Firm Overview

A Distinctive Approach to the Practice of Law

The Copeland Law Firm provides principled, ethical representation to people who need help with accident claims, criminal defense, or family law. We are a result oriented law firm. To learn how you can benefit from our 25 years of experience and our commitment to helping people in every way possible, contact us in Columbia.

A Message From Founding Attorney L. G. Copeland

I know most people have preconceived ideas about attorneys. So, when people come to my office, I try to spend some time explaining what the attorney-client relationship should be…that the attorney should work to try to meet the client's goals and not the other way around.

While I provide legal counsel and advice, it is my client who always makes the final decision about how we should approach a case. You see, it's my client's life, and I am simply trying to help them put that life back together. In other words, I try to explain to people the kinds of things that no lawyer ever explained to me when I was the client.

I am sure I am not like most lawyers. For starters, I was never "pre-law." I actually studied science in college, and never considered going into law. After college, I built and operated my own business. It was successful, and as a young man, I had over 30 employees. This is when I became a client.

As a client, I was not very pleased with the legal representation I was receiving. That's when I decided to sell my business and go to law school at the University of Missouri at Columbia School of Law. At the time, about all I knew about law school was where the front door was.

I was a client for seven years before going to law school. This background has helped me see things from a client's perspective. I have always believed that laws are created for everyone and that people who need guidance deserve a hard-working, ethical, and principled attorney.

With those values in mind, my practice concentrates on helping people obtain justice for serious injuries sustained in a wide variety of accidents, including those involving railroad crossing accidents, truck accidents, car accidents or wrongful death. I have always been results oriented and I have helped people in some of the most serious cases in the whole United States involving train accidents, brain injury, and other serious injury cases.

Focus, Preparation and Hard Work Make the Winning Difference

While in college, I was on the wrestling team for the University of Missouri. Interestingly, the sport taught me about a lot of things beyond the sport of wrestling. I knew that it was not necessarily the biggest or the strongest man who won the match. That's not what the sport is about. And that is not what the practice of law is about, either. I believe it is about a mind set, it is about focus, and it is about preparation - just like the sport of wrestling. You just can’t cut corners if you want to do a good job. I believe that if an attorney has a problem with working long hours or if they want to play a lot of golf, they are in the wrong line of work. So, the “big secret” to our success is, simply, hard work.

Over the past 25 years, The Copeland Law Firm has continued to grow and work hard for individuals and families with these basic philosophies in place — to provide strength and guidance to deserving people.

At The Copeland Law Firm, we do not advertise or promote ourselves on television. Of course, TV ads do bring in a huge number of cases to a firm, but we know that to go down that road would be inconsistent with our pledge to devote the necessary individual attention to each of our clients. So, while we respect others’ right to do so, we respectfully decline. So, you won’t be seeing us on TV and we just want you to know why.