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Firm Happenings
The firm is pleased to announce the hiring of John Hofmann and Gabrielle Paschall as litigation associates. John joined our firm last summer, and is licensed in both Indiana and Kentucky. He has been a licensed attorney since 1998, having primarily worked as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Kentucky. Oh yeah, and he is closely related to Tricia Hofmann. John’s experience and depth has helped the firm tremendously. Gabrielle was just recently admitted to the bar and, like John and Tricia and Les Merkley, is a graduate of Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan (although much more recently!). She too has been a great addition to the firm, and we are pleased to have her here. Gabrielle is also working for the firm’s estate planning and administration section.
Teresa Summers, Tricia Woods and Teresa Lewis - all outstanding paralegals - recently celebrated their respective five-year anniversaries with the firm. We are lucky to have all of them. If you have interacted with any of these three, then you know that you are equally lucky.
Speaking of milestones, in 2010, Scott Waters, Rick Bartlett and Sandy Heeke each celebrated their 30th anniversary of practicing law. As of the fall of 2011, Scott Tyler will have been practicing law for 20 years. We congratulate each of them on this achievement, and marvel at how they achieved these feats, since none of them looks a day over 29.
Rodney and Lisa Scott are pleased to announce that their grandson Jaxson Carlock is having his 1st Birthday Bash at their pool in July. They just cannot believe how fast that first year passed! Being grandparents is the best job ever.
Scott Tyler has been nominated by Daniel Winkler, Westfield Group, for membership in the Council for Litigation Management. The Council on Litigation Management is a nonpartisan alliance of law firms, insurance companies and corporations, and includes litigation and risk managers, corporate counsel, attorneys and claims adjusters. Through education and collaboration, its goals are to create a common interest in the representation by firms of policyholders and companies, and to promote and further the highest standards of litigation management in pursuit of client defense.
Les Merkley continues to offer a series of “Family Law Seminars” held here at the firm. The latest seminar is entitled “Surviving Divorce: A guide to help you through an Indiana divorce.” For more information, click here.
Molly Waters, Scott and Anne Waters’ youngest daughter, attended Hoosier’s Girls State in Terre Haute in June, learning all about the political process and about becoming a good Hoosier citizen. She is a senior this year and has chosen to be home-schooled rather than return to New Albany High School.
Eric Eberwine was recently re-elected as the Public Works Commissioner for the City of Westwood, in Louisville, Kentucky. His son, Brennan Eberwine, had his sixth birthday in May, and daughter Anneliese Thomas will turn eight in August. Both Brennan and Anneliese are students at Brandeis Elementary, and are competing with a local swim team this summer. Shelley Thomas continues to teach at the University of Louisville in the Department of Education and Human Development.
Rick Bartlett and Sandy Heeke work with international students as ambassadors for the United States at the University of Louisville. They have shared experiences with students from Germany, England, France, Iran, and Sudan. Rick and Sandy report that it is always a pleasure to see the international students' faces when they try for the first time chicken and dumplings or apple fritters….
Our firm has been instrumental in advising and helping run the Floyd County Teen Court program since its inception in the summer of 2008. Scott Tyler and Tricia Hofmann have served as charter attorney advisors for the program since day one, and Les Merkley has been serving in that same capacity for over two years. Scott, Tricia and Les preside over the teen court trials and train the teenage volunteer participants in their roles as prosecuting and defense attorneys. Members of the Floyd County Teen Court are currently training to participate in a statewide teen court competition in Indianapolis.
Teresa Summers participated in the Kentucky Derby Marathon on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of her daughter, Olivia. She raised $1,700 for the cause and finished in a little over three hours! She is also pleased to support her daughter, Olivia, on her upcoming trip to Nebraska to participate in the International Thespian Conference. Olivia will be displaying her art skills for set design/stage management on behalf of Silver Creek High School and participating in several workshops.
After more than six years of house hunting and indecision (really, who takes that long to find a house?), John and Tricia Hofmann have moved to a new residence in Louisville, Kentucky. After twelve years in their old house, they miss a number of things. Their daughters, Casey (7) and Madison (5) love living in a neighborhood with a pool, however, which keeps John and Tricia from getting too nostalgic. The girls will be in second grade and kindergarten in the fall, and give a shout-out to their school, Hayfield Montessori in Louisville.
Les Merkley is serving as a parenting coordinator in high-conflict custody and visitation cases. As parenting coordinator, Les is appointed by the Court to resolve day-to-day differences between the parents as to issues related to the children. The parenting coordinator can more quickly address the disputes than does the judge.
Scott and Anne Waters’ third daughter, Michelle, will begin a two-year adventure at the end of July serving with TeachBeyond missions agency in Germany. She will be working as a Resident Assistant (RA) for high school students at Black Forest Academy, a boarding school where missionary kids from all over Europe, North Africa and Asia receive an English language-based, Christian education. As an RA, Michelle will be a live-in “older sister” in a house of 22 students, working alongside two house parents and another RA. You can follow her at her blog address: http://underglassmw.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-i-am-doing-and-how-you-can-be.html
Rodney and Lisa Scott are spending their summer without Emma Scott. She is in Nairobi, Kenya on a missionary internship with Christian Missionary Fellowship for two months. She will be working on community health projects. Dad will quit biting his nails in late August when she returns to University of Kentucky and prepares for her MCATs.
Scott Tyler’s wife, Alison Tyler, has accepted the position of Director of Admissions at Walden School where sons, Jack, age nine, and Mitchell, age seven, attend. Alison left a position as Financial Development Director for the YMCA of Greater Louisville where she was employed for sixteen years.
Rick Bartlett recently assisted the Lincoln Heritage Council of the Boy Scouts with its annual fundraising luncheon. University of Kentucky football coach Joker Phillips and analyst Kirk Herbstreit were the featured speakers.
Rodney and Lisa Scott are proud to announce that their daughter Mackenna Fitzgerald made the dance team at Silver Creek High School. They aren't really sure where she got those moves! Mackenna will begin her sophomore year this fall.
Les Merkley has joined the faculty of the University of Phoenix-Louisville Campus where he is teaching undergraduate and graduate business law.
Mallery Waters, Scott and Anne Waters’ oldest daughter, is still working with 21st Century Medicine, an integrative medical practice started by her grandfather, George M. Wolverton, M.D., who passed away earlier this year after 54 years of practicing medicine in Clarksville, Indiana.
Scott Tyler just completed his second year as President of the Sherman Minton Inn of Court, a Chapter of the American Inns of Court. Members of the Sherman Minton Inn of Court are dedicated to cultivating best practices and highest ethical behavior in the profession. Scott will remain a Member of the Executive Board and will chair the February, 2012 joint meeting with the Brandeis Inn of Court in Louisville, Kentucky. Rodney Scott, Chad Smith and Eric Eberwine are also currently members of the organization.
Tricia Hofmann recently attended the annual SIU/MIST/Litigation training conference conducted in Springfield, Missouri, by the American National Property and Casualty Companies (ANPAC) for its defense attorneys. It is a great conference, and one to which we appreciate being invited each year.
Rodney and Lisa Scott are proud to report that Katie Scott recently competed in the 2011 National Shakespeare Competition as Kentucky’s champion. She received a scholarship to perform her winning monologue at the Lincoln Center in New York City by first winning the Commonwealth’s competition. She spent the year building towards that pinnacle by performing in Walden Theatre performances of Antony and Cleopatra and Camino Real. She also performed in the Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company’s productions of Knight of the Burning Pestle and All’s Well that Ends Well. Katie was also selected as a Governor’s Scholar for the Arts which includes a three-week on-campus stay at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky to further study drama. And that’s just the drama in her pretend life.
Scott and Anne Waters’ second oldest daughter, Megan Lynch, is working full-time in New York for the Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank, and is using her international studies masters degree from New York University. Her husband Greg is finishing up his PhD program in Philosophy at Fordham University in New York.
Rick Bartlett attended three estate-related legal seminars so far in 2011. One was an estate planning seminar in February. The second was a seminar hosted by Stock Yards Bank in May which addressed trustee duties with irrevocable life insurance trusts and understanding asset-protection trusts. The third seminar, in June, was the 38th annual Midwest estate, tax and business planning institute.
Teresa Lewis and her husband, Kevin, are members of The Backyard Classics Car Club based in Charlestown, Indiana. The firm has been recognized as a sponsor of the Car Show for the past three years. The club holds monthly Cruise-Ins on the Square in Charlestown on the second Friday of each month from April to October, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Backyard Classics is also having its Annual Car Show on June 25th of this year from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Clark County 4-H Fairgrounds on Hwy. 62 in Charlestown. Both events are free to spectators and involve music, door prizes and – of course – LOTS of great-looking cars. There will also be cash prizes and trophies at the annual show. Teresa reports that all proceeds from the show and cruise-ins will benefit the Crusade for Children and VFW Post 1427 in Charlestown. Teresa and Kevin have their own cars – a 1934 Ford Coupe and a 1979 Chevy Corvette – that they enter in other shows, and the Coupe won “Best Hot Rod” this month at the “Shop with a Cop” show at Joe Huber’s Restaurant in Starlight, Indiana.
The firm continues to be actively involved with the “Talk to a Lawyer” program, which conducts a monthly phone bank to make referrals and answer simple legal questions on a pro bono basis. Rodney Scott has helped to staff the phone banks since our last newsletter.
The firm is committed to taking aggressive and proactive steps to reduce the size of its carbon footprint. To that end, last year the firm adopted a “paper-less” system, which employs scanning documents and forwarding documents via e-mail and on-line fax, with substantially fewer paper documents ever generated in the process. This saves considerable paper and toner, and reduces waste. In addition, the firm contracts with Shred-It, a paper-waste recycling business. Since 2007, we have been recycling virtually all the firm’s paper products, and we are proud to report that Shred-It has advised that we have saved 20 trees so far in 2011, and 171 trees to date.
Last, but not least, WTHS is on facebook! If you are a regular on that site, please become our fan. We’d love to have you!
