After ten years at 301 West Pacific in Branson, Styron & Shilling has relocated its Branson office to a lovely old building at 302 East Church Street, in Ozark, Missouri, a half block east of the northeast corner of the Christian County courthouse square.
With this move, Styron & Shilling’s Branson and Ozark offices are consolidated to a new location that fits the nature of our firm’s evolving practice and the technologies we use.
While Branson has been a terrific place to practice real estate and business law, our clientele is spread over several counties, including Greene, Barry, Lawrence, Stone, Douglas and Christian, with occasional forays into several other counties in Missouri. Our travel time to the courthouses of all these counties–other than Taney County’s–is reduced. For many of our clients, their travel time to our office is also reduced.
The changing technology of our law practice gives us the ability to work from anywhere there’s an internet connection. For example, having internet access to real estate records allows us to retrieve and review deeds and plats while we’re on the phone with prospective clients, saving everyone time and money. Taney County Recorder Bob Dixon and Stone County Recorder Amy Larson (and her predecessor) have done a great job of digitizing the real estate records in their offices. The recorders’ offices of the other Southwest Missouri counties are not so user-friendly, at least online, though most of them are making progress.
In addition, county assessors are improving online access to their records, which is important in 2011, which is a reassessment year, so that we’ll be able to more easily gather information about challenges to valuation increases after new valuations are sent out in May. The website of the Douglas County Assessor, which is managed by VillaGIS, a company based in Hollister, Missouri, is one of the best I’ve seen.
Technology also allows me to work from my Branson home. Our internet phone system, provided by Rystec, a competitive local exchange carrier based in Branson, has reduced our telephone costs by about 40% and enables us to retain our Branson telephone number. At the same time, my assistant can transfer calls to me as though I were in the next office, regardless of my location. In addition, I can log on to our firm’s computer server from anywhere I have an internet connection.
I’m looking forward to meeting new people, and I’ll still be around Branson at least a couple of days a week. Let’s have lunch, in Branson or in Ozark.
Ozarks Law & Economy 