Dad Becomes Associate in His Daughter’s Law Firm
Greg Bachand is 60 years old and a first-year associate. But that’s not the only unusual aspect of his new job situation: He’s working in his 35-year-old daughter’s Connecticut law firm.
The Connecticut Law Tribune explains why. Bachand passed the bar exam in 1974, but he never practiced law. For 35 years, he had sold life insurance, but he was becoming burned out.
Bachand’s daughter, Tanya Bachand, decided she needed her father’s business acumen as she took over a personal injury law firm in Danbury from her former boss, who had resigned after stealing client funds. Bachand merged the firm with another one in Norwalk run by a criminal defense lawyer, creating Bachand DiScala.
Greg Bachand says his sales skills are coming in handy. He cites an instance in which a new client, a teenage girl who threw a hammer through a liquor store window, needed help dealing with addictions. Both Bachands decided she needed to attend a juvenile boot camp. Greg Bachand made visits to the prosecutor, the judge and the lawyer who administered the teen’s trust fund to get them on board.
“I used my skills as a salesman to get my foot in the door and get people to listen to me,” Greg told the Law Tribune.
Tanya said the experience shows her father brings a different perspective to the practice. “Because he hasn’t done this as long as some of us, he thinks outside the box,” she told the legal publication. “He doesn’t know there is a box.”
Corrected on June 23 to indicate that Tanya Bachand took over a firm in Danbury.
