Julia Hensel: Why law in the first place? What sparked your interest in becoming an attorney?
Andrea Staub: It actually started when I was in middle school. We had to do a career-day report about a profession we might want to pursue, and for whatever reason, I chose corporate law.
I did not really know what type of law I wanted to practice, but I think I was in eighth or ninth grade, and from that moment on, law school became my goal. I did not really have another path in mind.
When I went to college, I studied political science because I knew I wanted to go directly into law school and eventually become an attorney. I knew from a very young age that was what I wanted to do.
Julia: Was there something about putting that report together that really caught your attention?
Andrea: I do not know that there was one particular thing. I think I enjoyed the research and then taking what I had researched and applying it to the assignment.
That is actually very similar to what I do every day now. I listen to a client’s story, research the law, and figure out how the facts apply.
I think I simply liked that whole process, and it steamrolled from there.
Julia: You are now a shareholder at a firm that has been around since 1888. What did it take to earn that role?
Andrea: I was fortunate enough to start here as an associate right after law school. I graduated, passed the bar, and a few months later applied for an associate position at Metzger Wickersham.
I was hired in 2010, so I have now been with the firm for 16 years.
We are not a huge firm. We currently have six attorneys, and when I started, I think we had seven. It has always been a very open-door environment where the attorneys work closely together.
A lot of the partners who were here when I started were excellent mentors. If I had questions, I could go to them. Watching how they practiced and working alongside them helped me develop into the partnership and shareholder role.
Julia: How has mentorship shaped the way you show up in the courtroom?
Andrea: I have been lucky because even on the defense side of personal injury cases, you get to know many of the attorneys you work against. Whether someone is in your own firm or opposing you, they often have a tremendous amount of experience.
If you are willing to ask questions outside the immediate court proceeding, many people are happy to give you advice. They may offer pointers about what you should or should not do or suggest an easier way to approach something.
I think being willing to ask questions and put yourself out there is incredibly helpful. You can learn so much from people who have already done it.
The attorneys here also gave me a lot of responsibility very early. They let me work up my own cases while still being there if I needed help.
That hands-on experience was extremely valuable. You can watch someone or read about how something should be done, but actually doing it yourself makes it much easier to understand and eventually implement on your own.
Julia: Can you share a couple of cases that have been especially meaningful to you?
Andrea: There are a number of them. In personal injury, clients come to you because something happened that was not their fault. They did not deserve what they are going through, and often they are dealing with serious injuries.
The cases that stay with me most are the ones where it is not only about the physical injuries but also about the emotional impact.
We have a lot of direct contact with our clients. I am not someone who talks with a client once every six months and leaves all of the communication to the paralegals. Most of my clients hear from me at least once a month, if not more.
Some of the most meaningful cases involve people who tried to handle the claim themselves or went to another attorney who turned them down without really explaining why. Sometimes the insurance company simply was not listening to them.
Then they come to us, and we are able to get them the compensation they deserve and are entitled to.
Those cases are often not completely straightforward. The law may not be clear, or the facts may require more work. You have to make the arguments and truly advocate for the person.
When that advocacy leads to a good outcome, those are the best kinds of cases.
Julia: What does it mean to take care of a client through the entire process?
Andrea: It is overwhelming for anyone who gets into an accident. They suddenly have people calling from different directions, medical bills arriving, and treatment they are trying to coordinate.
We tell clients, “You focus on getting better. We will take care of everything else.”
I think clients really appreciate that because we do not simply resolve the legal claim and then walk away.
We make sure the medical bills are addressed and that when the client leaves us, the case is truly closed. We do not want them worrying that something is going to come back months later.
We try to take care of the case from A to Z.
Julia: You describe your style as aggressive with insurance companies but compassionate with clients. How do you balance those two approaches?
Andrea: In personal injury cases, you have to have empathy for your client. If you do not understand where they are coming from or what they are experiencing, you will not be able to communicate that to the insurance company properly.
You have to be empathetic and sympathetic with the client.
But with insurance companies, you also have to be willing to hold the line. Insurance companies are businesses. Even if it is your own insurance company, they are not trying to pay the highest possible settlement.
They may try to downplay what your client is experiencing or make it seem less significant than it really is.
As the attorney, you need the evidence and the law to make sure the insurance company properly evaluates the case. You cannot be a pushover.
I also do not take cases simply to see what I can get out of them. When I present a claim, I believe there is a legitimate case there.
Over time, you work with many of the same adjusters. You may not have a personal relationship with them, but you develop a professional rapport.
They know that when something comes from me, every I is dotted and every T is crossed. They know I have the evidence to back up what I am presenting.
That reputation helps the case move forward.
At the same time, I do not think being unnecessarily difficult with the insurance company or defense counsel helps anyone. I do not like when attorneys refuse to pick up the phone and try to resolve an issue and instead immediately file motions or involve the court.
Having a good relationship with your client, the adjusters, and opposing counsel can help resolve the case more efficiently and ultimately benefit the client.
Julia: How do you think about people using AI to evaluate or handle their own legal cases?
Andrea: I think AI is a great tool, but people have to understand its limitations.
It is similar to going online and Googling what your case is worth. That is not necessarily going to give you an accurate answer.
Where you live matters; where the accident occurred matters; many factors affect how a case is evaluated.
People may think they can handle everything themselves because AI gives them an answer, but some nuances can completely change how a case turns out.
You are not necessarily going to get those nuances from AI.
Julia: What have been some of the hardest lessons you have learned about the business side of running a law firm?
Andrea: I became a shareholder in January 2020.
Two months later, everything shut down because of COVID.
So I was learning the business-management side of the firm while simultaneously trying to go through the entire COVID experience. At times, it felt like being on a hamster wheel because nobody knew what was going to happen next.
Once we got through that period, one of the biggest lessons was realizing how different the two roles are.
Running and managing a law firm requires a completely different hat than practicing law. You may spend part of the day in meetings about the business and then immediately have to switch back into attorney mode.
It is not easy.
We have a great COO who helps run the business side and keeps us focused. We are attorneys. We are business owners too, but that is not what we went to school for.
Having a strong team around you is an absolute necessity.
Julia: Has marketing been one of the more challenging parts of running the firm?
Andrea: Absolutely. Personal injury marketing is incredibly difficult because there are so many competitors.
You constantly have to figure out how to differentiate yourself.
Historically, law firms advertised in the Yellow Pages. Nobody really uses a phone book anymore.
Then television became a major channel, but traditional television has changed because people are cutting the cord and moving toward streaming, YouTube, and other platforms.
Then you have SEO, Google Analytics, and digital advertising.
Trying to determine where to spend our marketing dollars so the right calls actually come in has probably been one of the hardest things for me.
I know significantly more about SEO today than I did a year or two ago, and I still do not completely understand it.
That is another reason having experts around you is crucial. If you try to become the expert in every part of running the business yourself, you will spend all of your time doing that and have no time left actually to practice law.
Julia: How do you keep up with a marketing environment that changes so quickly?
Andrea: It keeps changing.
There is always something new that comes out that you want to try. Then you have to determine whether it is actually going to be worthwhile.
And you have to give it enough time to know whether it is working.
So a lot of it is simply going through those changes and constantly trying to determine what makes sense for the firm.
Julia: You were admitted to the Maryland Bar and helped the firm expand into a new state. What did that process look like?
Andrea: We are primarily based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Maryland state line is only about an hour away.
Because the market in our area is so competitive, we decided to branch out and try another state.
Maryland did not have reciprocity for me, so I could not simply transfer my Pennsylvania license. I had to take the exam and study for it.
Taking a multiple-choice test 10 or 15 years after law school is very different. I had to relearn how to study, and I can tell you I do not want to take any more tests.
But I passed, and now we have two offices in Maryland.
The law there is completely different from Pennsylvania in many respects, so we had to learn those differences and make sure we had the infrastructure in place to handle Maryland cases properly.
The fundamentals of representing an injured client are still similar no matter what state you are in. You simply have to learn how to advocate under that state’s particular laws.
It has been fun. We opened in Frederick and then more recently in Germantown, and hopefully we will continue expanding from there.
Julia: Have there been times in your career when you almost gave up or wondered whether the work was right for you?
Andrea: Being an attorney can be extremely stressful because another person is relying on you to advocate for them.
You want to make sure you are doing everything possible and presenting their case in the best way you can.
But sometimes it still does not work out.
Something can happen that completely torpedoes a case. Or you can do everything you possibly can, go to trial, and still not get the outcome you wanted.
I have experienced that.
You may believe you presented the strongest case possible, but ultimately you are putting the decision in the hands of 12 strangers.
They do not necessarily understand the law the way attorneys do, and their emotions and experiences affect how they evaluate the case.
Then you have to sit with the client and explain that, unfortunately, there may be nothing more you can do.
There have definitely been times when the stress followed me home. Your brain does not shut off. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking, “Oh my gosh, I forgot about this,” and then you are awake for the rest of the night.
Learning work-life balance is essential because otherwise you burn out. And burnout does not serve you or your clients.
Julia: What has helped you unplug and find that balance?
Andrea: I am friends with a lot of attorneys both inside and outside the firm. Other attorneys understand what you are going through.
Being willing to be vulnerable and tell someone where you are mentally can be very helpful. Sometimes you need advice, and sometimes you simply need to have a glass of wine with somebody at the end of the day and decompress.
I also have two young children, a three-year-old and a five-year-old, so spending time with them definitely helps me keep things in perspective.
I have hobbies too. I like gardening and woodworking.
Anything that gets my mind away from the firm or a particular case helps.
Work-life balance is essential, and thankfully I am at a firm that prioritizes it for both attorneys and staff.
We are not a place where everyone is expected to work 80-hour weeks. We understand that people need to leave the office and actually live their lives too.
Julia: When you think about the next ten years, what goals or dreams do you have for yourself and the firm?
Andrea: I want to keep the firm relevant and continue making it a place clients want to come to.
We have been around since 1888. That is not necessarily a burden, but it is a significant legacy to carry. We want to make sure the firm continues and that we are making the right decisions to support that.
In ten years, I hope we are still here and celebrating another milestone anniversary.
I also want us to continue developing the firm and embracing tools like AI where they can genuinely help us work more efficiently and move cases along for our clients.
Most importantly, I want to make sure the firm and our staff are taken care of while continuing to push into new areas and get outside our comfort zone.
That might mean entering another area of law, expanding geographically, or pursuing opportunities we have not considered yet.
There are so many possibilities. The challenge is identifying the right ones and then creating the time and infrastructure to support them.
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