Paul Graham is a skilled litigator with a diverse, well-rounded background and over 30 years of legal experience.
Paul Graham is a skilled litigator with a diverse, well-rounded background and over 30 years of legal experience. His principal areas of practice include family law, personal injury, business litigation and disability law with an emphasis on Social Security benefits and disability insurance benefits for the disabled. He has been practicing before the Social Security Administration for over 30 years and represents clients at all stages in the process of winning disability benefits: at the initial application level; in hearings before Administrative Law Judges; before the Appeals Council; and in the United States Federal Courts.
In over thirty years of practice, Paul has tried hundreds of cases. He has tried numerous jury trials in state and federal courts in the areas of personal injury, products liability, criminal law, medical malpractice and construction law. He is well-versed in Missouri’s complicated mechanic’s lien laws; regularly represents landowners and construction professionals in their various disputes; frequently lectures on the relevant laws; and occasionally assists those in the Missouri General Assembly who write those laws. He has, additionally, tried hundreds of divorce, modification and other family law cases, and hundreds more cases before the Social Security Administration, representing the disabled.
Family Law Paul is a constant advocate for the rights of the mentally afflicted, serving on the Missouri Eating Disorders Council and occasionally testifying before the Missouri General Assembly concerning pending legislation.
Paul earned a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Education from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, in 1970, and a Master's Degree in English Literature from the same university in 1971. After preliminary studies at Oxford University, Oxford, England, in 1972, and the University of Kansas in 1973, Paul earned a Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1979, where he taught various literature and writing composition courses from 1973-1979. He later earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1982, where he was also a lecturer and instructor in legal writing and appellate advocacy. Following graduation from law school and prior to joining a well-known Jefferson City law firm where he practiced for 21 years, Paul clerked for the Honorable J.P. Morgan, the Honorable Warren Welliver, and the Honorable George Gunn, all judges of the Missouri Supreme Court.
