Family Practice

For Erin Lary, becoming an attorney was a natural choice. She spent her childhood hearing about the field from her father, former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice John Holstein.

“It’s always been something like dinner-table talk at night,” said Lary, a Springfield native. “My earliest memories are of my dad sitting on the bench.”

Lary, who earned her law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is like many other children of lawyers who follow their parents into the field.

But she and her dad have more than their career choice in common. These days, they’re both working for the same firm, Polsinelli Shughart PC. She’s a business and product liability litigator at the firm’s Kansas City office, while her dad, who spent 27 years on the bench, practices litigation, mediation and arbitration from Polsinelli Shughart’s Springfield office.

Growing up with the law
Four of attorney Mathew Placzek’s six children are attorneys, a fact that doesn’t surprise him. “They grew up around the law,” he said. “You don’t leave it at the office at night.”

His daughter, Jenifer Placzek, who said she remembers going to court with her dad, practices medical malpractice and personal injury litigation with him at Placzek Law Firm, formerly called Placzek & Francis.

Robert Jones, psychology professor at Missouri State University and editor of an upcoming book on nepotism, said the legal profession has one of the highest rates of children following their parents into the field. While writing a master’s thesis on family relationships in the law profession, Tracy Stout found that one reason for the trend is that the child develops skills and values based on what they observe about the parent’s work.

“There is a transfer of occupational-specific knowledge,” Stout said.

Ransom A. Ellis III followed his father’s footsteps because he saw how the elder Ellis helped people while working for himself. In 1977, Ransom A. Ellis Jr., who retired Jan. 1, founded local firm Ellis, Ellis, Hammons & Johnson PC, where the younger Ellis practices education and labor law.

“I wanted to be like my dad,” he said.

John M. Carnahan III, and his brother, Frank, third-generation tax attorneys, grew up hearing legal conversations between their father and grandfather.

“I saw that my dad enjoyed it,” said John Carnahan III, who in 1979, after graduating from the University of Miami School of Law, joined his dad to found Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown PC.

Independent streak
Not all attorneys go straight to work with their parents, though. Lary gained some experience on her own working for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Kansas City, and locally at the firms of Lathrop & Gage LLP, and Baird, Lightner, Millsap & Harpool PC.

“We both believed it would probably be better to let her learn the ropes from somebody else rather than have me be her only mentor,” Holstein said.

Jenifer Placzek, a graduate of Boston College Law School, appreciates the independence afforded her through four years of practice in Los Angeles.

“I think in a lot of ways it gave me an appreciation for my dad, but at the same time it kind of gave me a little bit of an incentive to say, ‘You know, I don’t have to always do things exactly the same way he does them,’” she said.

But that doesn’t mean she always tries to take a different route than her dad.

“I look to him for advice on cases and, you know, advice about how to do things well,” she said.

Family values
Mathew Placzek said striking a balance between work and family is easy if strong family values are in place – and everyone’s on board with making time for fun.

“You work hard, and you play hard. You take nice family vacations,” he said.

Lary, whose sisters are both married to attorneys, said, “We try hard not to make all of our conversations about work, but it does seem to go in that direction.”

But when that happens, he said, “The two nonlawyer girls will divert the conversation.”

One of Lary’s sisters is a certified public accountant, and the other has her Master of Business Administration. Holstein said he and his wife, Mary, placed a high value on education for all of their girls.

“I always encouraged them to get as much education as they could and take advantage of every opportunity in that regard,” he said. “Our family has a strong belief in being the best that you can be at whatever your field is, and I’ve always encouraged them to do that.”

Education also played a key role in the Placzek family. In addition to the four attorney children, there’s also a doctor and a geologist with a Ph.D. “They value education,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]