From the outside, Gregory and Adams, P.C. may seem to be monolithic, formal corporate law firm in a solid, brick-and-mirrored-window building on Old Ridgefield Rd., catty-corner from Stop & Shop Plaza. But as they celebrate 50 years in Wilton, it’s clear they’re as much a firm about heart as they are a firm in the heart of Wilton.
Looking through the bios of the 11 attorneys who work for the firm shows they all commit many volunteer hours to local organizations and municipal commissions. In addition, to commemorate the firm’s 50th anniversary, the partners elected to make special grants to several local organizations, including the Wilton Family Y, the Wilton Library Association, the Wilton Student Financial Aid Committee, A Better Chance of Wilton (ABC), and the Wilton Historical Society.
It’s clear how relaxed and collegial the firm is on meeting some of the partners. One lawyer’s dog greets a visitor in the office lobby. The partners joke familiarly with one another, laughing when Susan Goldman answers the “How long have you been here?” question by saying, “Oh, 29 years–I started when I was 10.”
“I think you were five,” suggests Roger Valkenburgh, with a chuckle.
He agrees that one of the best things about working there is how collaborative and harmonious it is.
“There’s a strong sense of family and a caring about one another. People’s kids, how their families are doing, if they have a challenge we’re supportive. We have our Wednesday pizzas and monthly birthdays, it’s a good place to work. It’s reflected in the longevity of the people who are here.”
Goldman agrees, especially as one of two women with the firm. “It is a family atmosphere. When I started working here I wasn’t even married. Now I’m married and raised three kids–I worked mommy hours for many, many years and never had any issues with that. Which is hard to do, even before all the technology where it’s easier to be working from home. I was able to do all that, and had a lot of support–I still have a lot of support. It’s fantastic from that perspective.”
The firm was created 50 years ago by Julian Gregory and Thomas Adams, a litigator Gregory lured out of New York City. They both were involved in town affairs to a great extent. According to firm history, Gregory was a very accomplished estate planning and probate lawyer. They also handled real estate closings, but as people were added, the breadth of the practice grew and diversified.
Ralph Slater was the fifth attorney to join Gregory and Adams; he’s been with the firm for 41 years and is now its president.
“When I started, we were a five-attorney firm, over the hardware store. It had a much smaller feel, very localized, with more of a Wilton practice as opposed to now. It’s become more diverse and [Fairfield] county-wide. The whole nature of the practice has changed. Back then a will would be four pages; now it starts out at 10 pages but has to have a pour-over trust with 22 pages,” Ralph says. “When I started out you were dictating into these plastic belts that rolled around; we had just gone to a mag card machine which was ‘state of the art,’ and secretaries had IBM Selectrics [typewriters], which were brand new, and if you made four carbons, and you made a typo, you had to roll it up, put in something–white out, blue out, yellow out on the different pages, roll it back,” Slater recalls.
Today, they have a very strong corporate and commercial department; an estate planning and probate department with three attorneys; a very active land-use practice–the firm is frequently very active in municipal presentations to local planning & zoning boards, representing clients with commercial interests; and litigation attorneys.
Steeped in Wilton History
According to name partner Thomas Adams, the tone of the firm can be traced back to its founder, Julian Gregory, who died in 2002.
“He had a good sense of humor, and was a native of this town–going back 200 years. But I can remember standing outside his office door with some other lawyers and we wanted to discuss something, and he’d say, ‘Well, if you’ve got a deck of cards, come in, we’ll play bridge!’”
Gregory recruited Adams from his New York City litigation practice, and enticed him to move to the wilds of Wilton to join him. Adams recounts an amazing story of being invited to Gregory’s family home on Belden Hill Rd.
“We were having a drink in the library. He had told me he’d spent the entire winter–half of it on his knees–restoring the house. He took it back to the original construction. I look down and I see carved in the hearthstone JG ’47. I said, ‘I see you put your initials in the hearthstone as a memento of your efforts.’ One of the few times I saw him swell up with family pride, he said, ‘No, I’m the ninth Julian Gregory to occupy this house. It was built in 1747.’”
Adams, at 85, is the respected and much beloved leader of the firm; he says Gregory would be proud of the firm today.
“He was a selectman, he was the town prosecutor back when Wilton had its own court. When I came in 1963 there were six lawyers. Not one of those lawyers is alive today, and every law firm that was functioning then is gone, and every law firm that was in Norwalk is gone. The only one left is this one, so I must have done something right.”
He says the nature of giving back that is so prevalent with whose who work at the firm is something that fits with the small town origins. It also explains his own service to Wilton.
“You feel the town is something you have to give back to because it gave you something,” Adams says. “I’m a small town boy from Western New York. One of the reasons I came to Wilton was it was similar to the town in which I was raised. I’m very, very fortunate the dice rolled that way. In 1963 Wilton only had a population of about 7,800. I had only been here two years, one Saturday morning the phone rings, it was the first selectman, Vinnie Tito. ‘Tomm-o! How would you like to be town counsel? Ed Rimer doesn’t want to do it anymore, he suggested I call you.’ There was no meeting the party chairman, this or that. It was a Saturday morning phone call. I did it for six years.”
He also chaired the High School Building Committee and was a trustee of the Wilton Library Association and Norwalk Hospital, as well as volunteered with many other civic and professional organizations.
Most of his practice now sees him as trustee for five larger, local foundations, including the Dana Foundation, the Ambler Trust and the Shoff Foundation.
Staying Involved Locally
Gregory and Adams is as close to a New York City law firm as you’ll likely find in Wilton, but the emphasis remains on the local community. It keeps them grounded. Most of the attorneys are Wilton residents; those who aren’t live nearby, extending the regional reach, but stay involved in Wilton organizations like Kiwanis, Rotary Club and the Wilton Chamber.
“We’re a strong regional firm now, but we started with roots that were pretty focused on Wilton,” explains Valkenburgh, who lives in Wilton. Those roots, he says, have stayed strong. “Just as you know how closely you’re connected to the community through your kids, it’s true for us too. We are involved in a lot of local civic efforts.”
“We contribute back to the community,” agrees Goldman, who lives in Redding. “Wilton is important to us.”
While volunteerism and civic participation is not a conscious requirement of attorneys who join Gregory and Adams, it’s something that happens organically.
We’ve found people who have a sense of giving back to your community, you give back to your fellow employees, you treat them with respect. We don’t tell people they have to help the community, that’s just what they feel they should be doing,” says Slater. “You’ve got to give something back to the community in which you’re living, and usually you find you get much more back in terms of self-satisfaction and reward.”
He adds it’s also a reflection of the personal relationships they develop with clients over the years. “We have a tendency to become a family counselor as much as a family lawyer,” he says.
In fact, while the firm has grown, Valkenburgh says they remain still a family firm, that has just diversified.
“We still focus on families, with any kind of legal [need], and it ranges to local and regional businesses as well as a few very large corporations,” he says, although the firm refers out divorce, criminal, personal injury and intellectual property work.
Donations to Commemorate 50 Years
Hewing to their habit of giving back, the firm opted to make several donations locally, rather than commemorate their anniversary with a big party. The donations have all been somewhat thematic.
“The focus has really been on kids,” says Valkenburgh.
Indeed, the contributions have been significant–for example, the gift to the Wilton Y will fund summer camp experiences for 20 needy campers; the donation to the Wilton Library was for $2,500, which will support the Teen Robotics Team and other educational programs for teens and children.
Paul Burnham, who joined the firm in 2012 after practicing for more than 20 years in Darien, says he always admired the firm’s community support.
“I was extremely pleased when I had the opportunity to join. In all those years, Gregory and Adams was a part of the community. Whether it was the Wilton Y, the Historical Society, wherever, you’d always see ‘Gregory and Adams.’