Keebler & Lanigan is a downtown law firm located at Liberty and Adams streets.
MEET THE FIRM
Business partners Maria Keebler and Robin Lanigan are the two attorneys. They employ one paralegal, Shawn Holley, and one legal assistant, Cathy Riker.
WHEN WAS THE PARTNERSHIP FORMED?
March.
WHY?
“Maria and I went to law school [Florida Coastal School of Law] together, have similar ideas and want to grow in the same direction,” said Lanigan, a native of Ft. Lauderdale.
“We make a good team,” said Keebler.
“Maria and I also talked about having a woman-only firm,” added Lanigan. “I believe there is a place in the market for a firm that has all women lawyers.”
WHAT IS THEIR NICHE?
“I prefer to practice family law, which entails a great deal of [cases involving] paternity, step-parent adoptions, dissolutions of marriage, modifications,” said Keebler.
“I also prefer family law,” said Lanigan. “I would like to specialize in one area so I can learn all I can about it and understand all the nuances. But we represent a union [through a prepaid legal plan] so we have to do other cases besides family law, which could be criminal cases, juvenile, traffic tickets, wills, all kinds of stuff.”
DO THEY THINK CLIENTS PREFER FAMILY LAWYERS THAT ARE WOMEN?
“Certainly there is an area of clients that want female lawyers,” said Lanigan. “With some, there is not a preference. Different people have different ideas about what a woman lawyer is all about. Some think they’re more aggressive. Others think women will be more compassionate.”
WHY IS THAT?
“Due to the nature of family law and the issues involved when it comes to children and what their best interests are, a lot of people have the idea that women, because of their traditional mothering, nurturing role, might have more insight into the problem of divorce,” said Keebler.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISPERCEPTION THEY SEE?
“They [clients] think we can flirt with the judges; I’ve heard it all,” said Keebler. “And that doesn’t work. They [the judges] get very offended by that.”
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Before joining Keebler, Lanigan was with Greene, Harris, Ellis and Lanigan. “I started with Steven Combs and Deborah Greene,” said Lanigan. “A few months after I was admitted to The Florida Bar, Steven left to become a general master in Clay County and I took over his practice with Deborah Greene’s dad.”
WHAT IS THEIR LONG TERM GOAL?
“We hope, in the future, to have more women lawyers working with us in other areas,” said Lanigan. “We would love to, at some point, purchase our own property close to the new county courthouse in LaVilla. Choosing this office, we knew there was extra space to expand. Maria wants to start doing mediation. I think I’d like to do custody evaluation so we’d both like to get into different areas of family law.”
“We don’t want to get too big,” said Keebler. “I’d rather stay a smaller firm known for doing outstanding work in family law.”
WHAT IS THEIR BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“Clients’ emotions,” said Keebler. “We have to wear a lot of different hats, not just as their attorney, but in some ways, as their counselor. We help them to gain a different perspective on the turmoil that’s going on. Divorce is one of the top three stressors in life.”
HOW DID THEY PICK THEIR LOCATION?
“We looked for a long time at many places,” said Keebler. “It was difficult to find something that would fit our needs in the timeframe that we needed it at the price we wanted. Office space is so expensive downtown and on the Southbank.”
“We had three major priorities: parking, safety and location [in relation to the current county courthouse],” said Lanigan.
“That’s why it took us so long to find the right property,” said Keebler.
WHY NOT SITUATE NEXT TO THE NEW COUNTY COURTHOUSE?
“Completion of the new courthouse has been pushed back to 2007,” said Lanigan.
“We knew it was going to be awhile before the new courthouse was built, so we wanted a spot with close proximity to the current one,” said Keebler.
WHY LAW SCHOOL?
“It all came about from a bad divorce,” said Keebler. “The first attorney that I had hired gave me bad advice and it caused me eventually not to have custody of my two kids. That was in 1986. At that point I said, ‘If I can save one person from going through this hell I went through and make it easier, it’s worth it.”
MARIA’S MILESTONES
Born in Washington, D.C., Keebler worked for seven years as a page in the Senate, and later, the House. She also served in the Senate accounting office and for a Rhode Island representative. In the 1980s, Keebler was employed as a legal assistant.
ANY PREVIOUS
OCCUPATIONS?
“I had babies and worked for my mother, who is also an attorney,” said Lanigan.
THE FAMILY?
Lanigan has two young daughters, Haley and Shira. Keebler has two grown children, Nichole and Will Marquardt.
— by Monica Chamness