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** Small Business Fridays is a new blog series focusing on local small businesses. Each business involved receives a complimentary short business session. Please contact me for more information. I’d love to network with your small business! **

Today’s post peeks into the law offices of Robert J. Harker and his business partner Lori Snaith. This business duo has a special place in my heart. I’ve know Lori for almost eight years!

Q: Tell us a little bit about your business. What do you do, and what services do you offer?

A: Bob specializes in Family Law, Bankruptcy, DUI defense, but he also does landlord-tenant cases, civil litigation, and represents two Home Owners Associations in West Georgia. He was also recently appointed as the Prosecutor for the City of Bremen.

Bob offers free initial consultations, and he often helps people brainstorm ways to solve their problems themselves.

In addition, Bob and I are both Georgia registered civil and domestic mediators. Clients hire us to help them resolve disputes, saving them the expense of attorneys’ fees and court costs. In mediation, we facilitate conversation and problem-solving during settlement communications and negotiations (sometimes with the parties together, other times in break-out sessions), and help them to collaborate in deciding matters that will affect their lives in significant ways–this way, the parties are the authors of their own agreements. By contrast, when a dispute ends up in court, the parties surrender their power to make their own final decision…and a Judge’s order is very very difficult to reverse.

Q: Where are you located? What’s your contact information?

A: Our office is at 410 Tanner Street, Suite B, in Carrollton (at the corner of E. Center Street).

(678) 664-0408

Bob@RobertHarkerLaw.com or SnaithMediation@gmail.com

www.RobertHarkerLaw.com

Q: The greatest lesson in business you’ve learned?

A: People need and deserve excellent service: the returned phone call, accessibility to their attorney, straight and honest communication, and the quickest turn-around of their cases possible. We are committed to providing this level of service, and think this is best way to do good in our community while also working to do well in our business.

Q: Some words you live by?

A: “There’s ALWAYS a solution!”

We like to live and run our business according to this perspective, because it puts decision-making power in our own hands, and encourages us to think creatively about problems and life in general. This viewpoint really does enhance people’s conflict resolution and confrontation skills.

Q: What’s the best way to confront a legal problem, or deal with conflict?

A: Take your time, ask lots of questions, listen to the other side of the argument as dispassionately as possible, and keep the flow of conversation open. And if you think you need it, get help as soon as you can, before matters and emotions spin out of control.