Deb began working at Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds & Palmer, L.L.P. in 1994, starting out a secretary and then quickly gaining enough experience to become a paralegal. She has been at GSEP longer than any other staff-member.
In terms of her work, Deb can do just about anything required for litigation. She prepares first drafts of many legal documents, reviews documents produced in discovery, assists clients with discovery responses, including document production, and communicates often with clients, expert witnesses, opposing and co-counsel, judges, and staff. Deb is a go-to resource for any trial work completed by our attorneys. She has helped GSEP attorneys with approximately 15 jury trials over her 26 years of service.
One of the most memorable trial moments was one her first trials. When the team received a defense verdict and she says "the attorney I was working with literally had a tear in his eye in the meeting room afterwards – his clients were so appreciative, grateful, and emotional."
Deb's first job was doing "piece work" for Southwest Publishing. This required stuffing envelopes with mass mailings, such as credit card offers. She later attended Washburn University, obtaining her Associates Degree.
As for volunteer work, Deb acted as the assistant youth leader for St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, leading three different groups of youth to Indianapolis to the National Catholic Youth Conference. Of her time in this leadership role, she says that "trying to keep track of 15-20 teenagers in group of 23,000 -25,000 is like herding cats." It was a great time and she loved it, but it was exhausting. Her other volunteer work over the years has included service to the Royal Valley Booster Club, Royal Valley Recreation Association, and Hoyt Livewires 4-H.
Deb enjoys anything outdoors, including boating, walking, and bike riding, which means that winter is a boring time for her. For 10 years in a row, she participated in a mud volleyball tournament at her local city festival at which her team won the tournament eight times, beating much younger teams. Now that Deb is an empty-nester, she looks forward to doing more traveling with her husband.
"GSEP has fun, kind, and interesting people to work with. And each case is very different and always has something new I have never seen before," stated Deb when asked what she likes most about working at the firm.
GSEP thanks Deb for 26 years of excellent service!
Comments