by Doug Hickerson
A sign names the new occupants of the former rectory near St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Main Street in Brockport.“I can look down Main Street, right down to the bridge. It seems just so vital. It’s who we are. It’s so exciting.” Attorney Roy Heise was exclaiming about the view from his second story office in his firm’s new Main Street location in Brockport. His excitement was about the transformation of his firm with a new managing partner and in a new place near the heart of the village. “This is my home. I can feel the vitality coming back to Brockport,” Heise said, referring to the completion of Main Street’s reconstruction. In semi-retirement after 40 years in the practice, he continued, “I can’t sit home. I enjoy the people too much, talking with them and helping them. It’s who we are.”
“Who we are” is Heise’s repeated phrase for being a friendly “small town firm” rooted in his beloved Brockport where his sons grew up and his law firm evolved.
The Klafehn & Heise law firm has been in Brockport for decades. Starting as Coapman & Klafehn over 50 years ago — in a walk-up office on Main Street — Roy Heise joined the firm in 1972, right out of law school. Adding other partners over time, Mark Klafehn and Roy Heise were most recently located on Water Street near the Welcome Center since 1998. “It was a beautiful place,” Heise said, “but off the beaten path.” Mark Klafehn retired in 2006, but remained active in the firm until he passed away in July 2011 at 83 years of age.
Now, “Who we are” is the firm called Klafehn, Heise, & Johnson, with Kevin G. Johnson, 31, as owner and managing partner. Heise carefully chose Johnson in 2010 to be his successor and to continue the firm’s tradition. With new blood comes a new office location rooted in Brockport’s history. On March 5, “Klafehn, Heise, & Johnson PLLC, Attorneys at Law” opened their newly-renovated offices in the former rectory next to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Brockport’s Main Street, previously the location of attorney Bill Cody’s firm.
Transition: The search for a partner with shared values
Kevin Johnson (left) and Roy Heise are seated in the conference room in the newly-renovated historic house at 109 Main Street next to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. From 1868, with major remodeling in 1928, the building served as “the rectory” for St. Luke’s pastors. The attorneys have retained the period interior design, while installing all new ceilings with recessed lighting and crown moldings, new ceiling fans, gas burning logs in the three fire places, and ceramic tiles in the entry. Original wood floors have been refinished throughout. The building is located between two distinguished neighbors: the historic church and Dunn’s Home Furnishings which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Former mayor Maryanne Thorpe advised on the interior design as a favor to the new occupants. “Maryanne loves old buildings and has quite an eye for design,” Kevin Johnson said. “She helped us restore the house to be functionally modern with an older feel to it.” Photography by Dianne Hickerson.Heise treasures his life’s experience as a small town lawyer. “I love Brockport,” Heise said. “My best memory of being a small town lawyer is the summertime when my two sons rode their bikes to town to have lunch with dad – little things you don’t have in the big city,” including “walking to work,” he added. Heise said he looked for several years for a partner who could take over the firm, someone with similar values about Brockport and a small town practice. He found that partner in Kevin Johnson.
Johnson, born and raised in Brockport, had long held a vision of being a small town lawyer. But, right out of University of Buffalo Law School in 2008, his first opportunity to practice was in employment law and class action law suits in a large firm in Rochester. After two years of travel, working 60 to 100 hours a week, with a wife and baby at home in Brockport, he returned to early thoughts about a small town practice. With a smile, Johnson said he envisioned himself more like attorney Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird rather than Mitch McDeere in John Grisham’s The Firm.
Johnson and Heise see providence in the circumstances that ultimately brought them together as law partners. Living a block away from Johnson’s boyhood home in Sweden Village, Heise had known Johnson as a youngster. Years later, Johnson became disappointed with his large law firm experience and looked for guidance from lawyer acquaintances, including Heise. “While at that other firm, I decided to call him just to pick his brain,” Johnson said. “I was not asking for a job but just wanted to discuss working in a small town and going out on my own.”
In that momentous phone call, Heise recalls Johnson saying, “Roy, can we talk. I don’t think this is what the Lord wants me to do as a lawyer.” Heise told Johnson that he had been looking for a law partner and invited him to talk in person. In that meeting, Johnson said, “As Roy talked, I felt he was speaking to everything the Lord had put on my heart — about this type of practice, how you treat people, and what the purpose of the law is.”
From his side, Heise saw Johnson fitting perfectly in the practice. And, Heise said, “With his lovely wife Marne (the couple is) totally committed to Brockport.” Johnson was hired as an associate on March 15, 2010. On January 1, 2011, Heise transferred ownership of the firm to Johnson and made him managing partner.
Carrying on the firm’s legacy
Maureen Werner (left), paralegal and office manager, has been with Klafehn, Heise, & Johnson since 1999. With her is Connie Hertzlin, legal assistant, who has been with the firm since 2007. Werner is attending law school in Michigan on weekends. She will transfer to the University of Buffalo Law School in the fall 2012 with an anticipated graduation date of April 2014. Dianne Hickerson photo. Sitting with Kevin Johnson in late February, it was stunning to realize the swift and sure path his career had taken — just four years out of law school and just two years at his new law firm. Johnson talked as though he had been planted in just the right place, and echoed Heise’s vision of “Who we are” as a law firm.
“It’s wonderful for me because the practice is varied. I work on landlord-tenant matters, estates, wills, real estate, business contracts, and business formations. I am all over the place. I enjoy that aspect of it. But more importantly, I enjoy working with clients as though they are family, as Roy and Mark did for decades. With probably 70 percent of people who come in here, I know them, their kids, and their grandkids; there is a connection there already. We are able to serve professionally and be close to our clients. If you want to come in, have some coffee and chat, we are not going to send you a bill.”
Community matters
A lifelong resident of Brockport, Kevin G. Johnson lives on Brookdale Road in the Town of Sweden with his wife and two sons.
He and his wife, Marne Robinson, a Kendall native, are extensively involved in the community. Kevin is a town councilman on the Sweden Town Board and a member the Lakeside Health System Foundation Board of Directors. Marne is the director of the Brockport Ecumenical Food Shelf (since 2008) and is also a member the Lakeside Health System Foundation Board.
They are active in Brockport’s Christ Community Church where Kevin has attended with his family since childhood. Kevin has been a firefighter with the Brockport Volunteer Fire Department since 2000, including the ranks of captain and lieutenant, and currently serves as a support member.
Note: An Open House at the new offices is planned for Sunday, April 15.
