{Excerpt from an interview with Abigail Gustafson, attorney with van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim}
Growing up with two attorneys as parents and being told I was great at arguing, I pretty much always knew I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up. My mother is a civil practitioner, focusing primarily nowadays on family law mediations, and my father was a public defender for 34 years. I say “was” because he recently just celebrated his well-deserved retirement. Congrats again dad. I would be remiss to not acknowledge that the attorney I am is largely due to these two and their unwavering support of my incessant arguing. I’m a Florida girl, born and raised, who graduated from the University of Florida. Go Gators! I then moved to Pittsburgh (home of my father’s people and Primanti’s) where I received my J.D. from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
In a tale as old as time, I followed a man I loved across the state from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Thankfully, that worked out in more ways than one; the aforementioned man is now my husband, and it led me to a job that I love, my current position here at van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim. I originally moved to Philadelphia with no job, zero contacts in the legal field, and not the slightest idea of what I was going to do. All I knew was that I wanted to help people, and I didn’t care where I started to do that.
After sending out what may have been one hundred applications, I was brought in for an interview to be Mr. van der Veen’s law clerk. His law clerk at the time (Adam Leasure, a current attorney with the firm) was leaving to go back to school, and he is the one who saw my resume, by kismet, and thought I’d be a good fit. For some reason, Mr. van der Veen took a chance on me, and I gladly accepted the position at the end of the interview, starting the very next day. I was eager to get to work. As my coworkers can attest, I have a lot of energy to put to good use. A few months, after the bar results came out (spoiler: I passed!), I transitioned into an associate and began working in the criminal defense department. Before I knew what hit me, I got the opportunity to work on national cases that I never thought, in a million years, that I’d get the chance to do, even 30 years into my career. With these experiences as inspiration, I was eager to be the best attorney I could be. I decided to head back to school towards the end of my first year of being a lawyer. Fast forward nine months, and I, along with my classmate and a mentor of mine, William Brennan, graduated from the Temple University Beasley School of Law with my LLM in Trial Advocacy.
In my time at van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim, I’ve learned and grown so much both as an attorney and a person. I’ve come to appreciate and even criticize various aspects of the criminal justice system, becoming devoted to representing individuals in, what is often, the most stressful, confusing, and downright worst days of their lives. My dad, the lifelong public defender, is smiling from his retirement chair in Florida.
I do not take the opportunity or responsibility of my job lightly. Individuals come to me with their fundamental liberties at stake and put their trust in myself and the firm to defend them vigorously. I am grateful I get to spend every day fighting for those who may have been, dealt the wrong hand, ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time, or who simply just need my help. It’s an incredibly rewarding experience to do what I do. This Florida girl, by way of Pittsburgh, is proud to be a true Philadelphia lawyer.