The Jewells of the Trial

Ryan and Sarah Jewell were warned about managing a marriage between two trial lawyers.

“I was told it would be hard,” says Ryan, a criminal and family law attorney at Taylor Law Partners in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “But I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We’re able to understand each other and pick up the slack for the other in the rest of our life.” When one is busy with a case, in other words, the other sweats the small stuff: attending family parties, paying the bills, mowing the lawn.

“We get what’s going on with the other, so there are no guilt trips or hard feelings waiting to boil over,” says Sarah, a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney at McMath Woods in Fayetteville. “We’re both willing to jump in if the other is on a long jury trial. It makes our relationship better because we don’t have defined roles in our household. We’re both responsible for everything.”

The Jewells met as sophomores at the University of Arkansas, where Ryan was majoring in biology with plans to become a dentist, and Sarah was studying English literature with an emphasis on women’s studies. Marrying shortly after graduation in 2008, the pair moved to Fort Worth, Texas, “with about $100 between us,” says Sarah.

At Texas Christian University, Sarah pursued a master’s degree in English while also teaching the subject in high school. “I studied a lot of lesser-known writers,” she says. Ryan supported her by managing dental offices—an experience that taught him two lessons: 1) They would always be there for each other; and 2)He didn’t want to be a dentist.

Instead, he gave in to family tradition. “We have a lot of doctors, lawyers and preachers in my family,” says Ryan, who grew up in a small Texas town. “My granddad was an attorney, and my cousins are all attorneys. It was always in the back of my mind.”

Meanwhile, Sarah decided that, instead of pursuing a Ph.D. in literature, she wanted to go law school as well. “There’s not a single lawyer in my family,” she says. “But I was that kind who loved arguing and debating. Everyone told me ‘You should be a lawyer.’”

Ryan enrolled at University of Arkansas School of Law in 2011; Sarah began the following year.
Today the Jewells spend a considerable amount of time in court. Ryan handles “anything from a speeding ticket to attempted murder,” he says, along with divorce, custody and child support cases. In the personal injury field, Sarah takes cases involving wrongful death, medical malpractice and complex civil litigation.

Both are driven to help people who need an advocate during what is often the most difficult time of their lives.

“It’s their worst day,” Ryan says of his criminal clients, “and there are a lot of steps that lead to their worst day. I help them get a fair shake when it comes to getting through the legal system.”

“Plaintiffs have no idea how to navigate the waters,” adds Sarah. “It’s intimidating to go up against a corporation or a hospital. It’s really important for everyday Arkansans to have
good representation.”

The Jewells don’t take work home as much as they did when they were started their careers, but Ryan still bounces openings and closings off Sarah—who plays devil’s advocate, opposing counsel, or a jury member who can tell him whether he’s lost her during an argument. Meanwhile, Sarah, whose firm invests considerable resources in a limited number of cases, says Ryan is a sounding board when she’s trying to condense thousands of pages of evidence into a two-minute summary.

“We enjoy sitting on the back porch with a glass of wine, pitching cases and theories,”
she says.

And when one is in trial, they know the other has their back—with the possible exception of mowing the lawn. “I’ve done it twice, and it was a catastrophe both times,” says Sarah with a laugh. One time the battery died; another time, she found herself covered in wet grass before work. “It may be time to outsource the mowing,” she says.