For years, attorney Mark Kinsman would drive nearly 10 miles from his office in Hixson to downtown Chattanooga if he wanted to eat lunch with a colleague from another law firm – which is to say he rarely ate lunch with colleagues from other firms.
But now that the firm of which he is a member, Rainey, Kizer, Reviere & Bell, has moved to the Republic Centre on Chestnut Street, all Kinsman has to do is take a short stroll to the nearest downtown Chattanooga eatery.
It might be a simple pleasure, but Kinsman and the other lawyers at the firm are enjoying being in close vicinity to their fellow jurists.
“My former firm, Baker, Kinsman, Hollis & Clelland, had purchased our building in Hixson, and when we joined Rainey Kizer in 2018, we continued to practice there,” Kinsman recounts. “At that point, we began to think about moving downtown and becoming a part of the legal community in Chattanooga.
“Nothing against Hixson – it’s a wonderful place – but it’s not where most of the lawyers are.”
Four other attorneys migrated downtown with Kinsman, including Christie Kizer Burbank (whose father, Jerry Kizer, Jr., is a founding member of the firm), Stephany Skaggs Pedigo, Jonathan Stewart and Patrick Wright, as did a handful of staff.
Although Kinsman and the others have been in the Republic Centre for a only short time (some artwork remains unhung and Burbank’s credentials are leaned in frames against a wall in her office), everyone feels comfortable.
“This space is amazing,” Burbank says. “I already feel at home.”
Kinsman and Burbank are seated at a table in the larger of the firm’s two conference rooms. Behind them, a wall of windows offers a panorama of their immediate surroundings. In the distance, church bells ring, announcing the passing of another hour.
While everyone at Rainey Kizer is thrilled with the new office, they didn’t move downtown to enjoy the food or scenery. They came to practice law in a more active environment.
In that respect, it’s business as usual at the firm.
Rainey Kizer’s Chattanooga branch is one of five offices the firm operates in Tennessee. Statewide, the practice consists of close to 50 attorneys and encompasses every major practice area, making it a full-service operation.
In addition to the local office, Rainey Kizer has branches in Memphis, Nashville and Jackson. What’s more, its attorneys are licensed in states throughout the South.
Locally, while each attorney has developed his or her individual practice, the group’s collective knowledge and experience allows the office to provide a variety of legal representation and transactional services.
Kinsman has practiced civil litigation since 1978, devoting most of his work to handling cases involving insurance fraud, arson, insurance coverage litigation, personal injury, construction litigation, real estate professional liability, employment law and other insurance-related matters.
Burbank has represented health care providers in all aspects of health law for over 20 years. She began her association with Rainey Kizer in 2018 after practicing at Miller & Martin for 18 years.
Burbank has been distinguished as a Tennessee Bar Foundation Fellow, has been named Best Lawyers’ Lawyer of the Year in health care law in Chattanooga for multiple years and has served on the executive council of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Health Law Section for many years.
She is also involved with her local health care community in a volunteer capacity, with particular emphasis on health initiatives and children’s well-being.
Pedigo left a solo practice in 2015 to enlist with Baker Kinsman, where she concentrated on insurance defense, wills and estates and conservatorship law.
Like Kinsman, she moved to Rainey Kizer when Baker Kinsman joined the Tennessee firm.
Pedigo became a member of Rainey Kizer at the beginning of 2021 and continues to focus on the same practice areas today.
Stewart began practicing at the Jackson branch of Rainey Kizer after graduating from law school in 2003. When he transferred to Chattanooga earlier this year, he brought his family as well as his insurance coverage litigation practice with him.
Stewart also does work in the areas of insurance defense, arson and fraud defense.
He says he gravitated to insurance coverage after spending a year placing every task he performed in one of two columns: “I love it when” and “I hate it when.”
“About six years into practice, I decided to find what I really loved,” he explains. “Over the course of the next year, any time I found myself losing track of time because I was enjoying what I was doing, I wrote that in the ‘I love it when’ column.
“Conversely, when I found myself struggling to complete a task because I didn’t enjoy it, I wrote that in the ‘I hate it when’ column.
“At the end of the year, a few things stood out, including research, writing and complex problems. Those things met in insurance coverage work. From that point, I moved my practice in that direction.”
Wright is handling mostly automobile cases, but as an associate, he says he’s also exploring new areas of the law on a weekly basis.
“I’m trying to be a sponge and soak up as much as possible,” he says. “My goal for now is to not pigeonhole myself into any one thing while providing thoughtful and skilled representation to every client I assist.”
If things go as planned at Rainey Kizer, Wright won’t be the only associate for long. Not only is the firm going to host two summer associates in 2021, it’s hoping to expand its roster of attorneys before the end of the year.
Burbank says the new office, which has ample unclaimed space, will allow them to expand.
Tom Rainey and Jerry Kizer, Jr., formed Rainey Kizer in 1975 in Jackson. According to the firm’s website, it’s grown significantly over the years and strives to provide legal services “of the highest caliber” in a broad range of industries and practice areas.
Kinsman says he’s pleased Baker Kinsman joined the firm. “It’s a wonderful group of professionals. Everyone I’ve met is very bright.”
Not only that, but the larger firm put its stamp of approval on the local attorneys’ move to the Republic Centre and, by way of that, Kinsman’s short strolls to lunch with his fellow jurists.