Women in Business: Judith Crittenden, Laura Montgomery Lee, Paige Yarbrough, Deborah Gregory, Kathryn Henry, Nicole Saia

Judith S. Crittenden’s firm has been blazing trails for decades. Crittenden graduated law school in 1970 as one of the few women pursuing law at the time, then became the first female Deputy District Attorney in Jefferson County before starting her own firm in 1974. “She built a great firm and a great reputation,” said Laura Montgomery Lee, the firm’s managing partner.

Now Crittenden is passing that legacy on through Lee and four other female attorneys. While Crittenden Partners was formed in 2014 out of The Crittenden Firm with Crittenden, Lee and Yarbrough as three of the original partners, the firm has since expanded to add three additional partners in Gregory, joining in 2017, and Henry and Saia, both joining in 2019. Together, they have over 100 years of experience and a diverse set of skills that can handle any matter with the utmost expertise.

“Our motto is ‘The Strength of Integrity,’” Lee said, adding that the law is their passion and integrity is their foundation. Compassion is also a big part of Crittenden Partners’ work as they specialize in divorce litigation, including jurisdictional issues, spousal and child support, child custody, marital property characterization and valuation and division of assets.

“We all enjoy being someone’s advocate,” Lee said. “In the halls of our office you can often find us passionately talking about our cases and formulating solutions and strategies in a collaborative manner.”

Divorce cases can often include a lot of unnecessary fighting, and while Crittenden Partners definitely fight for their clients, Lee said they work to help their clients pick their battles wisely. They also want to serve as a voice for children and alleviate unnecessary pain and emotions for them.

“We don’t want to create scorched earth,” she said. “We try to manage emotions with the ability to preserve assets and preserve integrity. Sometimes it can be tempting to fight every battle in the heat of emotions, but when it comes time to co-parent with the other person, a client is no longer glad they’ve gone down this road. We want to help alleviate that and fight the battles that matter.”

Crittenden Partners also specializes in post-divorce actions, including actions to enforce prior divorce judgments and actions to modify child custody, child support and spousal support. Its other areas of expertise include family law appeals, paternity matters, adoptions, and prenuptial, postnuptial and marital settlement agreements. Additionally, Crittenden Partners has recently extended its practice to include estate planning.