By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
After 45 years in practice, attorney Charlie Farrell, the longtime partner of Farrell, Martin & Barnell, is calling it a career.
“I’ll be 71 in January,” Farrell said. “My father worked here until he was 85. I have no desire to do the same thing.”
Farrell, Martin & Barnell — one of the anchoring businesses of Baldwinsville’s Four Corners — will continue on with remaining partners Sara Connell Brady and Derek Shepard.
The firm was founded in 1946 and Charlie Farrell’s father, Simeon J. Farrell, joined what was then the Gale and Stone firm in 1952. Norman J. Martin joined the firm in 1958. In 1964, the firm became Farrell, Martin & Barnell, the name by which it’s been known ever since.
Charlie Farrell, who graduated from St. Bonaventure University and the University of Akron School of Law, joined the team in 1976. Four years later, Norm Martin’s son, Paul, joined the firm. Paul Martin retired in 2016.
In 1977, a faulty light fixture in the Corner Pharmacy, which was downstairs from the law firm, sparked a fire that destroyed the building. Farrell recalled a photo of Barnell in a Niagara Mohawk cherry picker, plucking bricks off the remains of his desk.
“The joke we always had was that we were trying to figure out how to reconfigure the office for Paul when he graduated law school — he would have been across the hall — and then the building burned down,” Farrell said.
The attorneys purchased the lot and the new building opened in August 1979.
“We’ve become a fixture here in the Four Corners area,” Farrell said. “The grandchildren of the clients my father had in the 1950s are our clients now.”
“Charlie has a great reputation in the community, which is nice,” said Sara Brady, who joined the firm in 2014. “When I deal with clients who have dealt with Charlie in the past, they always feel very favorably toward him.”
Farrell has guided the people of Baldwinsville through the major milestones in their lives, from a young couple buying their first house to empty-nesters looking to sell their home to aging clients navigating nursing homes and Medicaid or writing their wills.
“He’s worked closely with enough people in Baldwinsville it’s like he’s a member of the Baldwinsville family at large by having been part of so many important moments in people’s lives: buying their house, their wills, the loss of a loved one, starting a business,” Derek Shepard said.
Farrell told the Messenger in 2016 that he and Paul Martin had a fruitful partnership over the years because the sons of lawyers share a special bond.
“Our personalities meshed well,” Farrell said in 2016. “We’ve both enjoyed working for friends and neighbors and classmates and people in our community.”
The firm has a history of assisting area churches and organizations.
“We have provided a lot of relatively free legal services to a lot of nonprofit organizations,” Farrell said. “Both my father and Tom Barnell were active members of the Kiwanis Club. My father was on the Baldwinsville school board. … I’ve been in the Rotary Club for 40-plus years.”
The Baldwinsville Volunteer Center named Farrell its Man Volunteer of the Year in 2013. He has served on numerous boards: the Greater Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce, Riverview Cemetery and Canton Woods Senior Center.
“I want to get involved in Canton Woods as a senior as well as on the board,” he said.
Over the last few months, Farrell has been winding down his caseload and taking Fridays off. He said he is looking forward to spending time with his grandchildren and catching up on his reading. He is a fan of American history, especially the Civil War era.
“My kids have been giving me books for my birthday and Christmas the last few years … so I have my retirement library. My father had a 30-book or 40-book set of Mark Twain books. I’ve read a couple of them. When I run out of all my other books, I guess I’ll read Mark Twain,” he said. “Between Rotary, church, Canton Woods, my kids and grandkids, and my books, I’m going to be fine.”
Derek Shepard has purchased the building at the Four Corners and has been making improvements, adding a kitchenette for the downstairs tenants and updating the lighting.
“Over the years, we’ve been working on the interior. I’m hoping to be able to give it a facelift on the outside within the next couple of years,” said Shepard, who joined the firm in 2015.
Farrell said name recognition of the business is important, so Shepard and Brady will keep the name of the firm.
“We hope to remain a fixture,” Shepard said. “It’s a brand name in Baldwinsville. There are institutions that people recognize — B’ville Diner, Atlantic Seafood; Farrell, Martin & Barnell.”
Brady and Shepard are looking to add another member to the team.
“We don’t want to grow too large, but we do want another attorney to fill out Charlie’s shoes [and] to complement Sara and me,” Shepard said.
Charlie’s shoes will be tough to fill.
“He’s been somebody people could rely on. He’s been a steady rock that people know they can turn to,” Brady said.
The best advice Farrell has given him, Shepard said, is to leave work at work.
“I get stressed. I’m a much newer attorney. I take work home with me,” Shepard said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to get over that.’”
Brady is hoping Farrell takes his own advice.
“I told him to relax and enjoy himself and the next phase of his life,” she said.
