Phillippy Joins Younger Law Firm

by Krista Norton | May 2, 2024

“When you’re looking for a firm, a lot of people are inclined to go to the big flashy advertising firms, but with any ultimately service-oriented profession, it’s nice to have someone you can see if you need to,” said Christopher.

Christopher Phillippy, son of retired USD 494 teachers George and Marilyn Phillippy has joined Younger Law Firm in Garden City. The Garden City Chamber of Commerce helped them celebrate with a ribbon cutting on April 19. 
Christopher is a 2002 SHS graduate, attended Wichita State University after high school, graduating with a degree in philosophy with a minor in political science. 
In the fall of 2012, he enrolled in Washburn University’s School of Law, Topeka, “Law school stemmed semi naturally from my philosophy degree interests, sort of a jump from philosophy to public policy, public policy is implemented by law,” said Christopher. 
After earning his Juris Doctor degree, he took the bar exam in Colorado in hopes of calling Colorado his home. “After passing the bar, I spent some time in Colorado trying to find something but as is the case in so many fields, if I had already been doing it for three to five years that would not have been a problem, but no one was interested in an out of state newcomer,” said Christopher. 
Returning to southwest Kansas, he began working in Hugoton with a law school classmate, Coleman Younger. “We practiced together for several months, then he left for a job in another part of the state.”
“Shortly thereafter, the gentleman who owned the firm retired so I went to work for the Seward County Attorney’s office and have been there for the past five and a half years prosecuting,” he explained, “But I wanted to get back into private practice.” 
Younger, who he had worked with initially, had returned to southwest Kansas and opened his own firm in Garden City and was looking for some help. 
“We kept in touch reasonably well, particularly when he returned to Southwest Kansas a few years ago,” said Christopher, so he went to see him, “It was serendipitous timing,” said Christopher.  
Their firm offers wills, trusts, estate planning, transactional work, and other areas of law but specializes in providing immigration services. “Immigration is not an easy process by any means, but there is not a lot of people locally doing it and we feel there is a need,” said Christopher, “At the moment, we are not saying no to anything.”  
An advantage, Christopher feels, is their staff is Spanish speaking. “I took German in college, and truthfully don’t remember that much of it because I have not had occasion to use it,” he joked, “It would have been useful and now I have to play catch up!” 
“When you’re looking for a firm, a lot of people are inclined to go to the big flashy advertising firms, but with any ultimately service-oriented profession, it’s nice to have someone you can see if you need to,” said Christopher. 
“There’s a lot to be said for smaller firms with attorneys who are genuinely assessable, larger firms when you call you may spend more time speaking to the paralegal,” he explained.
“We don’t have forty paralegals on staff, if you call there’s a really good chance, you’ll actually get to talk to one of us,” said Christopher. 
He is thankful for his beginning in southwest Kansas, “My five years with Seward County were invaluable, it gave me tons of litigation practice, done in a small setting so if I needed help or needed to go to the boss, he was accessible, not like a massive firm, where you are stuck for years doing document reviews, not gaining a lot of real practical lawyering experience.”  
Coming from a small community, he feels it teaches you the importance of a community and those small-town ties and connections you make. 
“Southwest Kansas was an enormous leg up, I was able to and effectively had to jump right in and learn how to do practical attorney things, because I’m not in a firm with scores of attorneys who are each hyper focused into one little area,” said Christopher.    
While he is busy settling into his home, he did purchase a membership to Makerspace, a membership-based workshop that provides tools, workspace, trainings, and classes for its members and looks forward to taking up woodworking. For now, some of his free time is spent on some light renovation of his home. 
Younger Law Firm is in the downtown area at 107 Grant Avenue, “One hundred feet off Main Street,” said Christopher. Their phone number is 620-315-4642.