Unlike most law firms who have several partners, associates, assistants and a slew of paralegals, The Law Office of Edward Witten is a one-man show. There’s no receptionist, no paralegals, no associates and only one partner, Edward Witten. Daily Record staff writer Michele Newbern Gillis met recently with Witten to discuss his firm.
HOW DID YOU
BECOME A ONE-MAN SHOW?
“Sometimes I have a secretary and sometimes I don’t. Mostly lately, I don’t. I’ve been doing this for 34 years and have evolved over the years into a one-man show. Through the years, I’ve gone from one secretary, to two secretaries, to three secretaries, to one secretary, to a part-time secretary and now to no secretary.”
WHAT TYPE OF
WORK DOES THE FIRM DO?
Collection work. “It’s collecting money for businesses or individuals who have debts owed to them. Clients make a real diligent effort to collect themselves, but can’t, so they come to me.”
LIGHTER WORK LOAD?
“With the onset of computers, faxes and e-mails, we have basically developed forms for all the work that we do. At one time, I had enough volume to require a lot of clerical work. Over the last few years, I’ve probably outlived my clientele. I continued to keep going and they continued to go out of business. So, as volume dropped off, I haven’t been as aggressive to replace clients as I should be.”
HAVE YOU ALWAYS
HAD YOUR OWN FIRM?
“Every year except the first year I was out of law school. I worked for a small two-man office, Sistrunk and Kaler. I was just an associate and worked there for a year. During the year, Mr. Kaler left and it was just me and Mr. Sistrunk. He didn’t feel that I had enough experience to be a partner so I left and decided to give it a shot myself. It proved to be the best move for me and I’ve been by myself ever since.”
HOW DOES
HE JUGGLE IT ALL?
Witten has learned how to do it all over the years. Even when he had assistants, he still had a hand in the day-to-day paperwork. “I didn’t trust people to do certain things. I never let anyone write checks for me because I never would take the chance of co-mingling my clients trust account with regular money. I have basically always reviewed anything anyone ever did, and even when I had help, I would turn around and do it over myself. There are times when things get out of hand and I may call a temporary agency to get part-time help.”
WHAT ARE
THE DISADVANTAGES?
“I like being my own boss, but there are disadvantages to it sometimes. It’s up to you as to how you control your time. Unfortunately, I really haven’t had any extended vacation time in all the years that I have been doing this and that’s because I have been doing it all myself.”
HAVE WHEELS WILL TRAVEL
“I really do travel around. I cover the entire Northeast Florida area.”
OTHER OPTIONS?
Although he is not planning on adding any other attorneys to his firm, he is open to joining other firms. “I wouldn’t be adverse if someone came to me and said, ‘We’d like you to come into our firm and do the collection part of our practice.’ I’m at the point now where I would like to be able to have some help where I can say, ‘This is my time off and this is when I work.’ Generally when you work for yourself, you can be working seven days a week.”
WHO ARE YOUR CLIENTS?
Top Choice Poultry, Farmers Federal Credit Union and Anchor 7 Federal Credit Union. Past clients included Montgomery Ward, Jax Navy Credit Union, General Electric Credit Corporation, Alltel and Powertel. “I get clients from all over — California all the way across to Maine.”
WHAT DO YOU
OFFER YOUR CLIENTS?
“Great service and availability of an attorney at all times, which is very important to some people.”
PERSONAL
He has been married to Bunny for 34 years. They have two grown daughters, Mauri and Laura.
HOBBIES
Golf.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT?
He is a past president of the Jacksonville Area Golf Association, an association of area golf clubs. From that association the Jacksonville Area Golf Association’s Charitable Trust was formed. “The trust is a separate entity which relies on JAGA to make donations to it for the purpose of giving local students [who are affiliated with member golf clubs] college scholarships.” He has been the chairman of the Jacksonville Area Golf Association’s Scholarship Committee for the last 10 years. An average of 25 students are on scholarship each year and each receives $750 a semester. Students must maintain passing grades and report their progress each semester in order to retain their scholarships. Witten is in charge of sending the money to the schools, following up to see if students are still in school and keeping up with their grades until graduation.