Nutrition-conscious and physically
fit, Sam Anderson of Legal Graphics started having back pain
and
breathing problems during the fall of 2007.
After an acupuncturist told her she had arthritis in her shoulder, a
chiropractor
who used to be a respiratory therapist sent her to a
specialist, who took a chest X-ray.
About a week later, in May 2008,
Anderson was diagnosed with a 12-centimeter malignant tumor
that had
insinuated itself between her lungs, collapsing one of them.
A Working recovery
Nutrition-conscious and physically
fit, Sam Anderson of Legal Graphics started having back pain and
breathing problems during the fall of 2007.
After an acupuncturist told her she had arthritis in her shoulder, a
chiropractor who used to be a respiratory therapist sent her to a
specialist, who took a chest X-ray. About a week later, in May 2008,
Anderson was diagnosed with a 12-centimeter malignant tumor that had
insinuated itself between her lungs, collapsing one of them.
Anderson went straight into chemotherapy and radiation treatments for
lymphoma, taking off only actual therapy days from her company, which
celebrates its 20th anniversary on Dec. 14. She finished her treatments
last November.
"I decided it wasn't what was going to define me," Anderson said Monday.
"For the most part, I was here. I just had lots of wigs."
She received some relief almost immediately, as the first bout of
chemotherapy broke up the tumor and she was able to breathe. She could
also get eight hours of sleep again after not being able to rest more
than two hours at a time for several months.
"It was a blessing," she said from the War Room, where she and her staff
help attorneys think through the key points in their cases and develop
graphic presentations to assist judges and juries in understanding their
client's side of a legal argument.
She said most people tend to be visual learners, which makes graphic
presentations helpful in establishing key points in a legal case.
Anderson said the War Room enables her to bring attorneys together with
the entire Legal Graphics team, without distractions, and take them
through a sort of dry run of their case, developing timelines and major
points to be simplified and illustrated graphically.
Anderson said she did not experience the debilitating nausea that some
chemo patients do, and managed to schedule her radiation treatments in
the afternoon, disrupting business as little as possible.
Initially, she said, her vanity prompted her to tell her employees she
might work from home, but except for the days for treatment, she went to
the office.
Anderson said she had some discomfort in her esophagus, and found that
the chemotherapy made the bottoms of her feet sore. The latter meant
that she could not wear heels for a few months, and she missed them.
"I was born in high heels," she quipped.
Anderson, who acknowledged she was not able to bill as many hours during
treatment as she did previously, said being able to work was helpful to
her overall recovery.
"I wanted to be here," she said. "I just think you're better off."
Anderson said she was feeling so good that she was able to attend a
federal trial during the summer of last year.
"They didn't know until the end of the trial that I was going through
chemo," she said.
She is also proud of the fact that she was able to continue working out
during her treatment.
Anderson said she has "awesome co-workers" who pitched in as needed.
"Hopefully, they didn't have to do that much more," she said.
Legal Graphics staffers took a series of weekly photos that showed how
her hair grew back, which she said was kind of fun.
Graphic designer Stephen Grassie said he was shocked that Anderson's
illness did not affect the business more than it did.
"I expected it to hurt us a lot more," he said. "We almost had to keep
her away."
Grassie said he thought Anderson's ability to keep in touch with the
business and her staff during her treatment was a grounding kind of
experience for her.
"She was here a lot," he said.
Grassie said the staff was concerned for Anderson as she went to
different doctors. In some ways, he said, the most stressful thing was
not knowing what was wrong with her.
Anderson continues to be checked every three months and has had no sign
of recurrence of the cancer.
Attorney Kent Meyers, one of Anderson's first clients two decades ago,
said he noticed no decline in productivity or quality of work when
Anderson was ill, although the physical effects of the treatment were
evident.
"She has a remarkable facility to take kind of a broad, generalized
concept of what I'd like to show to a judge or to a jury, and make it
happen," Meyers said.
Meyers, with the Crowe & Dunlevy law firm, said anyone who needs to tell
a story is better off telling it "so that the decision maker can see it
rather than just hear it."
"They have had, for many years, the best ability to convert ideas into
things that you can see and understand, than anybody I've ever dealt
with," he said of Legal Graphics.
Meyers said that when he gets a new case, the first phone calls he makes
are to his expert witnesses and to Legal Graphics, the latter to lock
them in to working on his side of a particular dispute.
"That's how highly I think of what they do," he said.
Meyers said that 20 years ago Legal Graphics helped him turn a $52
million loss into a win on retrial, and their work assisted him just
last week in settling another high-dollar case in his client's favor.
"They've been consistent winners for me," he said. "That level of
excellence didn't go down one degree when Sam was ill."
Anderson, who has a cartography degree, said the idea for Legal Graphics
was formed when she worked for Topographic Engineering. She said an
attorney came in one day wanting some maps to help explain an oil and
gas case. She said Topographic set up a separate entity for that type of
business, but she eventually struck out on her own.
Legal Graphics currently has seven employees, including Anderson.
