The bond between a dad and his kids is something we should always celebrate.
Cordell & Cordell has set itself apart as a firm dedicated to their clients.
At Cordell & Cordell we understand how essential fathers are to families. That’s why we’ve been advocating for dads going through divorce for well over 30 years. This Father’s Day, no matter your situation, we hope you feel loved and appreciated. We are grateful for everything you do.
To celebrate Father’s Day, Cordell & Cordell attorneys and legal staff have been submitting stories and photos that illustrate what fatherhood means to them. You can read their submissions on the Cordell & Cordell Facebook page. We’ve also highlighted several of their submissions below to show the connection that our attorneys have with their dads and their children and why that is something they choose to fight for.
Cordell & Cordell Client Development Manager Jamie Kinkaid learned the importance of quality parenting time over quantity early on out of necessity because her father served in the U.S. Air Force.
As part of the AC-130 operations, as a navigator and a United States Peace Observer, he would go years without seeing his family and had to keep in touch through letters and phone calls. Her mother still has many unopened letters he sent home that were intended as farewell notes in case he didn’t make it back. Much of his work still has not been declassified, so there are entire parts of his life that Ms. Kinkaid knows nothing about.
However, that distance did nothing to lessen the impact he had on his daughter’s life. He taught her valuable lessons about sacrifice, love, and making the most of every single moment.
“Fathers need to know, you do not have to be with your children every day to make an impact, to show you care,” she said. “It is about making the moments that you have together count.”
At his retirement ceremony, he thanked those that helped him through his career, including his family. He told a hangar full of officials and Air Force personnel how proud he was of his daughter. If he had to pick one person to take to war, to battle next to, he said he would choose his daughter above all others.
“It still brings tears to my eyes,” Ms. Kinkaid said.
Elizabeth Mayberry, an attorney in Cordell & Cordell’s San Diego office, says her dad was never the most talkative, but what she recalls more than anything was his presence. Whether it was driving her to school, making sure the family sat down to eat dinner together every night, or rushing to help her and her husband change a flat tire one Thanksgiving, he’s been a constant in her life.
Growing up, Ms. Mayberry was on the cheer squad and her father was always in attendance to watch her routines. Despite his more introverted nature, Ms. Mayberry can recall looking up in the stands and seeing him throwing himself into their performance, even mimicking the cheers.
“Parents don’t need to be perfect but being present in their kids’ lives and making memories is the key to any relationship,” she said. “My dad is not a man of many words, but he always had your back and would be there on a dime to assist if needed. I am forever grateful to call him ‘Dad’ and one of my best friends.”
Now, as she represents many fathers seeking to protect that presence in their own children’s lives, she often thinks back on that steady companionship she’s been lucky to have throughout her entire life.
“I know how wonderful my relationship is with my father and how important always having him there was for me to grow as a person and into the attorney that I am today,” she said. “It motivates me to help protect that relationship for my clients.”
Buffalo Senior Litigation Attorney Daniel S. Gvertz is no stranger to non-traditional family arrangements. Last year, he had the pleasure of having his daughter as a bridesmaid at his own wedding – an experience he says he will treasure for the rest of his life.
“Getting to share one of the biggest moments of my life – my wedding – with my daughter made me happy and proud,” he said. “I can’t imagine going through a moment like that without her now. It’s as if that was the way it was always meant to happen. Getting to spend that day with my daughter made it into the best possible day of my life.”
The privilege of sharing that experience is something he keeps in mind as he navigates his career as an attorney who fights to make sure dads remain fixtures in their children’s lives, even if they end up doing so in an atypical fashion.
“For a living, what we do is sort of create these unique family situations that aren’t for everyone, and we try to make them work as well as possible,” he said. “Whenever I talk to my clients about spending time with their children when we are negotiating visitation arrangements, I always let them know that what they are going through is something I went through. It’s something I can put a feeling on.”
It took a mixture of joy and tragedy for Albany Senior Litigation Attorney Martin A. Cohen to realize the true meaning of fatherhood. Less than 24 hours after his middle son was born, he received the tragic news on the drive home from the hospital that his own dad had unexpectedly passed away.
He was flooded with emotion as he struggled to accept the fact that his father was no longer there for him. He would not be there to celebrate, or for anything else. But as he was overwhelmed with those feelings, he also experienced somewhat of an epiphany. The shortness of life, that boys need support and good role models, the importance of family, and that we are all spiritually connected became crystal clear.
In the days that followed, Mr. Cohen received advice from his rabbi that helped him reconcile all that had happened.
“He said to think of this as a passing of a torch,” he said. “As your father passes, his soul is intertwined with your new son’s spirit coming into the world. It helped me appreciate the deeper things about being a dad.”
As the years have passed, and his own children have grown and prospered, Mr. Cohen has held tight to those words.
“All of those feelings, including the pride of naming my son after my father, came crashing on me this year as my middle son will graduate high school,” he said. “His life continues at Yale where he was recruited to play baseball.”
The experienced divorce lawyers at Cordell & Cordell provide intelligent, aggressive divorce representation to fathers. We are a community of talented legal professionals that prioritize growth and success in all our life roles. Together we assure our clients the quality of representation we would expect for ourselves.
