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by Marjolijn Bijlefeld
Virginia
Business
December,
2003
Andrea
Stiles is a voice of reason and calm during some of
the rockiest moments of her clients’ lives —
their divorce proceedings. They need support that goes
beyond legal expertise. “When you go through a
divorce... you are in an altered state because your
vital interests are being attacked,” says Jackie
McMillian of Richmond, a former client. She says Stiles
remained empathetic and strong even during the low points,
when McMillian called her at least daily. “She
understood that whether my cry of foul was valid or
not, my anguish was true.”
Andrea Stiles |
Another
Richmond client, Bob Morookian, agrees, noting that
when families break up in an acrimonious battle, friends
of the former couple distance themselves, not wanting
to appear as if they’re taking sides. “You
can feel very much alone and she’s there, giving
great advice, returning phone calls.” Stiles, he
says, “puts her heart and soul into the case”
and listens to all the “terrible details”
no one else wants to hear.
It
is precisely this emotional investment that takes its
toll on family lawyers, says Stiles. “There’s
a shortage of quality practitioners in this area because
so many people won’t do it,” she says. “I
think it’s one of the most important practice areas
in the legal field. Families are the cornerstone of
society and when families break up, society does.”
Stiles
focuses her most fervent passion on the children of
divorce, working to find the best possible solution
for them. “You don’t get a second chance at
raising a child. If you mess it up, it carries through
that child’s life and onto the next generation.
If there’s anything I can do to positively impact
the children, that’s my first priority,” she
says.
Stiles actually prefers settling divorce cases rather
than taking them into litigation, which she calls the
last resort. “It’s more time-consuming to
settle a case than it is to whack it out in court, but
it behooves everyone” she says, if the parties
can come to a reasonable settlement agreement.
That’s
where Stiles’ early training as a general commercial
litigator comes into play. After joining Williams Mullen
following her 1986 graduation from T.C. Williams School
of Law in Richmond, she spent the first three years
with senior partner Bob Eicher, a commercial civil litigator.
Family law has some parallels to splitting up a business
— with an even greater emotional stake. “There
are not many family law attorneys who understand the
business components. I’ve had to bring the business
valuation process and division of business assets to
play in developing this area,” she says.
Richmond
attorney William Wood has represented the other party
in some of Stiles’ divorce cases. “She does
an excellent job for her clients. She’s fair in
her negotiations, well versed in the law and willing
to resolve her cases equitably. She’s not the kind
to complicate the case simply to litigate, but she can
be tough,” he says.
She
did not start out 17 years ago wanting to specialize
in family law; indeed, she was only sure that she wanted
to be a trial lawyer. But the specialty area found her
and intrigued her. She sees her role as advocate and
counselor, in every sense of the word. “It’s
an insane time. I try to show them the light at the
end of the tunnel by telling them how I expect it to
turn out. They need to have a little predictability
in a very unpredictable situation,” she says.
In
the midst of her clients’ turmoil, Stiles finds
her center with her own family — her husband and
two young children. Clients can find that appealing
as well. McMillian says Stiles helped her focus on the
practical matters at hand so she could begin to function
as an independent woman when the marriage failed. “I
saw that she was in perfect harmonious control of her
little world and the message to me was, ‘You, too,
can do that.’”
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