Father-daughter pair run Colorado Springs family law firm
Jun. 18—Family law attorney Greg Quimby has practiced law for the past 30 years in Colorado Springs. Before that, he worked as an accountant after he spent over a decade working as a police officer in Washington, D.C., but Quimby will tell you none of those jobs are his life's calling — being a father is.
Quimby's pride in his family is probably clear the moment clients enter the second floor of the Law Office of Greg Quimby, an inconspicuous brick building he owns at 415 S. Cascade Ave.
Painted on a wall of his office is a mural of a tree, on its branches hang family portraits. Quimby and his wife, Dale, a retired nurse, are pictured in the center of the tree. Portraits of his two children, their spouses, six grandchildren and his two great-grandchildren branch out on either side.
"I've enjoyed all the things I've done," Quimby said. "But the most important thing I've done is raise good people."
But clients need not go upstairs to realize Quimby's pride in his family. The hallway leading there is probably enough with its framed pictures and paintings, including the ones his grandchildren titled "Kitty and his Kitties," a name they gave Quimby after watching Disney's "Monsters, Inc.," a movie featuring a big, blue animated monster with a tender heart.
For Quimby, 72 and a Colorado Springs resident since 1985 who founded his private family law practice in 1998, being a father does not only mean displaying pictures, art and keepsakes, but it is something he lives every day at work because his 45-year-old daughter, Erica Vasconcellos, is an attorney and manager at the office.
Quimby intends for his daughter to carry on the legacy of his law firm someday, a task she wouldn't have guessed for herself.
Vasconcellos started college wanting to forge her own path but graduated on track for law school. Still, she didn't expect she would work with her father until she searched for a job with a flexible schedule while she and her husband, Josh Vasconcellos, expected their first child about 20 years ago.
"I like the fact that ... my job has always given me the flexibility to be a mom," Erica said, "which is, you know, kind of always my No. 1 priority."
Family bonding and support extends beyond her father- and daughter-linked profession. Erica said her parents also are her next-door neighbors.
"At first, I was like, 'What are we thinking,' you know, being that close to my parents," Erica said. "... But it was great for my kids ... to just walk next door to Grandma and Grandpa's house."
She was house hunting with her husband at the same time as her parents (who were temporarily living at the law office). They found houses next door to each other with the desired floor plans.
Erica said she hopes to see that family trend continue in the future.
"My kids are all really close with one another," Erica said. "And I hope that that stays true into adulthood. I keep joking with them that they'll all end up on the same cul-de-sac."
The tradition of family devotion is something Quimby can trace back to his parents that he continued when he met Dale, his wife of 48 years, while she was working as a station clerk at a police department in Maryland.
"When I met my wife, she had a ... 2-year-old son (Jason), who is my son now, and I raised him," Quimby said. "... I fell in love with him before I fell in love with her."
It was then that he knew he was meant to be a father, Quimby said, adding that his passion for fatherhood is reflected in his work.
"I do divorces that have (a) million dollars in there and I have the credentials to assess those kinds of things," Quimby said. "But the passionate part for me is things to do with kids."
That is why the office's logo consists of the phrase "4 Kids" with depictions of four kids representing Jason, Erica and their spouses.
"See how he's pulling her in a wagon," Quimby said, pointing to the logo on his shirt. "That's because she (Erica) used to talk him (Jason) into doing it."
Despite his office's specialization in family law and divorce, neither Quimby nor any of his posterity have gone through divorce.
"Although I do divorces," Quimby said about his practice, "I would love to be out of business."
