Kelley Keller rented a suite in the Murata Business Center in March and was known as the Keller Law Firm. In less than one year, she has five employees and the firm occupies three suites with a client base ten times larger than last year. The firm specializes in intellectual property law, providing counsel to clients at the state and federal levels.
Keller used to work for a law firm in Washington D.C. but moved to Carlisle with her husband Christian Keller, who is a professor at the U.S. Army War College.
“He’s a native here, but we moved for not only lifestyle but business reasons,” she said. “It was just me and my laptop. It became a real lifestyle decision. I said, ‘I want a lot of flexibility in my life, a lot of control over what I do.'”
While waiting in line at a Bon-Ton, Keller met Elizabeth Reusswig, a business consultant. Little did Keller know that less than one year later, Reusswig would be the executive director of the Keller Law Firm.
“I was standing in line and the register wasn’t working for some reason, and the woman in front of me was talking about how she just moved here from Washington and she was very busy and she was an attorney,” Reusswig said. “She sounded like she had a lot on her plate, so I handed her one of my business cards. She called me a couple days later, we met and we’ve been working together ever since.”
Keller and Reusswig met with executives from the Murata Business Center to put together a business plan and then moved into the center in March of 2011.
‘It’s been explosive growth,” Keller said. “We found that there was a real gap in the presence of intellectual property attorneys in the small firm market. You have larger firms in Harrisburg, but for a lot of smaller clients, that’s very intimidating, and so I found that there was a real need for my service, especially given I have 15 years’ experience. I think it takes a ton of guts, determination, perseverance and a lot of support. You have to have people around you who are cheerleading for you, supporting you and telling you, that you can do it when it’s tough. I surrounded myself very, very thoughtfully and carefully with excellent people who do that.”
Reusswig claims that the support she receives from Keller is outstanding.
“It’s a great work environment,” Reusswig said. “It really makes us feel like whatever small thing we may do … it’s important to her and to the firm, and that’s really nice.”
Keller and Reusswig provide their clients with the same attitude, which is why the firm has been such a success in little over one year.
“Our business model is the client calls and they get on the phone with me,” Keller said. “They don’t go through secretaries, paralegals. A client gets to the decision-maker without hurdles. I’m bringing this really broad base of international experience and working with massive brands to a small firm … in an approachable setting. It’s the small firm pricing structure, but you’re getting the experience that’s born out of working with a large firm.”