In 2010, our law firm was lucky enough to hire Wendi Bridges to be our paralegal and assistant. During her interview, she impressed us so much that we almost didn’t hire her – thinking that we were not up to her standards and that she would quickly get bored with the daily drama of employment law and criminal cases that were the mainstay of our practice. But we gambled that she might want to work for us and by taking that chance, we definitely won.
My life in private practice has a definitive line – the time before Wendi Bridges worked for us and the time after. When she arrived she had incredible organizational skills and a keen eye for details, not just in what she was drafting but in reviewing discovery documents produced by the large corporations we were suing on behalf of wronged employees. She applied that keen intellect to our cases and developed a very deep understanding of employment law. Prior to her arrival, we had a single million dollar victory. After her she joined our team, we had multiple million dollar victories – including the largest single plaintiff Missouri Human Rights Act verdict in Missouri history – 20.45 million dollars.
Our firm operated as a team, and Wendi was an integral part of that team. She would share insights and ideas for trial strategies, openings and closings many of which were used to great effect. She had the final say in jury selection as to whom we struck and who we wanted to keep and she was rarely ever wrong. Other firms sent their paralegals to our office to shadow her and to learn how to be an effective paralegal for an active litigation firm. She was always willing to assist and help guide them.
Wendi was the not so secret, secret sauce of our success. Judges would often ask her to assist opposing counsel’s paralegals in getting exhibits together for submission to a jury, or even ask her during trial, “Ms. Bridges, is that exhibit in evidence,” if there was some question. Not bothering to ask the attorneys. That trust and ability also led to her being sought out with inquiries as to whether or not she would be interested in other opportunities by many of those large firms and organizations which had seen her abilities in the courtroom. Thankfully for us, she declined and indicated that she enjoyed her quality of life and work atmosphere at our firm.
Wendi was often the point of contact for opposing counsel, their assistants and our own clients. The clients appreciated her explaining the process to them, listening to their stories of what occurred and working with them to obtain discovery responses and necessary information to successfully pursue their cases. Many clients considered her not just our assistant, but their friend. We often heard from them how great it was to work with Wendi and how they appreciated her.
Incredibly, she had an uncanny ability to recall our past clients and cases –not only their names, but specific facts and legal issues of those cases to allow us to better respond to current similar issues.
In 2018, motivated by occurrences in Clay County, Missouri politics, Wendi Bridges ran for County Commissioner as a Democrat against the GOP incumbent, Jerry Nolte. The election has been considered one of the cleanest and most honorable in the past several decades. Wendi refused to engage in traditional campaign rhetoric or personal attacks and did not seek political contributions. She spent less than five thousand dollars and was able to force the opposition to spend over $100,000 to beat her – and with that straight forward low budget issue oriented campaign she garnered over 43,000 votes and 45% of the vote. Despite calls to continue a political career, that was Wendi’s only venture into elected politics. She just wanted what was best for her community.
Wendi and her husband, Jeremy, were like family to us. Our firm traveled together, would socialize together and shared the highs and lows of our lives with one another. Her loss is a complete tragedy for her family, her friends, our firm and for the community at large. Wendi was a rarity and it is unlikely we will see her kind in my lifetime again.
-Kevin Baldwin
