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Andereck, Evans, Milne, Peace & Johnson, LLC

The Andereck, Evans, Milne, Peace, and Johnson Law Firm, located at the corner of 9th and Washington Streets in Trenton, was first organized in the 1920s. The present day firm had its genesis in the combination of two Missouri firms. One, Stockard & Stockard, was founded by Fenton T. Stockard, father of Gregory T. Stockard, former Missouri Secretary of State. The other was founded in Trenton by former Missouri State Senator O.A. Pickett, grandfather of Thomas O. Pickett, former Associate Circuit and Circuit Court Judge. After many years of close association in the field of cooperative corporation law, the two firms merged in 1973 to form Stockard, Andereck, Hauck, Pickett & Sharp with offices in Trenton and Jefferson City. Today, the firm has five offices located in Princeton, Jefferson City, Springfield, Smithville, and Trenton. It employs 23 trial/corporate attorneys located throughout Missouri with 30 support staff.

The firm's philosophy is that every piece of legal work will be of the highest quality at an affordable cost. To that end, the firm's motto is that they will not be out worked or out prepared in representing their clients.

The firm's focus is personal injury, litigation, utility law and cooperative and corporation law, but the firm also conducts a general business practice. Locally, the firm specializes in litigation with insurance defense, civil litigation, estate planning, personal injury, elder law, and general cooperative and corporate law. The firm offers quality, cost efficient services to clients in a wide variety of areas.

The firm has built upon foundations laid by former firm members. Gregory Stockard, a long-time partner of the firm, who died in 1993, practiced primarily in Jefferson City. Another well-known attorney who practiced in Trenton until his death in 1991 was Phil Hauck. Last year, Eugene Andereck, long-time senior partner, mentor and successful author, passed away.

Marvin Sharp, a Trenton native, works for the firm in a semi-retirement mode. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1959. Even though Sharp is not at the office full time, he still keeps abreast of all that goes on there and handles many projects for the firm's electric cooperative clients.

Sharp offered a few memorable experiences from serving as an attorney at the firm for a number of years. One time, he was serving as the personal representative of an estate. A public auction was held to sell the contents of the house. Merle Vaughn was the auctioneer. In order to display the small items to be included in the sale, Vaughn used two of Sharp's personal lawn chairs to support a piece of plywood. After the sale, when Sharp inquired as to the whereabouts of his lawn chairs, he discovered that they had been sold for $2.25.

In another case, Sharp was appointed by the court to represent an indigent man from out of state. He had been arrested for stealing from Mart Drug Store. The client told Sharp several stories which the later did not find believable. He told Sharp that he had been taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II and that a Japanese soldier had stabbed him in the abdomen with a bayonet. He showed Sharp the scar to prove it. Sharp did a little calculation and determined that his client would have only been 13 years old at that time. Later, a family member told Sharp that his client had never been in the Army and the scar on his abdomen was from an appendectomy.

Current partners include Terry Evans, originally from Quincy, Illinois, who was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association in 1971 and recognized statewide for his trial skills with the Lon Hocker Trial Lawyer Award in 1979. Evans currently serves as Senior Partner in both Trenton and Smithville. Erwin Milne, originally from Oregon, Missouri, was admitted to the Bar in 1974 and began his practice in Trenton. He now serves as a Senior Partner in Jefferson City. Jack Peace, originally from Princeton, Missouri, has been an attorney with the firm since 1976 and specializes in cooperative, corporate, business and estate planning law. Craig Johnson, originally from Virginia, became in attorney in 1980 and practices in Jefferson City. Other partners of the firm practicing in Jefferson City are Beverly Figg and Victor Scott, while partners of the firm practicing in Springfield are Rodric Widger and George Johnson.

Partners of the firm practicing in Trenton and Princeton include Jack Peace, Bill Lewis, Corey K. Herron and Matthew Krohn.

As a young attorney, Jack Peace's mentor was the late Phil Hauck. After 29 years of practicing law, Mr. Peace still enjoys his vocation, but finds it more and more stressful. As with all other professions, technology has impacted the practice of law and he finds clients to be better informed and sometimes more demanding due to the information age. Jack and his wife, Jean, have raised their family in Trenton.

Bill Lewis is a native of Chillicothe and has been with the firm since 1991. He specializes in insurance defense, corporate and municipal law. Mr. Lewis is a son of retired Judge Kenneth Lewis former Circuit Judge in Livingston County. Bill and wife, Natalie, have three sons and reside in Chillicothe.

Corey K. Herron, a native of Rock Port, joined the firm as an associate in 1996 and became a partner in 2002. He stated the job is very rewarding especially when a satisfactory result is achieved for the client. Mr. Herron and his wife Kristi, are the parents of a baby boy born this year, and live in Trenton.

Matt Krohn, a native of Princeton, joined the firm in 1997 and is the Firm's newest partner. Krohn became interested in the law after watching his father, current Circuit Judge, Andy Krohn, in court, and because he enjoys working with people. Krohn said, "I jumped at the chance to work for the Firm because I was familiar with some of the attorneys. The opportunity allowed me to return to the area where I grew up." Mr. Krohn and his wife, Kelly, have two children and live in Princeton.

The support staff, which includes paralegals and secretaries, provides many services to attorneys and clients. The paralegals perform research, contact clients, and do preparation of pleadings, among other tasks. The secretaries perform tasks including client contact, review medical records and many other support activities.

As a visitor in the firm, I fully expected volumes of law books to be replaced with PCs, only to find four complete walls full of hard copy books from floor to ceiling in the library. However, all the attorneys and staff have PCs on their desks and most research the law through online legal sources. The attorneys also take advantage of other online research resources for legal professionals.

Most clients of the firm arrive there due to word of mouth and the reputation that the firm has earned over the years. Due to the many attorneys employed by the firm, expertise in most all areas of law is available. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday appointments on an as needed basis.

For more information about the firm and its attorneys, check out their webpage at lawofficemo.com.

Pictured Above:
Front Row: Rhonda Young, Cyndee Chrisman, Patsy Hagan, and Judy Kost
Back Row: Jean Peace, Matt Krohn, Corey Herron, Bill Lewis, and Jack Peace
Not pictured: Terry Evans, Marvin Sharp, Jeanne Jones, Kristy Eckerson, and Sharla Campbell