Family Law Practice Has Unique Style
O'NEIL & WIDELOCKFamily Law Practice Has Unique Style
by Joe D. Stevenson, staff writer for The Bakersfield Californian Sunday, June 14, 1992
This may be the most unusual law firm in the San Joaquin Valley. One partner leaves his briefcase behind and carries a laptop computer and printer to court. The other hangs around the office or makes house calls in jeans and a sports shirt. Walls are adorned with contemporary art, much of it by local artists. A bulletin board is plastered with baby pictures.
O'Neil & Widelock is a family law practice. Family law is generally a euphemism for divorce law, but this firm has expanded the meaning. Gary O'Neil, the senior partner, deals almost exclusively in marriage dissolutions. On the other hand, Marc Widelock is an adoption lawyer, spending almost all his time with adoptive parents and the birth mothers of children placed for adoption.
"I spend all my time with families who are breaking up; my partner is engaged in putting families together," O'Neil quipped.
"I think I may be the only attorney in the Central Valley who devotes his entire practice to adoptions," Widelock added.
O'Neil wears business suits to court most days, but he upsets the decorum on St. Patrick's Day when he appears in his kilt.
Widelock says his informal attire helps put prospective parents and birth mothers at ease. He does put on a suit and tie when he appears in court, but that is a brief formality when a Superior Court judge approves an adoption.
Recently, a couple from Ohio arrived at the office to accept a baby for adoption. Widelock said it was his first meeting with the couple. "The wife took one look at me and whispered to her husband, 'Is that the lawyer?'" Widelock said with a smile.
Widelock said he handles about 100 adoptions a year. Parent clients come from all over the country. One family from Alaska is seeking a second child through the firm's services. Almost all the children offered for adoption are from California.
Neither partner started out on a scholastic legal track.
O'Neil was the California Air Resources Board's first affirmative action coordinator and in 1972 was appointed by Gov. Reagan as an instructor in the California Middle Management Institute. In the U.S. Air Force, he had been an aircraft controller. (He currently is a student pilot.) Widelock is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music in New York. He spent 10 years as a professional musician, with bands backing name entertainers in concerts and appearances. He frequently was employed by Dick Clark's All-American Bandstand, and backed such performers as Dionne Warwick and Chuck Berry. He describes himself as a keyboard player.
He decided the role of musician infringed upon family life. He followed his wife's family to Kern County and enrolled in the Western States College of Law in Fullerton. While a commuting law student, he learned O'Neil "was looking for somebody." The two men found their goals and senses of humor compatible. Widelock was O'Neil's law clerk and when he was admitted to the California Bar in 1986, began practicing law with the firm. He was invited to become a partner four years ago.
O'Neil, a law graduate of Lincoln University in Sacramento, has been an attorney since 1977. He has been practicing in Bakersfield for 11 years.
O'Neil & Widelock used to do business in the rustic former Log Cabin Florist building at 404 18th Street. O'Neil jokingly says as the firm grew, they became so crowded, he feared a surprise visit from Cal OSHA. Today they are ensconced in a third floor suite in the Wells Fargo Building on the California Corridor with a view of the city's modern office buildings.
Despite kilts and jeans, O'Neil & Widelock is a contemporary practice. O'Neil proudly demonstrates the office furniture, which he says is Steelcase's first West Coast installation of its type. Either lawyer can swivel 180 degrees from working at his computer to a circular projection of his desk, which is a conference table. The furniture is freestanding, so it doesn't become a part of the real estate. Special channeling accommodates electronic and communication wiring, so there is no clutter of under-desk cords.
O'Neil takes his computer and printer to court so he can produce instant documents for client, judge or opposing attorney. He says the law practice has changed so that it is necessary to have information available at all times. With the modern no-fault divorce laws, divorces are a matter of appraisals and negotiation, except where custody is involved. He is concerned that the real victims of divorce are the children.
He says drugs and alcohol are becoming among the most common causes of divorce. O'Neil said about 40 percent of his divorce clients are women.
Widelock says the adoption practice sort of evolved from a few cases the office handled to a full-scale operation.
He operates on the theory that a successful adoption is predicated upon a relationship between the adopting couple and the birth mother. Usually the introduction is made when the birth mother is expecting. He brings the participants together, so a bond is established. This gives the birth mother an assurance that the child will be in good hands. Often the newborn is presented in the law office. He says that is a bonus for the office staff, because everyone gets a chance to hold the baby.
Linda Smith, office administrator, heads a staff of nine, which holds babies and performs the other tasks required in a modern, computerized law office.
Most of the birth mothers are 22 or older, although Widelock has placed babies delivered by teenagers. He said the teenagers are subject to peer pressure to keep the child, even though the girl's mother favors adoption.
The success of Widelock's theory is measured by the number of pictures on the wall-- smiling parents with the baby, often with the birth mother included in the group. Both men have written and lectured in their areas of expertise. Widelock is founder of the South Valley Adoption Support Group and the Fresno-Clovis Adoption Support group. O'Neil is past chairmen of the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce Governmental Review Committee.
And Long-Island-reared Widelock has become westernized. His new hobby is horseback riding, a sport he shares with his 7-year-old son.
Marc Widelock. Write us or call 1-800-67-STORK (1-800-677-8675)
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Copyright ? 1995 Adopting Resources. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ? 1995 Adopting Resources. All Rights Reserved.
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