Grow Time

Many small-town law firms must eventually decide whether to grow, shrink, merge or disappear.

Neither shrinking, merging nor disappearing appealed to the principals at Punta Gorda's Farr Law Firm — not after 94 years as a real estate, estate planning and civil law mainstay in Charlotte County. That led to growth, north to Sarasota County.

But it's not “growth plans for the sake of growth,” says David Holmes, a Charlotte County native who became president of the firm, headquartered at 99 Nesbitt St., after the 2010 death of Earl Drayton Farr Jr., son of founder Earl D. Farr. Officially named Farr, Farr, Emerich, Hackett, Carr & Holmes, it's the oldest law firm in Charlotte County.