Molly and Jake Steinkemper

Steinkemper Law

When I asked Jake Steinkemper about his thoughts on receiving the Alfred G. Elleck Lawyer Referral Service Award, Jake seemed, not negatively, to wave it away through an explanation of the award. What I gathered was that the referral service run by the Omaha Bar Association sets it up so an attorney answers legal questions from a community member and advises them if there is a reasonable case to pursue. In my conversation with him, I came to under-stand that he thought it was just a thing a good man should do.

In the interview, I learned he played minor league baseball and transferred to practicing law after a related injury. It was then that another Elleck Award recipient, Molly, his wife, joined us in the interview, and I really learned of them through their banter, rather than my questions.

“I had this case at the Supreme Court, and they give you a clock, like a basketball clock, and man, ten minutes goes by so fast,” Jake began with a certain due pride in his voice, then Molly added with a smart laugh,

“I broke the valve off the water heater.”

Jake smiled, shaking his head,

“I was so tired, the next day at the Supreme Court. And there was that time Molly decided to redo our bathroom the night before my first court case.”

Molly certainly chuckled,

“I had to chisel away this–”

(As an interviewer, I hope my jaw didn’t go slack, feeling so bad for Jake.)

Her husband added his own chuckle,

“I never received an apology for those.”

At some point, I recovered the interview from the bantering couple and (very professionally) asked them the best theme song that should play in a courtroom. Molly took no time in snapping back,

“Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns N Roses.”

A solid answer, right?

Through more questions, I found out that Jake prefers to be talking in a courtroom, while Molly rather enjoys writing and compiling. She was one of the youngest women in her grad-uating class, and has been practicing law for twenty years. Nobly, she also works with VA benefits. The thing they had in common was that both of them liked helping people.

“We aren’t trying to grow.” Molly asserted, "We just do it because it’s rewarding." I think astutely or wisely, they started their small firm so they could have more flexible hours so that they would never have to choose between family and work. Both of them went on to speak fondly at some length about how much they learned about other professions while researching for cases.

It is grand, knowing that the community has two great lawyers who hold such passion and a sense of duty.

“Is there any law advice you could give to everyone?”

Nodding, Jake responded with a firmness,

“People wait too long to find a lawyer.”

Molly touched up his answer,

“You can fix your pipes yourself, but would a plumber do it better?”

“And final question:” I might have paused for effect, “What’s the best lawyer joke you know?"

Jake seemed to argue with himself for a second, muttered about the appropriateness, then the lawyer in him beat the other lawyer in him as he resolved to say it.

“A judge looks down to the lawyer and scolds,

“You can’t say: “that’s f&*^$^g B.S.”, you have to say, “I object!"

Bonnie M. Boryca

Erickson | Sederstrom

The “Alfred G. Elleck Lawyer Referral Service Award” is given to those who take part in the Omaha Bar Association program of the same name (for ten years or more) where the OBA sends community members in need to lawyers who agree to see if there is a reasonable case to pursue and offer advice for a modest fee.

I met one of the recipients of this year’s award, attorney Bonnie M. Boryca, in one of those fancy boardrooms you see on law-dramas: me with my tiny black book for recording answers and her in her fancy suit sitting across from each other at a big oaken table. In spite of that, any nervousness I had bled away as we began the interview: her answers to my questions were without any ramble; wholly polite while also focused and concise. If I were a potential client, I would find it easy to be in her company.

When asking after her career path, I learned that originally she worked in non-profits, seeking to help people that way, and then further, admirably, pursued a career in law after deciding she wanted to see “concrete change.”

 “And what’s the best part of your job?”

With an easy smile, she answered, “Solving problems for other people."

"And the worst?”

“Working deadlines; late nights, long days.”

It was her first appellate argument that solidified that practicing law is what she wanted to do. With a spark in her eye, she added, “I could see all the hard work coming to fruition.”

Candidly, our conversation flowed over that prestigious oaken table into the topic of the law itself.  First, what she wanted people to know about it,

“People think the law is cut and dry, but the facts of life themselves vary. And everything is much longer than you think it will be.”

Curious, I wondered if, in her opinion, there was anything the law could do differently. In her kind but focused way, she replied ever firmly:

“The law doesn’t address well the stress that is applied to people and businesses, except through money.”

As per the website of the firm she belongs to, Erickson Sederstrom she serves as the Vice-President of their Board of Directors, and while we sat at their fancy table, she hadn’t seemed through our conversation to have lost that which she pursued in the beginning, more than fifteen years ago while working for non-profits. The Alfred Elleck Award has been granted to an attorney who likes solving people’s problems and wishes that there were more ways to address the stress placed on people beyond just monetary reparations. I believe that our city of Omaha is fortunate to have a lawyer like Bonnie M. Boryca practicing law in it.

As a last question, I asked if she had anything she’d like to say to other lawyers. Somehow, both direct and kindly, she replied:

“There is value in being courteous and professional.”