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20 Years in Law: Son says that deciding to work with dad was his best decision
Journal Photo by David Rolfe
Joe Brewer (left) and Greg Brewer (right) have a legal practice in Wilkesboro. Greg Brewer's son Zack (center) is working with them this summer.
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Published: June 15, 2008
Greg Brewer never thought that he would become a lawyer.
As a teen, he worked at the law office of his father, Joe Brewer.
He didn't much like it.
"I really was not that interested in the law because I had occasionally clerked for Dad during the summer time," said Brewer, who is now 50. "I learned how to do title searches when I was about 13."
Joe Brewer, 76, remembers those summers differently.
"He really seemed to enjoy it," he said. "He really did."
Whatever the case, Greg Brewer tried out different majors -- anthropology, radio and television, and biology -- first at Wake Forest University, and then when he transferred to UNC Chapel Hill, his father's alma mater.
Nothing stuck until he took some political-science classes. Those classes made him lean toward law school.
"I thought, ‘Yes, I've got an aptitude for it, maybe I'll just go this route,'" he said. "It sort of mushroomed from there."
Greg Brewer worked on Ronald Reagan's election campaigns in 1980 and 1984, earning his law degree from Wake Forest between the two elections. He and his wife, Lisa, moved to Raleigh, then back to Wilkesboro in 1988. He joined his dad's firm, forming Brewer & Brewer on Main Street in Wilkesboro.
The two have been practicing law together for 20 years. Their wives also work there as legal assistants.
"That was just the wisest thing I'd ever done," Greg Brewer said of joining his dad. "Instead of having to learn in the school of hard knocks, getting kicked around, I had somebody that had already been there and done that."
Working together has been easy for them.
"I think of him as Greg, as a lawyer, when I'm dealing with cases," Joe Brewer said. "But then, of course, within no time I get back to ‘son.'"
"It's almost like a competition between us," Greg Brewer said. "At the end of the week, we'll look and see, ‘Well, who did the best this week?'"
Greg Brewer also learned that a seemingly harmless expression from his dad might be a sign of trouble.
"Once in a while he would hand you something and say, ‘No big deal,'" Greg Brewer said. "I would get in there, and it would be like the world's worst case."
For this summer, Brewer & Brewer has yet another Brewer.
Greg Brewer's son, Zack, 19, is home from American University in Washington for the summer. He's working at the office, making copies, delivering court files and tracking down witnesses.
Zack Brewer is studying international relations. He is pretty sure he won't become a lawyer.
But ….
"I guess anything's possible," he said. "I could end up back here. You never know."
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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