by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
At the law offices of Coker Schickel Sorenson & Daniel, nearly half the staff has worked together for more than 10 years. The firm may not be a family, but they’ve come pretty close.
“Howard (Coker, one of the founding firm partners) was in the waiting room when both of my children were born,” said attorney Charles Sorenson. “I like my partners. Howard and I have tried so many cases together it’s almost like a bad marriage.”
The firm has a large alumni list, as Sorenson puts it. Many attorneys and employees have come and gone, but Coker said attorneys and staff often keep in touch with them. The group has also kept some of the same people for decades.
“We don’t just get along,” said Carol Cenci, the firm’s office administrator who has worked there for about 30 years. “We actually care. We experience everybody else’s pain and happiness and sadness and joy.”
The attorneys, paralegals and administrative staff go to baseball games together with their families. They hold potluck lunches and Halloween costume contests. When coworkers start to tally their funny memories, the list goes on without a real end in sight.
“When you spend 40-50 hours a week with someone, they become like family,” said Coker. “We don’t believe people work for us. We believe people work with us.
“We’re able to laugh an awful lot,” he added, explaining that the firm’s work ethic is result-oriented. “We try not to be too rigid.”
“Howard gives the kids candy until they throw up,” said Sorenson, referencing the family-firm baseball games with a grin.
“I get a wide variety (of candy), and I get a lot of it,” said Coker. “I can’t say how well they metabolize it.”
Walter Zowski, the firm’s investigator for 18 years, has provided staff with plenty of comic relief. He writes and produces a Christmas skit each year, casting the attorneys in lead roles. “Bar Wars” is among the staff favorites.
The video depicts a young man longing to become a “PI (personal injury) Knight.” He gets some lessons from “Coka Yoda” and fends off the clutches of “Darth Schickel.”
“He wanted to recruit him to the ‘Dark Side’ of the first floor,” said Zowski.
April Fool’s Day used to be a routine time for Zowski to pull a prank on a fellow investigator, who worked at the firm several years ago. His most elaborate scheme required a lot of research, preparation and staff conspiracy.
“One of the rats that carries the most infectious diseases is the bandicoot rat,” said Zowski, explaining his plot. “I told him they had come in on the ports.”
In the following days, Zowski got other people in the office to talk about the impending rat health risk with Tom. Then, one of the partners sent an e-mail warning about a Downtown rat-sighting and flea-watch.
“I picked an infectious disease doctor out of the phone book,” said Zowski. “The e-mail stated that we would get in groups of six to go in to the doctor and get screened.
“They went to this doctor’s office, and he (Tom) said, ‘We’re here for the rats and the fleas,’” said Zowski. “They had no idea what he was talking about.”
The firm’s workspaces have changed over the years, but the current location on Bay Street is less than a block from the original offices in the Blackstone Building.
The partners haven’t moved too far from home, either. Coker said all the partners graduated from nearby high schools in Jacksonville, and they all live relatively close to where they grew up.
“We refer to ourselves as the Southside boys,” said Sorenson. “(Avondale) is much too trendy for us.
“We all have kind of similar backgrounds,” he added, noting the partners similar upbringing and proximity to home. “Does that make us boring?”
“No,” said Coker. “We really love Jacksonville.”
The firm has been in the same Downtown spot since 1987, when the partners purchased an old building and renovated the interior. They made sure the offices were equipped with a roomy kitchen, a fitness center with showers and clothes closets for some of the attorneys.
“We built our own house,” said Coker. Fish, paintings and other decorations from his hunting hobbies line the office walls. His dog, Gunner, became a regular institution after Coker’s wife, Fran, passed away several months ago.
“We have an official office mascot,” said Cenci, smiling. She said Gunner is “always sneaking down the stairs” to find someone to walk him.
Cenci started as a receptionist with the firm, but her job titles have changed over the years. She’s watched the firm’s work methods change, too.
“We used to type on old typewriters with carbon paper,” she said. “Our first computer was called an Eclipse 200 and it was about the size of my refrigerator. You could enter a bill and go to lunch and come back, and it would still be calculating.”
When asked for a particular reason for staying at the firm 30 years, Cenci didn’t need much time to respond.
“They take care of me. They really do,” she said, explaining the way the partners worked with her when personal problems came up. “They’re loyal to us and we’re loyal to them.”