‘Your lighthouse in the storm’

Finding a law firm with a work-life balance was important for Marie Bucci.

After a few years after law school, she found it at Lyons & Associates, P.C. where she has been since February 2021.

“I started as an associate at the Somerville office and at the time they only had a Somerville office (which opened 15 years ago) and a Morristown office (which opened in 2018),” Bucci said.

In October 2022, Lyons & Associates held a grand opening for its third office in Freehold where Bucci now leads as a senior associate.

“Terry Lyons, a managing partner, decided she wanted to open a practice in Monmouth County,” Bucci said, adding the office primarily services clients in Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean counties. “When I started at Lyons in 2021, we were less than 10 attorneys. Now we’re over 20.”

And the firm is continuing to grow all the while maintaining its core values of having a positive culture and providing a good work environment. When Bucci, who is a family law attorney, came to the Freehold office, it was just her and her paralegal.

“Now we offer criminal law at the office,” she said in addition to family, estates and trust law. “We have four attorneys and two paralegals. [The growth] has been exciting.”

After graduating from Rutgers University in New Brunswick with degrees in criminal justice and sociology and minors in criminology and Spanish, Bucci went on to Rutgers Law School in Newark.

“I knew pretty quickly when I was at Rutgers Law, I wanted to practice family law,” she said. “I did a family law track. I got a family law certificate which basically means your focus is on family law. While there I did a child advocacy providing representation for children in administrative proceedings.”

Bucci did her one-year family law clerkship in Monmouth County Superior Court, which is up the road from the Lyons & Associates’ Freehold office, working hand-in-hand with a family part judge.

When Bucci started at Lyons, the firm mainly focused on all intricacies of family law. Now the firm offers real estate; bankruptcy; civil litigation; business litigation; criminal law; administrative law; and name, image and likeness.

“There’s a lot that we offer here,” she said. “I’ve grown my practice as well. I do family law with a focus on high asset divorces; child custody issues; domestic violence; adoption, which is always usually a happier one of the mix; and equitable distribution.

“…I also started working on wills, trusts and estates. So I do estate planning, powers of attorney, health care directives, and living wills. I also do name changes, which are filed in the civil division. They are coming up a lot now because of the need for Real IDs to travel.”

The motto of the firm is “lighthouse in the storm.”

“There’s always a lighthouse in a storm in family law when things can get really ugly, but we try to lead with compassion,” Bucci said. “Sometimes it’s about communicating and being a good listener. We pride ourselves in getting back to our clients, answering the questions, answering the emails, making the calls.

“It’s important to let them be heard and without that you kind of have a disconnect. That’s really important to us. We pride ourselves in being good negotiators, advocating for our clients in an economical way.”

In family law, they are always trying to reach a settlement, Bucci said.

“Typically, we engage in quite a bit of mediation, but we are also litigators and are in the courtroom quite often as well,” she said, adding family law is litigation heavy.

As a person with strong interpersonal skills, as a good communicator, and as a good listener, Bucci excels in helping people during their hardest times.

“I think a lot of those times they really need someone who is going to listen,” she said. “Often times I get clients who are saying ‘I know you are not my therapist, but I need to kind of unload’ and you know for the most part I’m here to listen and kind of help them navigate through what is really a hard time in their lives.”

As a family law attorney advocating for her client, her job is to “bring down the temperature” of the divisiveness just so the best decisions can be made for the family.

“There’s been several instances where I really advocated for my client and made a difference for them whether it’s for their children or where they were very disadvantaged before they got an attorney,” she said. “In domestic violence cases when representing the victim, it is really rewarding when that final restraining order is granted, and you really feel like you’re making a difference for that person. Even though a restraining order is a piece of paper, it’s court order and it is powerful.

“It’s nice to be able to go home and be like, ‘Wow I got this victory for my client’ … that’s something that I find rewarding.”

Aside from practicing law, at Lyons & Associates they like to get involved in the community. In Freehold, they are working on a program with a local Girl Scouts troop for the summer.

“They will come in and I will talk to them about the process of being an attorney, professionalism and why it is important to have a plan,” said Bucci, who juggles on average 40 to 50 cases.

As senior associate, Bucci is also on the firm’s leadership team, handling the firm’s topic blogs and working closely with the marketing team on what information is posted on the firm’s website and social media pages. She also is a chair of the firm’s mentor program.

Bucci credits Lyons for her leadership in creating a great work environment with a great team at Lyons & Associates.

Lyons is a certified matrimonial attorney from the New Jersey Supreme Court. She graduated from Rutgers School of Law with High Honors. She also has a master’s degree in social work.

“I know that Terry’s dream is to keep expanding,” she said. We’re looking to keep on building in the Freehold office. We’re hiring, hiring more associates. We’re interviewing … that’s really exciting.”

To schedule a free consultation or for more information visit www.lyonspc.com.