March 8, 2017
When Jason Call and Chip Gentry launched their law firm in Jefferson City, MO, in 2013, they had a vision for a technology-driven practice built on personal relationships. They also had assets that would prove essential to their growth from a regional practice to a national one – notably Gentry’s Piper Archer III.
“What it’s brought to our law firm is we see the world as a smaller place,” said Gentry. “We see solutions that maybe other firms don’t because they’re not as connected or as efficient as we are around the country.”
Call & Gentry Law Group is a litigation firm. Their clients include families who’ve suffered a personal injury, workers underpaid by their employers and other business. Nationally, the group quickly became one of the top firms representing window and door manufacturers in construction liability cases.
Gentry’s Archer III gave the growing firm an edge in building and cultivating those personal relationships.
There are two airline flights per day out of Columbia Regional Airport, which, located 30 miles from Jefferson City, is the closest airfield with commercial service. But Call said flying from Columbia Regional “sometimes is just not convenient. Chip’s ability to fly us anywhere allows us to service our clients in the most efficient manner possible.”
After three years of flying the Archer for business, Gentry realized that he and Call needed an aircraft with more flexibility, so he acquired a 2007 Piper Saratoga II TC equipped with TKS inadvertent-icing protection on the wings, horizontal stabilizer and propeller.
“While other firms are spending time on scheduling, we’re just waiting for the dates to get set while we prepare our strategy,” said Gentry. “If we didn’t have the efficiency of general aviation, we’d be dealing with all those scheduling headaches. It’s been a game changer.”
The fact that Call & Gentry Law Group uses business aviation as its primary means of transportation also reduces costs for the firm’s clients.
“If it’s a job that requires three attorneys to be at one place at one time, Chip, Blake [Markus, an associate with the firm] and I can jump in the plane,” explained Call. “Three lawyers in one general aviation airplane is much more cost-effective than three lawyers buying commercial airline tickets, billing for their time sitting in an airport and making an overnight stay.”