(814) 437-2033

I began the practice of law 40 years ago in Pittsburgh at what was then known as Buchanan, Ingersoll, Rodewald, Kyle & Buerger, one of the city's largest and most prestigious law firms. From there I joined a leveraged buyout firm as its in-house counsel. For now nearly 30 years I have practiced as I envisioned I would when I first went to law school: as a solo practitioner in Franklin, in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, where my family has lived for generations.

Legal services are not cheap. But my small-town, small-firm overhead does allow me to charge an hourly rate that is lower than what many big-city firms charge for attorneys just out of law school. You can have your work done at a big-city firm at a high hourly rate by an associate with only a few years' experience, or you can have your work done in Franklin by an attorney with 40 years' experience—including big-firm experience—at a more affordable, small-town rate.

If you wish to be a lawyer, attach no consequence to the place you are in, or the person you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for yourself.

--Abraham Lincoln,
Letter to William H. Grigsby
(August 3, 1858)