Ask any busy attorney to describe their workload and they might exclaim, “I have a lot on my plate,” or “I’m burning the candle at both ends,” or, “I’m up to my ears in briefs.”
A casual inspection of attorney Darren Kennedy might lead one to believe he’s somehow escaped the juggernaut of labors that has befallen many of his peers. He wears a relaxed smile like it’s an article of well-tailored clothing, his posture is best described as welcoming and his calm voice carries no hint of tension.
Yet the words Kennedy employs to paint a picture of what’s typically waiting for him on his desk tell a different story. He begins with a description of the circumstances that spurred his move last summer from a one-room office in downtown Chattanooga to a comparatively spacious sprawl in a Hixson professional building.
“My firm was blowing up with work,” says Kennedy, 53. “I’d been on my own for 18 years, and that had served me well, but I was drowning.”
Metaphorical explosions and deepening waters aside, leaving the city center made sense for Kennedy, who lives in Sequatchie County. Hixson not only places work closer to home but many of his clients come from that direction, he says.
Moreover, a thoughtful survey of his burst of business helped Kennedy to identify its source as well as a solution.
After starting out as a general practitioner in 2006, Kennedy gradually sifted down the matters he handles to three: litigation, probation and estate planning. As he narrowed his focus, he began to market his services to the public. Before long, Kennedy was hearing the fizz of a burning fuse.
Fortunately, the uptick in clients produced the means to hire help. Kennedy brought on his wife, Andrea, as a legal assistant, while his daughter, Lauren, took on the mantle of marketing. Two more assistants also joined the endeavor. It was a small concern compared to some Chattanooga firms, but it had a deeper bench than Kennedy was accustomed to drawing from.
Since then, Kennedy has assigned each assistant to a specific practice area and provided the necessary education.
“When a client calls us, they can speak with someone I’ve trained to handle their issue,” Kennedy explains. “If you call about a probate matter, we have someone who takes care of those, and if you call about landlord-tenant issue, we also have someone who takes care of those.”
Launching and running a new firm turned Kennedy from a lone wolf into a managing partner. But as he hired staff, implemented work flow and started paying the bills on suite 201 at 5617 Highway 153 – which he purchased rather than leased – he was mindful enough to also consider his mission.
“We rebranded from ‘Darren Kennedy, Attorney at Law’ to ‘Resolutions Law Firm,’” Kennedy says. “I wanted our name to recognize how stressful legal issues can be and to remind us that we’re here to make a difference for people.”
Kennedy admits he tends to dive so deeply into solving a client’s legal issues that he forgets that the people sitting across from him are human beings who also need empathy and encouragement. He formed Resolutions partly out of a desire to help him shift his perspective.
“I no longer want to be merely an attorney at law but a true counselor of the law.”
This compassionate handholding, as Kennedy calls it, will be paired with quality services, he adds.
Personal experience cemented Kennedy’s resolve in this regard when his father died before updating a moldy last will and testament. Kennedy had created a will for his dad several years before his death but had not revised it, even though both of his parents had urged him to do so.
As Kennedy avoided probate, he came to understand in a personal way the message at the heart of the sermon he’d been preaching to his clients about being prepared. Now he aims to walk the proverbial extra mile to ensure his clients are educated and informed, he says.
“I want to do the best possible job for my clients but also demonstrate that I care about them and want them to have peace of mind.”
As a child of the Collegedale area, Kennedy is familiar with the tranquility one experiences when all is well in the world. Unlike the more active municipality of today, Collegedale was more of a one-soda machine town than a one-light town.
“There was nothing in Collegedale except a gas station with a small convenience store,” Kennedy recalls. “I used to ride my bike to get a Coke from its machine because it was the only place in town.”
School wasn’t far from home, either. Kennedy attended A.W. Spalding Elementary, where his father served as principal for 20 years, then moved on to Collegedale Academy for high school and Southern Adventist University for college.
Needing a steady paycheck after graduating from Southern and marrying Andrea, Kennedy accepted a clerical position with a finance company. Upon becoming a loan officer, he entered the realm of real estate investing.
When flipping houses stoked Kennedy’s appetite for business, he launched his own mortgage company. Later, he hired a contractor and began building houses and small subdivisions, which he then rented. At his height of activity as a developer and landlord, Kennedy owned more than 200 units.
None of this was based on a plan, Kennedy says.
“When people would ask me what I wanted to do after I grew up, I didn’t have an answer for them. Even picking a major in college was hard for me because I wasn’t drawn to anything in particular.”
Even so, Kennedy continued to place one foot in front of the other until he found himself standing at the front entrance to the Nashville School of Law. However, he wasn’t there to become a practicing attorney; rather, he wanted to earn a law license so he could save on legal fees.
“I was spending a lot of money on lawyers and thought I could learn enough to save some cash,” Kennedy grins.
Kennedy graduated from law school in 2006 and succeeded at his plan until 2008, when the global financial and subprime mortgage crises increased the appeal of practicing law full-time.
After hanging a shingle, Kennedy poured his real estate expertise into his practice. Over time, this work opened the door to serving probate clients, which then organically segued into estate work.
“My real estate clients would have issues with probate and contact me to assist with them. And that put me in the realm of doing estate planning.”
Much like Kennedy built a professional practice one chain link at a time, his outside interests have evolved through a series of activities that first engaged him as an adolescent. The open roads and fields of Collegedale birthed a 10-year-old runner for starters, and then this budding athlete went on to become a 12-year-old motocross racer and then a 14-year-old road cycling contender.
Decades of competing in triathlons and other endurance sports followed, and today the still-trim Kennedy can look back on a five-year stretch as the cross-country coach at Sequatchie County High School and look forward to his coaching sessions with his college-age son.
Kennedy also strives to leave enough room in his schedule to remind Andrea that they not only work together but also have a life together.
“We still have date nights and spend time with our kids,” he says. “In the midst of everything else, that’s my priority. I do what I do for them.”