Kim Benjamin built her career on a simple truth: people deserve a fighter when their freedom, future, and dignity are on the line. She became a lawyer because she loved helping people, but quickly discovered as a public defender in Kansas City, Missouri, that the criminal justice system is not fair for everyone—and that innocent people are arrested and imprisoned. From her earliest days in the courtroom, she earned a reputation as a relentless advocate who stands up to the government, exposes injustice, and fights for the accused with skill, passion, and heart.

Over the course of her career, Kim has tried more than 70 jury trials and over 300 bench trials, including serious felony cases involving murder, assault, robbery, rape, child molestation, and child abuse. Her peers widely recognize her as an expert DWI and criminal defense lawyer and a spectacular trial lawyer who consistently obtains extraordinary results for her clients. Her trial skills extend beyond criminal defense; she assisted a civil firm in securing the largest employment discrimination verdict in Cass County on behalf of an unlawfully terminated employee. Kim continues to help other law firms take difficult cases to trial because she thrives when standing up to powerful institutions—whether government or corporate.

Driven by her desire to help more people, Kim founded Benjamin Law Firm – DWI & Criminal Defense Lawyers, assembling a team of attorneys and legal assistants dedicated to excellence in criminal and DWI defense. Her firm is the only one in Kansas City where every lawyer is trained in the Trial Lawyers College (TLC) methods, founded by legendary trial lawyer Gerry Spence. Kim attended TLC in 2000 and joined its faculty in 2008, where she continues to teach lawyers nationwide how to win civil and criminal trials. Under her leadership as Founder and CEO, the firm has grown into one of the region’s most respected defense practices—recognized by Expertise.com as one of the top 30 criminal defense law firms out of 355 in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Kim is honored to have been voted by the public as the Best DWI Lawyer in Kansas City in Kansas City Magazine’s Best of KC series for consecutive years. She has also been repeatedly named a SuperLawyer, and her trial work has earned prestigious awards including MACDL’s Atticus Finch Award and Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s Women’s Justice Award for Litigation.

A nationally respected educator, Kim is a sought-after speaker at legal seminars across the country. She serves on the faculty of the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD), where she is a Lifetime Member, a Board Member from 2022–2026, and a long-standing faculty member of the NCDD Serious Science program in Arlington, Texas, teaching there every year for the past several years. She also chairs Missouri’s premier DWI training event—the Bernard Edelman DWI Law & Science Seminar, sponsored by the Missouri Bar and MACDL.

Kim has delivered more than 75 presentations throughout her career, teaching lawyers through the Missouri Bar, MACDL, KCMBA, UMKC Law School, NCDD, the Missouri State Public Defender System, TLC, and criminal defense organizations nationwide.

Kim’s commitment to justice extends beyond the courtroom. She has served in significant leadership roles, including an appointment by the Missouri Governor to the Missouri Ethics Commission and her current service on the Missouri Supreme Court’s Task Force on Criminal Justice. She is an active member of numerous legal organizations, including MACDL (Past President and Board Member), the Association of Women Lawyers, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, and Cass County Bar Association.

Kim earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Missouri–Columbia, where she was deeply involved in campus leadership and her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. She received her Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School, serving as Notes Editor for the Intellectual Property Law Journal and working at the Pentagon—following in the footsteps of her father, a career Air Force officer. As an Air Force brat, Kim lived in California, Alaska, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., before her family settled in Harrisonville, Missouri, where she graduated high school as Student Council President and leader of multiple organizations.

Today, Kim continues her mission: defending the accused, teaching the next generation of trial lawyers, and leading a law firm built on compassion, courage, and an unwavering belief in justice.

Bar Admissions

• Missouri, 1996

Education

George Washington University Law School, Washington, District of Columbia

• Juris Doctor – 1996
• Honors: Intellectual Property Law Journal – Notes Editor

University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

• Political Science & Honors Interdisciplinary Studies (Speech Communication & Psychology) – 1993

Classes/Seminars

• Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, 2009 – Present
• Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, various programs including DWI defense, 2006 – Present
• Trial College for Public Defenders, Missouri Public Defender System, 2008 – Present
• How to Series: Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, Missouri Bar, 2010
• How to Series: Traffic & DWI, Missouri Bar, 2009
• How to Series: Traffic & DWI, Missouri Bar, 2010
• Solo & Small Firm Conference, Missouri Bar, 2007 – Present
• Trial Skills, Solo & Small Firm Conference, Missouri Bar, 2007
• How to Series: Trial Techniques, Missouri Bar, 2008

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, Staff Member/ Graduate/ F Warrior Board member, 2000 – Present
• Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Board Member & CLE Chair, 2006 – Present
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, Member, 2002 – Present
• Cass County Bar Association, 2002 – Present
• Harrisonville Business Women, Secretary, 2008 – Present