Welcome to our website! Through these words and pictures, we hope you come away with a useful and real connection with Graydon Head. For our clients and friends who know us well, you'll see perhaps familiar expressions of things we value about our often long-standing relationships as attorneys and clients. For visitors and newcomers, this is an introduction to learn more about Graydon Head.

One of the unique features of our website includes Stories or vignettes about each of our lawyers that go beyond the usual "resume." We felt this would give more insight into our professionals, who we are, and what we value. We understand that our client relationship include and extend beyond technical answers; our clients are often friends, colleagues, and community partners and have many other shared paths. Providing the stories on our website fits with that broader philosophy of client service.

The pictures and stories in this website convey some of the individuality of background and personality that our Firm has always valued. As a common denominator, most of us seem attracted to a midwestern practicality, diligent work, a sincerity of purpose and a good laugh (e.g., our recently organized broom ball team). Partner doors are open to associates. Good ideas roam freely; the ones that should be, tend to get implemented, such as a recent "green" initiative for certain office supplies.

Whether in Community Volunteerism or in the areas of law to which they dedicate careers, Graydon Head has encouraged its people to get involved in what interests them. Graydon Head is organized around industry groups, not law school topics. Our clients want us to really know their business, their industry, their "world." They've asked us to spend some time in a hospital human resources department, a steel plant, a newspaper newsroom, an office-tower construction site, a banking center, a family home with generations planning for the future. In photographs and words, our new website is designed to convey this industry group (or as we say "IG") centering of our client service.

The process of working with a team here to assemble an electronic "portrait" of Graydon Head has been a rewarding one. It has reaffirmed the many reasons why this Firm is such a unique place. As a start, I'd say the "About Us" of Graydon Head is about our interdependence--with the people of our Firm, our clients and our communities.

Our near communities surround our three offices: a downtown Cincinnati office overlooking the city's "living room," Fountain Square, a Northern Kentucky office at the Chamber Center, and a Butler/Warren office at University Pointe in West Chester. This year we are proud to have completed renovations of each office to meet expanding needs. Together, our three offices place Graydon Head in our region's long-term, north/south growth corridor. One of the defining qualities "About Us" is the way that each office keeps its indigenous character and strengths while being part of the whole. I can travel from my Fountain Square office to our Northern Kentucky office for southern hospitality or north to West Chester to see a new world-class hospital open its doors across the street.

Our communities also include over 200 non-profit and charitable organizations with which many at Graydon Head--from our staff to our lawyers--are directly or indirectly involved. These involvements often are in "partnership" with our clients. An uncommonly high number of Graydon Head lawyers have gone into distinguished careers as public servants, judges, legislators and executive leaders. At a roll-up-the-sleeves level, we've learned that lifting a two-by-four together on a Habitat-for-Humanity build or mentoring students in an Over-the-Rhine school carries over into taking a case to trial, or closing a complex deal. Community work not only builds a house, it builds a team. And we think our clients are better off with a team that knows how to work together.

In 1871, the year our Firm opened its doors, the world could scarcely imagine the digital world of this electronic site. While much has changed about the ways and means of lawyering, certain fundamentals about how the Firm serves clients have stood the test of the more than 138 years of the Firm's history. Our clients continue to expect: trustworthiness; expertise and experience; consistency of quality; consistency of service; reasonableness of fees for service.

All of us at Graydon Head are thankful for the interdependence with clients, community and each other that defines our Firm and is "about us." On the Firm's behalf, I look forward to hearing from you about any aspect of Graydon Head's service including this website.

Sincerely,  

Bruce I. Petrie, Jr.
Partner in Charge of External Affairs