Impeccable timing: Law firm poised to face the challenge
By a stroke of fate, the Kramer, Hand, Buchholz and Partney law firm – with offices in Hillsboro, Arnold and Ste. Genevieve – was positioned to survive COVID-19, if not come out better.
“We had been expanding the firm for a while, adding four new attorneys in the last three years,” partner Juli Hand said. “Well before the catastrophe hit, we decided that we needed to be more diversified.
“We started getting into Social Security law, personal injury cases and expanded our expertise in bankruptcy law,” she said. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve dedicated ourselves to senior law.”
That diversification came in handy when shutdown orders went into effect in the spring.
“Our expansion efforts, by luck, made us more prepared to deal with it than we would have been 10 years ago,” partner Sarah Burton Partney said.
Hand said the firm’s recent decision to offer flat-fee mediation services also has been a good addition.
“We tell our clients that divorces can be expensive, but if you can work your differences out, you don’t need to take months to go through the court system, spend all that money and put you and your children through all that emotion.”
The firm experienced some anxious times, of course, in March and April.
But Hand said the staff adapted adeptly.
“Some of us worked from home, some came into the office. We all took phone calls, and by mid- to late-April, we were getting better at Zoom (video conferencing),” she said.
“I was thinking, ‘Who would hire an attorney sight unseen, by just a phone call or a Zoom call?’ But they did.”
Mediation also can be handled via Zoom, Hand said.
For those who want the personal touch, Partney said the firm’s three offices are all open.
“We’re sanitizing the office regularly, and making sure that proper distancing is maintained,” she said. “We want people to feel safe.”
