J. John Henderson and Donna Reid Henderson are partners in marriage and in profession. They practice as Henderson & Henderson in Waukegan, and they recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Their marriage has produced a son and a daughter, Reid D. Henderson and Tory J. Henderson Staudt, both of whom chose to become lawyers like their parents. They were admitted Nov. 10 during the 2nd District ceremony in Elgin.

How does a family of lawyers come to be? John Henderson's family was in the construction business. He wasn't sure that the firm would support three families, since his brother was already involved.

“I dated a judge's daughter for a time in high school,” he said, “and I became interested in the law then.”

Henderson graduated in 1966 from the University of Illinois College of Law. He was assistant professor of agricultural law in the College of Agriculture before becoming a partner in the Waukegan firm of Williams, Swanson & Henderson in 1968.

Donna Henderson also graduated from the U.I. College of Law, in 1968. With a bachelor's degree in zoology, she originally planned to attend medical school, but “there was something about organic chemistry...” she quipped.

A former assistant state's attorney in Champaign and Lake Counties and a law clerk to an appellate justice, she was a founding member of the Association of Women Attorneys Of Lake County. That was a “wonderful moment,” she recalled.

“When I graduated from law school,” Donna Henderson said, “there were two women in my class. Eventually, there were enough female attorneys in Lake County for us to begin an organization. We had a critical mass of about eight people.”

The Hendersons concentrate in construction law and civil litigation. Donna also does appellate work, and John does business organization, real estate, estate planning and probate. They formed the firm in 1985.

For Donna Henderson, the best part about practicing law is the ability it affords to help people and solve problems. For his part, John Henderson especially enjoys the variety of work in terms of cases and people.

Both find that learning about people and finding out how to respond to them is one of the challenges of practicing law.

Are their advantages for a husband and wife to be in the same office? “Well you still need two cars, because you're not always going to the same place,” Donna laughed. “So car pooling to save gas doesn't really work.”

“It's good because you have someone to speak with and bounce ideas off,” John said. “But we do enough different things that we're not constantly together and in each other's hair.

“When we started out almost 40 years ago, it seemed that we were always talking law and about cases. Plus most of our friends were lawyers, so the law was always subject to discussion. But as time went on, it became easier to leave it at the office.”

Both Hendersons feel that the law “is a wonderful, wonderful job,” Donna said, and they conveyed that to Reid and Tory. “Even though our children crawled over the files and listened to the calls at night, they both chose to become lawyers.”

Reid Henderson and Tory Staudt both graduated from The John Marshall Law School this year. Reid, who graduated summa cum laude, will practice with Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr in Washington and concentrate in financial institutions and banking.

Tory will practice in her parents' office and, according to Donna Henderson, “be as close to a general practitioner as you can these days.”

Tory Staudt, who is older than her brother, began law school earlier but put it on hold. She worked as a counselor in the criminal justice field, as a State Farm insurance adjuster and as an assistant operations director in the family construction business.

The parents don't believe they were strongly instrumental in the children's choices of careers. “We really didn't know that Tory wanted to go into law,” Donna Henderson said. “It just sort of happened.”

She added that Tory gave Reid the final nudge toward law school. “She told him that he would wind up going eventually, so why not go now.”

Both young lawyers expect to work hard after having had a head start. “Reid and Tory said they learned cross-examination at home from a young age,” their mother observed.

Beaming with pride, she said “it's been great watching them go through law school. They're very opposite and yet so close.”