Vermont is a small state, but it doesn’t always feel that way if your legal matter is in a county far from your lawyer’s office. Clients sometimes assume that a firm based in Burlington, or one based in the Upper Valley, mostly handles matters close to home. At Sheehey Furlong & Behm, that assumption doesn’t hold. Our attorneys are based in Burlington and White River Junction, but we regularly handle matters in all fourteen of Vermont’s counties, from Bennington to Newport.
Why Distance Matters Less Than It Used To
A lot of what makes this possible is a change in how Vermont’s courts operate. In the years since the pandemic, nearly all Vermont Superior Court proceedings have moved to a hybrid model, allowing attorneys and clients to appear by Zoom rather than in person. A status conference in Rutland or a motion hearing in Caledonia County no longer requires anyone to get in a car. Add to that the fact that much of the work in any litigation, briefing, discovery, and negotiation, happens in writing rather than in a courtroom, and geography becomes far less of a barrier than it once was.
That doesn’t mean everything happens remotely. Plenty of matters still call for documents to be signed and notarized, or for an attorney to appear in person, whether for a trial, a closing, or a client who simply prefers to meet face to face. Most documents today can be signed electronically, and when a notarization is required, it can typically be handled by a notary local to the client. When in-person attendance from a Sheehey attorney is genuinely needed, we travel from Burlington or White River Junction and work with clients ahead of time to keep the associated cost reasonable.
A Statewide Practice, By Design
This isn’t a new development so much as an accelerating one. As smaller firms and solo practitioners around Vermont continue to close or retire without succession plans, Sheehey attorneys are appearing more often in courts and communities across the state, not because we’ve expanded our footprint, but because the work has followed the need. The result is a firm that offers the depth and resources associated with a large practice, while maintaining a working familiarity with courts, agencies, and communities in every corner of Vermont.
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