Family Business

Kelly Chanfrau remembers watching her father try cases as a little girl and thinking he was like the Elvis of the courthouse.

“He came up at the time when people were going to trial constantly,” says Kelly, adding that William Chanfrau Sr. has always excelled at connecting with people. She remembers standing on tiptoe once to watch him at a preliminary hearing on behalf of the family of a boy who was killed when a drunk driver crashed into his parents’ car. Kelly watched her father place a blown-up picture of the boy on the stand and talk about his life. The case ended up settling before trial.

 Today Kelly works alongside her brother, William “Bill” Chanfrau Jr., at the firm founded by their father, who, though officially retired, still looms large over the practice. “I consult with him a lot,” says Kelly, a plaintiff’s labor and employment lawyer.

They tried an employment case together years ago. “There was a lot about employment law he was not aware of that I had to explain to him,” she says, “and then he helped me see the case through to trial.”

The Chanfrau family was active in the legal profession long before Daytona Beach gained its rep as a spring break destination. “My great-grandmother, Gail Lynch, moved to the area in the 1930s and became the first female court recorder in the state,” says Bill Jr. She was on the job until the late 1960s, at which time William Sr.’s father, Phil Chanfrau Sr., took over the business.

Depression-era Daytona Beach was a small Florida boomtown where amusement park rides had just been introduced on the boardwalk, and the city had just begun permitting stock car racing on the beach.

Bill says Daytona’s evolution continues: “It’s a little different now than it was 10, 20 years ago, because a lot of the Orlando law firms have come in. But it remains a small, close-knit legal community in which most folks know each other.”

They remember their father instilling the principles of fairness and justice around the family dinner table, and both decided to attend his alma mater, Stetson University Law School.

“I always knew I wanted to go to law school,” says Bill Jr., who also tagged along to the courthouse as a child and ended up a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer like William Sr. “I didn’t necessarily know the type of law I would be doing back then. But I’ve always liked helping people, and the same goes for my sister.” Today he is the firm’s managing partner and spends a big chunk of his time handling the financials.

“He is an incredibly diligent lawyer,” Kelly says of her brother. “He could be a doctor if he wanted to be. He knows medicine like the back of his hand, and that makes him very dangerous with personal injury cases.” She sees the business thriving on family skills that complement but don’t necessarily overlap. Bill Jr., she adds, “can see things from a 10,000-foot view. We bounce ideas off each other a lot.”

As for his sister, Bill says, “Kelly is a wonderful litigator.” Though they have different practice areas, he adds, “Obviously, we do work together when needed.”

Unlike her brother, Kelly did not always want to join the family firm or, for that matter, even to practice law. After college she worked in advertising in Boston, then pursued a master’s in English before switching to law. After practicing at a labor and employment defense firm for a number of years, she married, had a baby and decided in 2010 to go to work at the family firm.

“I had been an employment defense lawyer for 10 years and a partner in a large firm, so to switch to the plaintiff’s side and work for my family was certainly a major transition, and one that I loved,” Kelly says. “Getting into the mindset of the plaintiff’s lawyer—it’s a lot more creative process, for sure.”

As at any firm, occasional disagreements are inevitable. “When you’re working with family, you need to know, when you come to work, that your brother or father are never going to make a decision that’s not in your best interest,” Kelly says. “Though Bill and I have differences of opinion, I always know he is not ever deciding things in a way not in my best interest.”

The pair sometimes differ, for instance, on issues like damages and case values. “If it’s my case, Bill ultimately leaves the final opinion up to me, and the same goes for his,” Kelly says. “We respect each other’s opinions.”

Is there another generation in the wings? Kelly says she “absolutely” envisions their children continuing the firm’s work. “My son has expressed an interest, and so have Bill’s son and one of his daughters,” she says. The possible future attorneys are ages 14, 16 and 19. “We want this firm to stay a family business, and are excited about the kids.”

And yes, her son comes to her large trials. But as for discussing law around the dinner table, Bill says he and Kelly have a rule against talking shop on family time.

“But,” he adds, “we still sometimes do.”