Farewell

Julie Shanahan, my law partner of thirty years, retired yesterday. She is one of the finest human beings I have known, generous, patient and always thinking of others. One hell of a good lawyer, too. I looked at her empty office before I left last night and, um, got a bit moist-eyed.

Now, plush as Crowe & Shanahan's offices may be, we do not have a private beach. Our other lawyer, Don, is a free spirit. One wall of his office is papered with a scene of coastal Tahiti. It was an appropriate backdrop. Julie owns part of a condo in southwest Florida. She will spend the first quarter of 2016 there. And then what?

She is just 57. Sadly, like a good number of American lawyers, she's had enough. Too many hours, too much pressure, serious enough to demand another way of life. She might become a national park ranger. She might become a judge. Time will tell.

The crew wanted a picture of all of us. Below, from left to right:

Don, our other lawyer who's been with us 27 or 28 years; Cindy, my paralegal for 33 years (the woman is a saint) and Don's wife (when we hired Don she stuck her elbow in my ribs and told me to get him to take her out to dinner); Kaari, Julie's paralegal; Rachel, our receptionist for 20-something years; Julie; Jennifer, Julie's administrative assistant; Dawn, Don's paralegal for half of forever; Jazmyne, my administrative assistant; Kathy, our office Manager; and the old guy in the back. We are losing one of the family.                               

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve at Emily, Brian and Madeleine's home. Her other grandparents and uncle were up from Houston. Uncle Andy and aunt-to-be Claire were down from Chicago. The menu was Polish - my first exposure to pirogies.

A rare appearance by me on the blog (iPhone shot by Andy). Madeleine had lots of entertainment but for some reason every time she was passed to me she started bawling. Never did that before. Mrs. C thinks she has taken a dislike to my glasses.

Yesterday was a bittersweet day at work. Our little firm is moving at the end of the week. We've been in the same building for more than half of my career. I've been in the same room for 12 or 13 years, with its gorgeous views of the Arch, sunsets, fog over the Mississippi and once, even, a tornado. The new place is nice and makes business sense but nothing like the old one. I had to break down my computer and received a final message. My law partner, Julie, says we are starting Act III of our careers but it made me feel melancholy.     

MeTube

So here's why I was in New Orleans last week:

Crass commercialism. Our little boutique law firm advertises on TV. We have to. We represent individual people one at a time, not businesses or government agencies. People need us once and almost never again. When I started doing this it was a genteel little backwater of American legal practice. Now there is cut-throat competition. So we're on TV, something quite common in the US these days.

The agency I use is in New Orleans. They couldn't be more specialized - just law firms in our type of practice, one client per TV market. We only make new ads about every four years. It's quite expensive. The guy I use usually does backgrounds of plain white, plain black or fake office. We pushed him this time into doing green screen. One of my simple pix of the Arch will be in the background. I'll be on the left.

One of the production team took these pictures with my camera during the shoot. I guarantee you this is not my natural skin tone (wee bit of make-up) but studio lights do a great job with color. And yes, we are on YouTube. Here's me with my partner of 28 years, Julie Shanahan, in a video from our web site.

Out on the streets of New Orleans tomorrow.         

Joan's Team

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The woman above who appears to be directing traffic is Cindy. She has been my paralegal for a few weeks shy of 30 years. Yes, I recruit staff from the kindergartens. I put her photo on top because it's eye-catching and illustrates the ease with which she tells me what to do.

Yesterday, I mentioned that one of my co-workers had been through the turmoil of breast cancer and came out well. For the last few years our staff has formed a team to support her and aid the fundraising effort. That's Joan beaming in the top row center of the next picture. To the left in the picture is her sister, Julie, who has been my law partner for 27 years, Jackie, my administrative assistant, Joan's son Jack and her husband Mario (Judge Silva to you these days). To Joan's right are Sarah, Julie's administrative assistant, Don, the other lawyer in the firm and Cindy's husband for about 20 years, and Lynne, a friend. In front, we have Cindy on the left and her and Don's daughter Alayna on the right, with Alayna's friend Emmy in the middle. 

Cindy and Don wish you peace and happiness in the following picture. Don is from Green Bay. He always wears that hat.

We stick up for one another. The core of us have been together for decades and treat one another like family - family we actually like.

However, if you don't care for the Crowe & Shanahan team, you can support Team Hooters, seen in the bottom picture.

And speaking of which, if you don't understand the tee shirts, you were never a lustful American teenager. Let me know and I'll explain.

Video Shoot

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My law firm, Crowe & Shanahan, represents individual people, not businesses or government agencies. There is a lot of competition in our specialty and we have to be aware of marketing our services. We are working on a big upgrade of our web site, which should go up in September. Part of the new site will be video of me and my partner, Julie Shanahan, talking about what we do. The taping took place yesterday. Here, Julie gets ready for an interview with our producer, Laura Bogenschutz of FindLaw.
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