Keona Williams started as the assistant to the receptionist at our law firm 20 years ago. During that time, I have watched as she worked her way up in the law firm, gaining responsibility and deserved status, obtaining college degrees, and marrying and raising a family. She was one of the people directly working with our clients as a legal assistant, and now as our Chief Operating Officer, working behind the scenes helping our policyholder clients even when they do not know it.
Keona was first noted in this blog in 2008 after she helped coordinate a victory luncheon for the Port of New Orleans employees. That blog, The Port of New Orleans Employees, is very appropriate for what I am trying to do – give heartfelt thanks from all the members of our firm for what Keona has meant to us:
Life’s lessons can be very beneficial if you actually remember them and change your behavior according to what you have learned. I was lucky to watch my father as he led various tours of duty in the Coast Guard. Both the ordinary seaman and the Chiefs that ran the ships seemed to respect him. He always treated everybody as important because they were. He always thanked them, and then showed his appreciation.
We had a settlement that had the Board of the Port Authority of New Orleans doing ‘high-fives’ largely because the rank-and-file Port employees helped the legal team.
A lot of my success and a lot of Merlin Law Group attorney “high fives” have been the result of the hard work, passion, and dedication Keona has for each of us at Merlin Law Group.
At times I feel her family has grown in the law firm. The picture above is Keona with her two children on the Chip’s Ahoy! Her sister Karlene works as Merlin Law Group’s Human Resources Director and became engaged while on the Chip’s Ahoy! The picture below is Keona, her husband Wendell, and yours truly at a Merlin Law Group Party.
Keona has opened a lot of offices and while in San Francisco, we went to a pre-Super Bowl Rolling Stones party, pictured below.
She also helped open our offices in New Jersey following Superstorm Sandy and helped keep us flying and growing all over the country.
Keona’s assistant during this has been Eunice Elias. They make a beautiful and effective team. Eunice has been with the firm for over 11 years.
There has never been a more glamourous and capable manager in a law firm. I am a very lucky guy that she hitched her very talented star to our wagon.
I am certain most successful attorneys have people behind the scenes. This blog would not have been published for so many consecutive years without her encouragement and appreciation for what it means to our readers, public adjusters, restoration contractors, and policyholders.
On your 20 Year Anniversary in the firm and from all us—Thank You Keona!
Thought For The Day
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
—Willie Nelson
