FORTY YEARS YOUNG – Schauermann Thayer Turning 40
In 1986, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States of America, Boothe Gardner was the governor of Washington state, and Vic Atiyeh of Oregon. “Top Gun” was the hit movie of the year, followed closely by such timeless classics as “Stand by Me”, “Hoosiers”, and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Hit songs included, “We are the World” featuring Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, “That’s What Friends Are For” with Dionne Warwick, and “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer.
The United States attacked command centers, airfields, and training camps in Libya in a retaliatory strike following a Libyan endorsed terrorist bombing of a West Berlin discotheque which had killed U.S. servicemen. In sharp contrast, a unique event occurred that year, dubbed as “Hands Across America”. Some six million people joined hands in a contiguous line across the country, from New York to California, in an altruistic effort to raise funds to benefit the hungry and the homeless.
In early June of 1986, it also happened that Craig Schauermann and Bill Thayer opened the doors of a law office and began a partnership at 1700 E. Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver, Washington.
Times were different in 1986. Documents were typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter (using a sheet or more of carbon paper inserted between pages to create duplicates as needed). Computers, to the extent they existed at all, were not yet ubiquitous in the context of office work and production as they are now. Cameras were, well, cameras, employing film roll or polaroid technology, not an app on a phone, and the new fad of “camcorders” enabled recording of personal videos to Betamax, VHS, or 8 mm tapes. “Digital”, and “storage in the cloud”, were not yet terms of art. In short, technology, amongst other things, has since come a long way. But to return to what this blog is about, that is, the Schauermann Thayer law firm, Scott Staples and Scott Edwards were just six years old. Brad Thayer was in diapers, a one-year-old toddling around the building as the founding partners and their wives finished painting and other remodel touchups just before the law office officially opened for business on June 11, 1986. And Ben Melnick and Sara Schirato had not even been born yet.
Back then, at its inception, Schauermann Thayer was just two attorneys with a legal secretary, a receptionist (Bill’s wife Lori), and a part-time bookkeeper. Schauermann Thayer’s originating law partners in the early days of the firm’s practice handled personal injury, insurance, and wrongful death cases, just as the firm does now, but in addition, Bill Thayer did criminal defense work, and Craig Schauermann handled a few family law, adoption, guardianship, and will matters for clients. Then from 1999 until his retirement in 2017 the firm had in its lineup attorney Jeff Jacobs, a steady and wonderful trial lawyer—and just an all-around good man (who sadly passed in 2024)—as part of its core. Gradually over the years the firm of just three attorneys “grew” (gaining some and losing some) to its current constitution of five lawyers in full-time active practice (plus the founding attorneys in part-time “of counsel” status), six paralegals and four other full-time employees. The scope of practice, in contrast, significantly narrowed over the years—today, Schauermann Thayer limits its practice to just personal injury, wrongful death, and insurance cases in Oregon and Washington.
The firm’s scope of practice was consciously narrowed. The intent being to have attorneys as knowledgeable and sharp in the field of practice that they work within as possible. In a blog Bill Thayer posted at the time of the firm’s 30th anniversary, it was explained that the focus at Schauermann Thayer:
“… [I]s on helping our clients to the best of our ability, being honest and diligent, and not losing sight of why we were brought on board to help in the first place. Typically, our clients in the field of law that we work within come to seek our help because they are dealing with someone or some entity that has harmed them, or an insurance company acting on behalf of the perpetrator of some harm, and the prospective client doesn’t believe they are being treated fairly. They usually come to us burdened with pain, financial problems, and a great deal of stress and anxiety. They need knowledge of their rights and remedies, an advocate to take over for them who has experience, confidence, and who will shoulder the burden of dealing with an insurance adjuster who merely sees a claim number and a packet of medical records and bills to be swept under the rug (or worse yet an opposing attorney that seems only interested in denying and obfuscating the truth). As part of being the solution for that problem, our attorneys and staff continuously make it a point to recognize that each of our clients’ cases is important. Calls and communications should be promptly returned. Cases need to be moved along to closure. Clients need to be kept informed of the status of their cases. Care needs to be given to make sure all questions are answered and concerns addressed. Respect must be shown to everyone in the process of representing the client, starting with the client, and including adjusters, opposing parties and counsel, and to judges and court staff. And, of course, we have to be ever ready to demonstrate our professional excellence and advocacy skills on our clients’ behalf when their cases need to be arbitrated or tried.”
Striving for those ideals has helped the firm succeed and improve its culture and reputation for over four decades. It has earned the firms’ attorneys the respect of colleagues within and without their area of practice, compliments from judges, law enforcement professionals—as well as from some of the insurance claims adjusters and opposing counsel that the attorneys of the firm match wits with and against in daily practice—and a steady flow of referrals from all of the above, as well as from many prior clients and their families and friends over the years.
This firm philosophy has carried forward. Brad Thayer worked at several different jobs with the firm before ultimately (after completing law school and a year working as an aid to a federal judge) joining as a licensed attorney in 2015. Scott Staples has been with the firm since 2006. Scott Edwards, since 2011. Ben Melnick, since 2018. Sara Schirato, since December of 2024. Each are excellent attorneys who have proven themselves to be caring and capable advocates who work hard for their clients. The firm’s founders also have stayed involved, attending periodically scheduled firm meetings where cases are discussed and analyzed, in addition to remaining regularly available to compare thoughts on a call, text or email with the front-line trial warriors of the daily practice.
Working shoulder to shoulder with each other as a team to continue to learn and grow together to ensure that all the firm’s clients are always provided with the best service possible. At Schauermann Thayer, the past has set the stage, and the future is solid. Resting on a foundation soundly built on forty years of doing it right.
