Et cetera : Amy Van Wechel joins Mossman & Mossman law firm

Amy Van Wechel has joined the Mossman & Mossman firm as an attorney.

When Amy (Landrus) Van Wechel was in high school she worked with John Mossman at the Vinton swimming pool, where Amy (and John’s brother, Burns) were lifeguards and John was a manager. Now, Amy has begun working with John again, helping people in a different way. She is now an attorney at the Mossman & Mossman law firm, working with John and his father, Mark.

Becoming a lawyer was not her first career path, however.

Amy was studying business administration at AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa, when she took a part-time job as a receptionist at the Sherinian & Walker Law Firm in West Des Moines, where she quickly realized she liked working in the legal field. She liked the law firm atmosphere so much that after obtaining her Associate’s Degree, she moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and began working for Bradley & Riley as a legal secretary. “I had the chance to witness many great attorneys working for people,” she recalls. “I liked what they did and how they were able to help others.”

Amy knew she wanted to continue her education and so she began working for Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which has a tuition reimbursement program. She worked full-time at Rockwell and went to school at night to finish her Bachelor’s Degree in business administration.

By this time, Amy, a member of the Vinton-Shellsburg Class of 2000, had married her high school sweetheart, Michael Van Wechel. People often came to Amy for advice on general life issues and getting back into the legal field had always been in the back of Amy’s mind. She knew attending law school would be a challenge; but she also believed she would regret it if she did not. “I don’t ever want to look back on my life and say, ‘I wish I would have…’” she says.

Amy began preparing for the Law School Admission Test shortly after she and Michael returned from their honeymoon. With the support of her husband and other family members, Amy began law school at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Both of the couple’s children were born while Amy was a law student.

Juggling family and law school at Drake was more of a challenge then she expected, says Amy. But the result is a dream job, doing what she loves in a city where she can live close to her parents (Dennis and Diane Landrus) and grandparents (Lenard and Marlys Geater).

Now, the advice Amy offers is something she has been told many times over: Make sure you find a job that you love, and going to work won’t seem like work. “I am very happy to be back in Vinton, working with Mark and John,” she said, “now that Michael and I have kids, this is honestly my dream job and I feel very fortunate.”

Surprise

While studying law, Amy said she gained a new respect for the Constitution, our court system and how the law has played a role in helping guarantee civil rights for everyone. Everyone has issues, she said, and being able to help people solve those issues through the law, is very rewarding.

When asked if there was anything about studying law that surprised her, Amy said that she became surprised at how much she loved studying criminal defense law. “I used to say that I would not want to be a defense attorney,” she recalls. But in law school she gained an appreciation for the role defense attorneys play in our justice system.

Mediation

At Mossman & Mossman, Amy will be working in all areas of general law practice. She is also a certified mediator. A mediator, she explains, is a neutral third-party that helps to facilitate a resolution between disputing parties. Mediation is an alternative to litigation and is gaining popularity in our judicial system because of crowded court dockets. In Iowa, it is mandatory for divorcing couples to go through mediation before taking their case to trial. But, mediation is not limited to divorce. It can be used in all areas of the law, or even outside of the judicial system, for things such as resolving issues between family members, friends, neighbors, employees and employers, and schools and students. It allows parties to come up with their own resolution, rather than having a judge make the decision for them. Because of this, most of the time, parties that go through mediation are much happier with the result of their case. “It is something I am really passionate about and I spent a lot of time in school focusing on the techniques of mediation. At Drake, I was able to watch some of our state’s greatest mediators in action. It was an amazing opportunity and I learned so much from that experience.”

Life in Vinton

While Amy enjoys jogging and bike riding, most of her spare time involves spending time with her husband and children, Lincoln and Brooklyn, and her extended family, and catching up with friends. “It is nice being close again to friends I’ve known since preschool. It is also nice living closer to my parents and grandparents.”