THE DECKER LAW FIRM - RICHARD RATAJCZAK AND ANISE WARD-CONNOR

“People helping people” guides 50 years of service

by Judi Tull

Attorney Richard Ratajczak and receptionist Anise Ward-Connor.

This is the third in a series of stories about
The Decker Law Firm, its attorneys and staff.

For the past 50 years, The Decker Law Firm has distinguished itself throughout Hampton Roads, based not only on the reputation of its founder, Pete Decker Jr., for his legal and charitable work, but also on the attorneys and staff who continue its commitment to being “people helping people.”  Attorney Richard Ratajczak and receptionist Anise Ward-Connor are among them.

Richard  was just 10 when he got his first taste of what law suits mean for the real people involved. His family’s plastics business in his hometown of Lansing, Michigan, was just about to move into a new building when the old one burned down. The insurance company didn’t want to pay.

Attorney Richard Ratajczak is a hard-core Michigan State fan and the very busy dad of four growing children who range in age from two to 12.

“That was the beginning of an eight-year legal battle with the insurance company,” he recalls.

He would occasionally accompany his dad and grandfather to meetings with the attorneys involved and was taken not just with the rigors and wranglings of a law suit but with the depth of emotion that legal problems can take on a family.

He was hooked.

Other pursuits, of course, caught his eye along the way. As a younger kid, he’d considered the dream of being a firefighter or an astronaut. By the time he hit his teens, he thought that being an athlete would be cool. But the impression of that first law suit he’d seen up close and personal never left him.

He graduated from Michigan State, where he’d met Jennifer, a teacher, who would ultimately become his wife and the mother of their four children — Alex, Hannah, Sydney and Zoey.

While Jennifer came to Hampton Roads to teach, Richard went to Syracuse University College of Law in upstate New York, graduating in 1992 and then joining, and marrying, Jennifer here. He first worked as a solo practitioner, primarily in real estate, and then worked for Allstate Insurance.

He found himself negotiating claims against Pete Decker and before long had a job offer from him. He was thrilled to come on board.

“You can’t say no to Pete,” he says with a laugh.

Receptionist Anise Ward-Connor multi-tasks her way through the day.

At The Decker Law Firm, Richard, like most of the other attorneys, handles a wide variety of law: personal injury, criminal matters, some corporate and estate work. He is the only one, however, who practices immigration law, a pursuit that gives him a tremendous amount of personal as well as professional satisfaction.

“I’m able to help people fulfill their dreams of living in America,” he says, “and, often, of becoming citizens.”

Immigration, he points out, can be very confusing for people because the applications for visas and permits  require strict attention to detail.

“That’s where my experience pays off,” he says.

He’s increasingly being called on for another type of legal matter: the expungment of court records.

“As the competition for jobs has increased, I’ve had more and more calls from people whose prospective employers have found records of charges that are very old and that, even though they were dismissed, still show up on a background check,” he points out. “This can be the difference between two equally qualified applicants. Employers are being very picky these days.”

Life is busy for Richard and Jennifer, largely filled with the children’s various sports activities, many of which Richard coaches. “When we first moved down here, we loved to spend a day on the beach, just relaxing,” he says. “Now, a day at the beach with four children is a major event!”

On the job, things aren’t much quieter for receptionist Anise Ward-Connor. She staffs the law firm’s front desk, fielding multiple incoming phone lines with the steely calm of an air traffic controller.

Despite the near-constant ringing of phones, requests from attorneys and co-workers, and shepherding clients as they arrive and sign in, she maintains not just her composure but a broad smile and a twinkle in her eye as well.

Anise was raised in Chesapeake where she graduated from Great Bridge High School and then went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in English from Old Dominion University, where she continued graduate studies.

Her first job out of school was working in downtown Norfolk, writing ad copy for Rice’s/Nachman’s. She worked in mobile communications and then spent eight years doing public relations and administrative work for a group of restaurants and entertainment venues in Virginia Beach. Through her PR work and fundraising, she met Pete Decker, who offered her a job. She’s been at the firm for 15 years, and she loves it.

“The best part of my job here is that I get to be sociable at the same time I’m helping people,” she says. “When people come into our office or call on the phone, it’s because they have stress of some sort and I’m often the first person they encounter here. I truly enjoy being able to put them at ease. I always try to convey to them a sense that they don’t have to worry now. That’s a really good feeling.”

Anise is married to attorney Tom Connor and lives in downtown Norfolk. The couple recently traveled to Ireland, where Anise was able to indulge her passion for the romance of history. “I love to imagine how things were centuries ago,” she says. “It was thrilling to be in Ireland, to see rock structures that are hundreds of years old and even houses that were there during the famine. History really lives in a place like that.”