Norman Craig Napier

The Benjamin Law Firm, LLC - DWI & Criminal Defense Lawyers has been voted the #1 DWI Law Firm in Kansas City for consecutive years. Ranked in the top 30 criminal defense law firms by . Craig has tried over 60 felony cases to juries, and in 2023 he earned the Charles Shaw Trial Advocacy Award from the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Including trials to juries and judges, Craig has tried over 200 cases throughout his career.

Craig has always enjoyed challenging authority. Unfortunately for his early teachers, it was hard to keep Craig busy with standard work, and he was a challenging student early in life. Good teachers challenged him; not-so-good teachers tried to exercise their authority over him, and even in grade school Craig spoke up. In middle school, Craig found punk rock music and books that challenged the status quo, and his healthy distrust of governmental power was born. Craig has been licensed for more than 20 years, focusing almost exclusively on criminal law for the past 15 years. He brings a wide range of experience to his creative litigation practice and negotiations with prosecutors.

At 18, clearly knowing everything, Craig struck out on his own, attending college when he could, working a variety of jobs that spanned from meat departments at a local grocery store to factory work; Craig spent most of his twenties vacillating between several of his passions. Craig was passionate about creative writing for newspapers, playing music, and earning a college degree. He crammed many years’ worth of experience into the 10 years between high school and Law School, and this makes him a keen observer of people and their motivations. This experience has helped him earn the respect of juries across the state in approximately 60 felony jury trials, as a plain-spoken advocate who uses storytelling to present his client’s story of innocence in an award-winning way. In 2023 Craig won the Charles M. Shaw Award for Trial Excellence from the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Craig returned to the Benjamin Law Firm from his job running the District 28 Trial Office of the Missouri State Public Defender in 2025 because, in many ways, BLF is like home. Craig is a public defender at heart, but after nearly half his career with the public defender he realized that the volume of cases and lack of time to truly devote to clients who have been dealt some of the worst hands in life was just not a healthy place for his psyche or the obligations of family life. When he decided to return to the private sector, it was only four days between that decision and the offer to come back to the firm. The Benjamin Law Firm gives Craig the ability to practice law in a way that he has proven to be effective in his 20-year career – compassionate, aggressive, and intelligent. Craig believes that if the State of Missouri wants to use the power we, the people, provide them to take away a client’s freedom or money, then it damn well better be prepared to prove everything the law requires beyond a reasonable doubt. And if they can’t, Craig has zero fear in expressing that to prosecutors, judges, and juries as he represents his clients. This firm is not only home for Craig because of it’s philosophy but he has watched over the years as every person who works here, from the owner to the person answering our phones, understands the fear and anxiety involved when a person or their family is charged with a crime. He prides himself on being with a firm that keeps its clients’ interests and well-being paramount in everything it does.

After graduating from Wright State University with a degree in Communications Studies, Craig worked as a courts and county government reporter in the mid-90s at one of the last small-town daily newspapers — the Pulitzer Prize-winning Xenia Daily Gazette. He spent many days in court covering trials of various crimes of note to the community and became a Court Appointed Special Advocate for the Juvenile Court in Xenia. This rekindled his long-held desire to go to law school and become a lawyer. He returned to his hometown and completed UMKC School of Law in 2003.

Craig was admitted to the bar in 2004 and has spent his professional life pursuing top-notch experience and training. He has taken most of the advanced trial training available to Missouri attorneys. He has taught trial skills to public defenders from across the state and, in 2015, graduated from the National Criminal Defense College’s Trial Practice Institute. In 2021, he graduated from the Trial Lawyers College 3-week program in Estes Park, Colorado, and in 2022, he graduated from the National College of DUI Defense’s Serious Science for Serious Lawyers, an advanced course in blood alcohol analysis and trial advocacy. He has also pursued DWI training and has completed both NHTSA classes for DWI detection and advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement courses normally taught to law enforcement officers. Craig is a current board member of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Craig has called Kansas City, home for all but eight years of his life. He currently resides in Waldo with his partner Jen, kids Aidan and Ayla, and rescue dogs Terra and George Harrison. He enjoys strumming his guitar, binge-watching TV shows with Jen, and coaxing decent barbecue out of his old, inexpensive smoker.