaged and powerless. And, in the fullness of time, he has returned to that calling, as President and Chairman of "Faces in Need," a charity that operates the Manaleni Achievement Centre in KwaMhlanga, South Africa. This endeavor connects to the very foundation of Butler.

In the meantime, Butler has prospered and grown. Paul's inculcation of the principles: service, teamwork and doing the right thing has stood the firm in good stead with clients and friends from Tampa, to Miami, Tallahassee, Mobile, Charlotte, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas. One opens a door. Many pass through.

Established in 1979, our Tampa office serves as the headquarters for Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP and is located at the corner of North Ashley Drive and Kennedy Boulevard inside the award-winning Rivergate Tower. The distinctive cylindrical shape of the skyscraper was designed to symbolize a lighthouse as a beacon for downtown Tampa. We occupy the 24th, 23rd, 22nd, and 5th floors with our reception located on the 23rd floor. Situated alongside the Hillsborough River, the office resides in the heart of Tampa's River Arts District. This area is a major attraction with numerous museums, restaurants and shops surrounding the downtown district.

Locations	No. of Attorneys
Charlotte, NC	12
Chicago, IL	5
Dallas, TX	8
Miami, FL	11
Mobile, AL	1
Philadelphia, PA	3
Tallahassee, FL	7
Tampa, FL	90

Practice Areas	No. of Attorneys
Insurance Coverage	22
Litigation	42