I have always believed that one of our many competitive advantages is our team.  Our firm is fortunate to have a long track record of employee longevity.  As an example Peggy Sagese is celebrating 35 years with the firm this October.  It is difficult to put into words the high caliber of work Peggy gives to our firm and our clients.   As great as her work is, however, she is a better person and we are fortunate to have Peggy working with us.  Congratulations also go out to some relative newbies. Congratulations to Vito Curcuru (one year), Hunter Kosnik (two years) and Victoria Singleton (one year).  Vito is our in house marketing guru, Hunter works as a clerk and helps with courier responsibilities and Victoria works a hybrid role with reception and clerking responsibilities. 

Our firm recently held our 2^nd annual Kemp Klein Foundation Charity Golf Outing.  As I attended the event, I reflected on our commitment to the community.  We believe it is imperative to support local charities and to be involved at every level in the community.  Our golf outing may be our biggest event of the year but our team spends many hours at local charities.  We also gather together internally to make blankets for our foundation partners as well as adopting families over the holidays. 

We started The Kemp Klein Foundation in 1994 and our firm commitment exceeds $2 million in services and dollars since the Foundation’s inception. This year we gave $24,500 to Say Detroit which is a favorite charity of radio personality, journalist and best-selling author Mitch Albom.  We appreciate all of the assistance Mitch Albom gave us this year which included recording promotional announcements on behalf of the outing and for having shareholder Bob Zawideh on the Mitch Albom show.

The golf outing was an outstanding event and several members of our firm did incredible work.  Shareholder Bob Zawideh led the golf outing, working with friend of the firm, Karen Katko, to organize the day.  Christina Kowalenko worked tirelessly on the silent auction.  Kerri Shutt, Geri Hames, Barb Mackin, Pam Mackley, Stavi Varlamos and Adam Diemond all contributed to the success of the golf outing in a variety of roles.  Our volunteer team included friends and family of firm members such as Bob Zawideh’s wife.  It is difficult to single out everyone from that day and I am grateful we came together as a firm to support our community. 

The shift to AI has dominated headlines in 2023.  It is extraordinary to witness the impact of AI in all industries.  Many law firms are moving critical functions to AI in an effort to become more efficient and for cost savings.   At Kemp Klein, we acknowledge AI’s current and coming role, but we also believe AI will never replace one of our core values and what we believe has made Kemp Klein special for over 50 years.  We value relationships.  We strive to not only serve our clients at the highest level, but we want our clients to know that we value them as individuals in a way AI is not capable of and never will be.  As an example, I can’t tell you the number of times one of our team has stayed after hours to talk with a client or attorney to complete critical work, and to make sure deadlines aren’t missed. 

AI is not able to talk with a client who is in distress, understand their needs with compassion, and give clients the attention they deserve.  AI is not able to celebrate the milestones in our clients’ lives and provide comfort during the difficult times.

We do see an opportunity to utilize AI to enhance our services and assist our team but we will never shift our emphasis on service, trust and most importantly relationships.