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Published: April 18, 2009 10:25 pm
Nearly 1 in 5 Vigo lawyers have a lawyer relative
By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
When it comes to generations following generations, Vigo County has a deep-rooted legacy of law.
The names can be seen throughout Terre Haute, either on outside walls of law firms or in court hearings. Names such as Effner, Lewis, Wright, Shagley and McGlone. All are lawyers who followed in the footsteps of their father or who have children who followed in theirs.
“His mother and I both encouraged him to consider being a lawyer as one of his life options. I always wanted to be a lawyer and I enjoy the practice of law,” Rick Shagley, a partner at the Wright, Shagley & Lowery law firm, said of his son, Richard.
“He came to the office from time to time as he was growing up, got a chance to experience what the practice of law was like, and I think he enjoyed the experience,” said Shagley, a 1968 graduate of Indiana State University and a 1971 graduate of Indiana University School of Law.
Nearly one in five lawyers in Vigo County either followed their father or have offspring who followed them as legal practitioners. There are 166 attorneys in the county as of March 13, according to the Indiana Clerk of the Supreme Court, which tracks attorneys with a business address.
Richard Shagley joined his father’s law firm after graduating from Valpariso University School of Law in 2000. “I always grew up wanting to be an attorney and work for my dad. As it turns out, a third factor, probably more important than the first two, is to enjoy it, which I have done. I have been here nine years, and haven’t had to go to work yet. I love what I do. It’s not work if you love it,” Richard Shagley said.
“The impression I got was my father helped a lot of people through various things. Any time you can help people is fabulous, whether in a tight spot or what. In the law business, there is such a variety of things you can do for people,” Richard Shagley said.
Robert O. Effner graduated from law school in 1975 from Indiana University-Indianapolis. His son, Matthew R. Effner, joined him as a law partner after graduating from the same law school in 1995.
“I think he went into it with his eyes open. I didn’t dissuade him nor encourage him, but I think it is something he always wanted to do,” Robert Effner said of his son. “From my perspective, it is very advantageous, and personally, I see no disadvantages at this point in time. I get to see my son every day. Matt is an excellent and well-respected attorney. He is conscientious and capable. We have an environment of total trust, both in terms of office management as well as his work product.”
Matthew Effner works as a public defender in both Vigo and Clay counties. It’s a profession he said he’s wanted to do since a young age. And now, working with his father is simply a bonus.
“I think it has given me an awful lot of opportunity. It is amazing to me how much he knows without having to look it up, and he is right. It is great for me to bounce off some ideas or possible arguments, and he always has some good advice for me,” Matthew Effner said of his dad.
“I think our relationship has always been a good one, but I think it really changed after I came back and we started working together,” he said. “Not that he ever didn’t listen to me before, but I was impressed because he really listened to my ideas as well. I suppose it is a unique relationship being a father and son, as well as law partners.
“I don’t think you ever really set aside that fact that you are father and son, but when we are at work, we work. Surprisingly, I don’t see him too much during the day. We’ve got our clients and own things we are doing,” Matthew Effner said.
Legacy of law
Terre Haute has a long list of established lawyers, many of whom followed their fathers into the practice of law, such as Guille Cox, Fred Bauer and his deceased brother, Lenhardt, Pat Duffy, Dave Sullivan, Keith Johnson, and former Judge R. Jerome Kearns and brother Michael, a former county prosecutor. Their father, Raymond, had also been a county prosecutor. Another is Bruce Aukerman, whose father, Malcolm, is a lawyer in Newport.
U.S. Sen. B. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., born in Vigo County and attended grade school in Terre Haute, followed his father, Birch E. Bayh, as a lawyer. The elder Bayh, born in Vigo County, had practiced law in Terre Haute before he was elected a U.S. senator in 1962. Also, Hal Johnston, a Terre Haute resident and current Knox County chief deputy prosecutor, followed his father, H. Ralph Johnston, as a lawyer. Ralph Johnston was a former Vigo County judge.
Many others have sons or daughters following their path as lawyers, such as Gus Sacopulos, with sons Peter and Mike. His daughter-in-law, Melony, is also a lawyer. Other lawyer bloodlines include Ray Modesitt with daughters Carol and Katherine, lawyers in Indianapolis; Curtis Wilkinson with son John, a Terre Haute lawyer; William Drummy with son Brian, a lawyer in Bloomington; and Tom Newlin with son Thomas “T.C.,” a lawyer in Chicago.
Two of four children of Attorney Eric Abel are lawyers, with daughter Jenna a lawyer in South Carolina, where she does work for a Terre Haute law firm, and Joshua, lawyer and executive director of the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic in Indianapolis. Abel said he also encouraged his son-in-law, John A. Gurchiek, to enter the legal profession. He is now a lawyer in Indianapolis.
John Kessler and his son, John Kessler Jr., both are Terre Haute lawyers, and Kessler Jr.’s son, John “Trey” III, is a lawyer in Seattle. “It makes me very pleased to see them follow along in my footsteps,” the eldest Kessler said. “I have two sons and did try to encourage them to be lawyers. My oldest son, Bradley, went to law school for one year and didn’t like it and bailed out. My other son is my law partner now. My grandson went to law school at Arizona State University and fell in love with his classmate in law school. Now his wife, Robbie, is a lawyer, too. He followed her to the state of Washington instead of coming back here. If I had a wife like that, I’d follow her wherever she wanted to go, too.”
Don Decker, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy federal trustee, has a son, Adam, who practices law in Lake County; and there’s Tony Tanoos and his son, William, who became a lawyer last year. William Tanoos lives in Los Angeles, but works Social Security disability cases in several states for his father’s Terre Haute law firm Fleschner, Stark, Tanoos and Newlin.
Attorney Gerald McGlone has three sons, Dan, Ed and Jim, all of whom are attorneys in Terre Haute.
“I didn’t expect or plan it that way, but I am proud of them,” McGlone said. And now, his 30-year-old daughter, Barbara, is in law school in California. McGlone’s twin brother, James V. McGlone, went with him to law school at Indiana University and is now a semi-retired lawyer in Lafayette.
“I think that is one of those twins things,” he said of each becoming lawyers. Gerald had been working as an engineer while his brother had been working in the U.S. Forest Service in Michigan before Gerald called James to say he was going to enter law school. His brother said that he, too, wanted to become a lawyer.
Michael Lewis, now judge of Vigo County Superior Court Division 6, followed in the footsteps of his father, Jordan Lewis, who served as federal magistrate in Terre Haute from 1979 to 2007. His grandfather, Jerdie Lewis, was also a lawyer. His sister, Libby A. Lewis, is a staff attorney for the Indiana Department of Child Services in Terre Haute.
“When I got to law school, I fell in love with law school. I just found my niche,” Michael Lewis said. “I had driven my grandfather around for many years, as did my sister, because his eyesight was bad. We were his drivers and would go to some of his court hearings in Sullivan or even Greene counties.
“I never thought I’d be a judge or be in politics, but being a judge is my favorite. It is about doing the right thing for people, balancing things out, being a referee,” Lewis said.
After graduating in 1993 from the University of Toledo, Libby Lewis started working as a lawyer with her father and brother. “My grandfather first thought I should look into teaching. My dad just wanted us to have a college degree and do our best,” she said.
“Yet, once I was in law school, my grandfather would call me every Sunday and we would talk about what I was studying. Once I made a decision to be a lawyer, he was 100 percent for it,” Libby Lewis said.
Phil Adler, judge of Vigo County Superior Court Division 2, has a son, Michael, who is a lawyer in Indianapolis. Former judge Charles McCrory has a daughter, Jill, and son, Michael, both of whom practice law in Indianapolis; and Attorney William Smock’s daughter, Colette, is a lawyer in Florida.
The professional legacy of the late Terre Haute attorney Max Goodwin is being carried on by his daughter, Margie, who is a lawyer in Bloomington. Others include George Tofaute, and his son, Phillip, a Terre Haute lawyer; Arnold Brames, and his daughter, Mary Beth, who worked as a lawyer for 10 years; and Lou Britton’s son, Lou, who is a lawyer in Indianapolis.
In their footsteps
Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt’s son, Jared, is a student in law school, and Attorney Jim Bopp’s daughter, Kathleen, will graduate from Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., in May.
Attorney Christopher Gambill expects his son, Noah L. Gambill, will join his Terre Haute law firm as an associate in May after he graduates from Hamline University Law School, St. Paul, Minn. His son already works as a law clerk at the firm.
“I am not the easiest person to work for, and I coached both my boys over the years in different sports, and I think it has never been a secret that I was tougher on them than anyone else. He’s had fair warning before he got into this,” Gambill said of his son.
Gambill said he thinks when children follow their parents into the same profession, it “clearly indicates that children often see things they admire about their parents, either their mother or father, and I think part of that positive feeling is about how they perceived what their parents did and enjoyed about their work.
“I think they would be less inclined to be attorneys if they thought their parents were miserable in their work or if they had a negative view about their parents,” Gambill said. “So, I think it affirms something good about both the relationship between the child and parent and the child’s perception of the parent’s happiness,” he said.
“Reality may set in later…,” Gambill quipped.
Michael Wright graduated from Purdue University in 2002 and from Valpariso’s School of Law in 2006, before working at the Wright, Shagley, Lowery law firm, where his father, Bob, a former Vigo County prosecutor, is a partner.
Before going to law school, Michael Wright worked as an investigator on domestic violence cases in the prosecutor’s office to cover for a person who had taken a leave of absence Now, as a lawyer, he works as a public defender and attorney for the county.
“The Wright, Shagley & Lowery on the outside of the firm stands for Bob Wright, Rick Shagley and Norm Lowery. Those are the individuals who built the firm that I am lucky enough to work at,” Michael Wright said.
“I don’t pretend to think that I am somehow entitled to the success that my father has had; something he has worked for and earned. I think I will have to put forth the same effort that he has put forth if I am going to be as successful as he’s been. The fact that I work for my father doesn’t mean I get a pass on issues.
“He probably expects more from me than he would from somebody he is not related to, and that is fine. He is very blunt in his assessment of how I am doing, which is not a bad thing. If I screw up on something, I don’t want it to be sugar-coated, just want to know what I did wrong and how to do it better the next time,” Michael Wright said..
Father and son both say they enjoy working together.
“There is the ability to communicate on a level that you can’t communicate with a non-relative. I definitely can read him,” Bob Wright said. “If we are having a conversation and I am telling him my opinion, I can tell pretty quickly if he agrees or disagrees simply by his expression or his demeanor.
“I very much like the fact that he is here,” Bob Wright added, saying that most mornings, he and his son spend five or so minutes simply talking about family issues and their lives. “It’s just an enjoyable time and is a good thing to look forward to, and sometimes we go to lunch, not often, but sometimes, or talk about things we will do on the weekend or that night. It is practicing law, but it is also a pleasure just to be able to communicate.”
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com
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