Attorney Kirk Stange has risen from lower middle class beginnings in Fenton, Missouri to become the founding partner of a family law firm with a reach that extends beyond the state of Missouri. Founded in St. Louis County cin 2007, Stange Law Firm has since spread its reach to states such as Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Indiana, and Iowa.
Driven by his varied experiences and the work ethic he learned while growing up in St. Louis County, Stange continues to work toward the Stange Law Firm’s mission to meet his clients’ needs in family and divorce law. Kirk Stange’s earliest lessons that would lay the foundation for his future plans came from his upbringing in Fenton, Missouri where he learned the importance of hard work and never taking anything for granted. These tenets helped guide Stange through the challenges of establishing and expanding a successful law firm.
Stange’s only prior experience in management came while working as a supervisor at Six Flags St. Louis, where he helped supervise ride operations and managed teams of employees at the park throughout college. Stange credits this job with teaching him the importance of maintaining quality across an entire sector, regularly visiting his offices by making rounds, through effective communication, and proactive management with employees of different makeups.
Stange would stick closely to his roots when founding the Stange Law Firm in Clayton. In St. Louis County and the surrounding counties, the firm built its reputation on services such as representation of men and women seeking marriage dissolution, child custody, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, adoption, paternity and related matters. However, in addition to St. Louis, Stange Law Firm now also does an almost equal footprint in Kansas City, where they have three full-time offices and a significant client base.
Stange also managed to grow the firm by learning to apply the most up-to-date marketing strategies, including online marketing, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising. Stange’s emphasis on vast online content and a significant social media presence, coupled with strategic search engine optimization knowledge, has ensured the firm’s ranking on search engines, attracting new clientele and growth. The online-first approach, with 24/7 client accessibility, versus other traditional means such as the phone book and word of mouth, illustrates Stange’s progressive thinking on how to grow a law firm. Through his understanding of online marketing, Stange has not only grown his firm, but also set a new standard for legal marketing.
While the Stange Law Firm was growing, Stange was also pursuing additional personal and professional endeavors. In addition to his work with the firm, Stange has served as an author in the legal field, writing several chapters in legal treatises and publications including Strategies for Family Law in Illinois and Strategies for Military Family Law, both part of the Aspatore Law Books series. Stange is also the sole author of the book Prenuptial Agreements Line by Line, which was published in 2014. Kirk Stange also hosts a podcast known as Family Law Talk that has garnered thousands of listens.
Kirk Stange’s work both with the Stange Law Firm and as an author and speaker has led to recognition from several legal organizations. He has been on the POWER List by Missouri Lawyers Weekly for Family Law since 2020. Super Lawyers Magazine has named him to its Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers for Family Law list since 2015. He has also been a regular speaker on legal topics for the Missouri Bar, the National Business Institute, and other organizations.
Presently, Stange Law Firm is the second-largest family law firm in the country, but it is still growing. Stange Law Firm recently opened in Des Moines, Iowa. With plans to expand into Fort Wayne, Indiana in mid-March of 2024, Stange Law Firm is ready to do what the firm has done for each of the 26 offices it has established in 7 states: build a legal practice from the ground up.
Despite the multi-state scope of his law firm, Kirk Stange will continue to stay connected to his time-tested roots in St. Louis County by keeping the firm’s headquarters in St. Louis County, Missouri, where he learned the valuable lessons that still shape him today.
