In the midst of things

Sometimes, difficult circumstances arise in which people must find legal help; it’s good to know that there are lawyers like Patricia Savage, when you do.

Patricia practices in several different legal areas, including employment and business law as the managing partner at Savage, Lamb, & Reimer LLP, a Chicobased firm. “I represent businesses—and occasionally employees, depending on the circumstances—in litigation,” she says. “Which means I spend a good deal of my professional life working through complex legal issues.” Some of those issues revolve around problems with harassment, discrimination, and wage and hour law. A simpler way to think of it, is to take what you know about human resources, dial that up several degrees, and then you would have an idea of what Patricia does in her day-to-day. Patricia often helps companies who seek advice as a legal professional to implement solutions to keep them on the right side of the law, and ultimately out of the courtroom. However, if they do end up getting sued, she will represent them when they go before a judge.

“The reason I know how to represent businesses,” she says, “is because I spent the first 10 years of my career exclusively representing employees. After the first decade, I realized that I’d rather protect employers from getting sued in the first place.” Patricia tells me that litigation is not a happy place for anybody to be. Lawsuits take a long time, and the uncertainty and constant back-and-forth make people frightened, unhappy, and nervous. “Any time you can get things right from the get-go, meaning helping an employer follow the law so they don’t get sued, or helping an employee and employer reach an early resolution without having to sue, life is kinder for everyone,” Patricia says.

A lover of poetry and the arts, Patricia was a single mother with a young son when she received her bachelor’s degree in rhetoric with honors from U.C. Berkeley. Understanding the transient nature of the value of an undergraduate degree, she made the decision to attend Santa Clara University School of Law for her Juris Doctorate. “I thought I was going to be an environmental lawyer and save the world from poisons and toxins,” she says. “But you know, they say life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans, so that’s sort of what happened to me.” Patricia has been in Chico on and off for the last 27 years and teaches at both Chico State and Cal Northern School of Law.

Now, Patricia is at the beginning of a transition into an exciting phase— offering her skill set in alternative dispute resolution to provide private arbitration and mediation services. “Essentially, mediation brings disparate people and positions together to see if they can reach an endgame and find a resolution for their dispute earlier rather than later. An arbitrator makes rulings on a case but away from the regular court system,” Patricia says.

Mediation is greatly encouraged by the courts as it takes less time than a trial and is ultimately very effective, but despite these obvious advantages, there is an alarming lack of mediators in Butte County. Patricia is attempting to fill that void with her business ADR, North Inc. Only lawyers who have substantial practice, who take their work seriously and have integrity, can become mediators, and they must have a solid foundation of both maturity and experience. Reading reviews for Patricia on the law website Avvo, it’s clear she has those qualities in spades, as well as warmth and compassion. “Patricia treated me like family,” one reviewer says. “I feel like I found the best possible person to help me, and I am so thankful for her intelligence and compassion,” says another.

Patricia Savage, Esq. is a lawyer at the law firm of Savage, Lamb, & Reimer, LLP. She provides counsel for claims avoidance, trial, mediation, arbitration, best employment policies and practices, and through administrative law hearings. She can be reached by telephone at (530) 809-1851, and more client reviews can be found by searching her name on www.avvo.com.