I have met and served some amazing people in the thirty-three years in which I have practiced law. My job representing civil rights clients brings me immense joy, not in small part because of the kind, talented, intelligent people with whom I am blessed to work.
1. My law partner Marie Gockel - I am fortunate that among the first people I called when I decided to start my firm was my law school chum Marie. I remember her exact words, "Can I come, too." And, a law firm was born. Marie is the hardest working, most tenacious, most intelligent lawyer I know. She never gives up. I kid her that she is the bull dog of the law profession. Perseverance is one of the most important traits of a lawyer. Plus, she and I work well together, brain-storming, with our strengths complimenting each other. For 22 years she has been great. And Marie is a great friend.
2. Our amazing staff - Ann Gloor leads our amazing staff. I have worked with her for 30 years, since both of our eldest girls were infants. She is wicked smart, hard working and kind, plus she reads my mind. Nancy Breuning has been with us for 15 years. She is diligent, a perfectionist when need be, and amazingly smart. Both Ann and Nancy are two of the kindest people I know. Within the last 5 years we hired paralegal Mike Bell. Mike has worked many years as a paralegal and is not afraid to dig into files to assess what went wrong. He, too, is extremely intelligent and hard-working. All three of the staff have been recently been blessed with grandchildren and we see videos of first steps, first words, and wide toothless smiles. What a joy.
People in our office either bring their lunches or go downstairs to the food court to buy food and bring it up. We typically sit around our old conference table, often for a little more than the "allotted" hour, looking out over the Power & Light district while chattering on about grandbabies, movies, books, our lives, or my stupid jokes to which they graciously smile. We talk about cases and what we need to do, but most of the time we just shoot the bull. We have a great team. We never give performance evaluations, because oftentimes employers feel they need to mark employees down and criticize. Our employees are so great, performance evaluations seem counter-productive. I hope everyone realize how much I appreciate tand care about them. I know I am prejudiced, but I think our law office is a wonderful place to work.
