LOS ALAMITOS : Lawyer’s Dream Fulfilled, and More

As a youngster in Canada during the 1940s, Trudy Polsky recalled recently, she dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

Women didn’t often become lawyers in those days. “They become teachers, secretaries or social workers,” Polsky said. “Better yet, they become housewives. The greatest accomplishment for a woman was to get married.”

After some detours, not only has Polsky fulfilled her dream, her daughter has become her law partner.

Polsky and daughter Susan Gavigan may be the only mother and daughter law partnership in Orange County, according to Kim Craft of Western State University College of Law, where Polsky and Gavigan both earned their law degrees.

“Father and son law firms are pretty common,” Craft said. “But mother and daughter law companies are rare. I know of no other in Orange County.”

Polsky and Gavigan both credit the closeness of their relationship for their success. At a time when mother-daughter conflicts are the staple of talk shows and tabloid television, they say their work as lawyers has brought them closer.

“We’re mother and daughter first, business partners second,” Polsky said.

“And I guess you could say we like each other,” Gavigan added.

“A lot,” Polsky said.

Working out of a Los Alamitos office, Polsky specializes in real estate, probate and family law. Gavigan, who also practices family law, works out of an office in Corona, in Riverside County. Over the last year, Gavigan said, she has shifted her focus to criminal law. “It’s what I want to do,” she said. “Of course, I still take family matters, such as divorces, because those pay the rent.”

Polsky said she is still surprised that she became a lawyer after being sidetracked so often.

After graduating with a degree in English from Canada’s Manitoba University in 1959, Polsky said, she married at age 20 and moved to the United States.

“In my mother’s eyes, I was already an old maid,” Polsky said.

Polsky’s husband, Mort, was a pharmacist. They had two daughters--Cheryl, now a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Susan, now Polsky’s law partner.

In 1972, while working as a real estate agent, Polsky decided to enroll in the Western State law program in Fullerton. She finished law school in 1976, but two months before the bar exam, her husband died.

“I was a walking skeleton,” Polsky said. “I needed to do something to avoid completely losing myself.”

She passed the bar exams on her first try, Polsky said. Then, with three other brand-new lawyers, she rented a tiny office in Los Alamitos to start her practice 17 years ago.

“A carpenter was still nailing up the sign, and there were clients waiting outside,” Polsky recalled. Soon, she hired a secretary and moved to a bigger office.

Polsky’s daughter, Susan Gavigan, said she had wanted to be a journalist, not a lawyer. But after earning a journalism degree from San Diego State University, Gavigan couldn’t find a job. So she went to Western State after deciding to become a lawyer, like her mother. The two women have worked together since Gavigan passed the bar exam in 1990.

“I will always be known as Trudy Polsky’s daughter,” Gavigan said. “I have no problem with that. I wouldn’t go anywhere without telling anyone she is my mother. That still is my biggest kick.”