A unique legal team — Part II

Erin is also mom to two-year-old Avery.

​By Kelly Sargent

Rob Tucker founded his law firm in 1992 and his daughter Erin joined him as an attorney in the practice in 2015. Last month I quizzed Rob about how that’s working out, and he had nothing but good things to say about what his daughter has added to the firm:
 
She’s a genuinely nice person
She’s a hard worker
She respects his knowledge and experience
She’s a creative thinker
She keeps up on the myriad changes in the law
She’s an excellent writer
And she’s fun
 
Not too shabby. But, I wondered, what would Erin have to say about dad? 
 
Since she’s his daughter, obviously Erin would have had ample time to develop opinions, but in Erin's case, she's had more than the usual opportunities to get to know her father. That's because Erin started helping out at Tucker Law when she was just a kid. As soon as she learned to use a computer keyboard, Rob gave her interrogatories to type at home so that she could practice her typing skills. Soon Erin began working in the office part-time and summers doing clerical work. Rob even let her sit in on a trial with him so she could see how a case is developed from beginning to end: case development, discovery, witness preparation, exhibit handling and trial presentation. 
 
With all that experience and exposure, you’d think that Erin would have had being an attorney in her sights from a very early age. You’d be wrong. 
 
Erin didn’t want to follow in her dad’s footsteps. She wanted to strike out on her own path, carve her own niche in the world, so instead Erin studied business management, earning a bachelor's degree while at the same time working full time at Wells Fargo at night. Whew!
 
Erin had no intention of studying the law. No way, no how, not going to do it.
 
As it turned out, Erin didn’t find working in a large corporation terribly fulfilling, and so — almost on a flier — she applied to attend law school. She wasn’t taking the prospect very seriously, though, because she figured her chances of getting accepted were slim and none. She hadn’t, as many wanna-be law student do, geared her undergraduate education toward law school acceptance; her bachelor’s wasn’t from a prestigious university and she hadn’t concentrated any effort on building a law school application resume.
 
To her great surprise she was accepted into Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville.
 
Despite having decided not to study law, Erin found that it came naturally. No wonder, since she’d been in and around it for as long as she can remember. Erin not only excelled in law school, but graduated eleventh out of a class of 546 students. She passed the Florida Bar Exam in 2013 and worked for a sole practitioner in employment law for about a year. But then she thought, “Hey wait! I could be working with my dad!” 

Thus the father-daughter team at Tucker Law was born. And so what does Erin have to say about working with her dad?
 
Erin can’t imagine herself working with anyone else. She appreciates that her father is willing to embrace new ideas, allowing her to pursue creative strategies based on the latest changes in the law. Erin finds her dad's decades of experience invaluable to her as a new lawyer, and she's grateful that she can seek his support and advice as often as she needs to. Erin's other significant strength, she believes, is her ability to remain calm in virtually any situation, whereas her dad is more demonstrative — a yin to his yang. All in all, she's convinced there isn't anyone else she could work with and make such a good team as the two of them do.

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