Lawyers in Love Celebrate Anniversaries at Home—and at Work

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Lawyers in Love Celebrate Anniversaries at Home—and at Work

Posted Jun 23, 2008, 12:52 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

Grant and Sandy Liser are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary this month. But the two Texas lawyers are achieving a memorable milestone as partners at the office this year, too: a decade together at the same law firm, practicing together as trial attorneys in a 21-lawyer defense firm.

Although their work relationship obviously has worked well, it wasn't one that other partners at Brown, Dean, Wiseman Proctor, Hart & Howell in Fort Worth initially embraced with open arms, reports the Fort Worth Business Press. Forced to choose between marrying her husband and remaining at the firm in the late 1980s, Sandy Liser went elsewhere to practice. But then in 1998, she was invited back.

The two civil defense attorneys often try cases together, usually eat lunch together and don't hesitate to talk about work once they get home—where little background explanation is required, since both are already familiar with the office, their colleagues and matters at issue. Plus, it's relatively easy to coordinate their schedules: When one is busy at the office, the other usually is, too.

While their courtroom styles are different, this is an advantage, they say. And, if a jury is likely to relate better to a male attorney or a female attorney, that base is always covered by one or the other of the pair.

“We like to capitalize on it,” says Sandy Liser of their status as a married couple.

“We think it’s a tactical advantage,” Grant Liser adds.

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Posted by Kelly Phillips Erb - 3 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes ago

I’m an attorney also married to an attorney. My husband and I also own a practice together. I find that it works well exactly because we each understand the challenges of the profession.

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