Our Team

I'm passionate about helping kind, hardworking employees heal from the trauma of a toxic and abusive workplace. (It changes your body and mind--I know from my own personal experience.)  

During the recession, I worked in sales: all day,  I cold-called companies to sell software products.  There's a silver-lining to everything, and I learned to love the power of negotiation, of connecting with people's pain points and solving problems. 

I loved studying English Literature as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. But I focused on creative writing because I love storytelling: give me a good myth or fairytale any time!  I earned my first $10 selling a poem when I was in college, and it gave me hope that I could use my creative skills someday in my work.

In law school at Washington University in St. Louis, I co-designed and co-taught a class on gender and the law for brilliant Washington University undergrads.  Teaching turned into another life-committment for me.  I also represented violence survivors in a clinic, and working on a team, drafted the ABA's guidelines for legal practitioners working with incarcerated violence survivors.  (An experience I had firsthand.) 

I love natural wine (ask me about it!), cooking for dinner parties with my friends, and being a political junkie and an activist for causes I care about--like getting big corporations and lobbyist money out of our political system.  I speak some French, some Spanish, some Hindi/Urdu and lots of English. 

Your employment story and your success are in my heart.

I hope to meet you and understand  your goals, and ultimately help you stand up to your employer and achieve your career dreams.  I am so happy and grateful to work with the love of my life (E.E.), and a great team (including you!) to describe your story and ensure that you obtain the best and most fulfilling result for you.  We are on this journey together--you will never be alone.

Contact Sonal at sonal@keenanfirm.com

When I was growing up, I remember seeing relatives and friends constantly out of work or, when lucky enough to have work, getting treated like dirt.  I could see on their faces how much it hurt not to have a job and provide for their families, and the pain and confusion of having a boss who acted like you never do anything right when you're working hard.  I realized that what unites all people is the need for meaningful and dignifying work.  I decided to become a lawyer, and to get involved with the labor movement.  

After college and law school at Harvard, I clerked for a fabulous federal judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.  My time with Judge Benton gave me an inside view of the court system.  Afterwards, I went into law practice to help folks like the family and friends I remember from when I was a kid.  I want to help people turn that sadness and confusion into hope and joy.  

Sonal and I were in love and had nothing to lose, and had just gotten engaged.  Start a law firm...why not?!  That's the power of love.  I'm a law nerd, but that's not the most important thing.  One of the many things Sonal and I share is a love of storytelling.  We tell each other stories all the time, and come up with them together.  

I enjoy reading good books (especially Joyce) and writing poetry.  I'm a runner and am very interested in politics (I have good friends across the spectrum and love hearing a diversity of viewpoints).  In my spare time, I'm trying to learn French and Hindi.  

I'm looking forward to hearing your story and sharing mine with you!

Contact E.E. at ee@keenanfirm.com

I come from a long line of hard workers.  I grew up on Air Force bases across the Midwest, the South, and overseas in Iceland and Germany.  My dad worked his way up the ranks of the U.S. Military and taught himself as he went.  He did it without a wealthy family or a formal education.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom who raised me and my five siblings.  She was an amazing chef, and I have many fond memories of her milling her own wheat and baking loaves of bread from scratch.  My grandparents worked in oil fields in southern Illinois, in the snow and rain for the U.S. Post Office, in various blue-collar jobs, and for big insurance companies.

When I was fifteen, I wanted to buy my own car, but there wasn’t any money for it.  Because I’d been taught the value of hard work, I rolled up my sleeves one summer and got to work.  I sold homemade beef jerky to the men and women who worked on the Whiteman Air Force Base flight line.  By the end of the summer I’d saved enough money to buy my first car.  A 1993 Dodge Shadow!  It wasn’t the prettiest car around, but I was proud of my hard work.  I took that same work ethic and put myself through college at the University of Central Missouri, and later at the University of Missouri School of Law.  I then spent the next seven years practicing with some of Missouri’s biggest law firms.

The hard work I was taught and learned, paid off for me.  But I’ve also seen so many times where hard work just isn’t enough for bosses and companies.  Even when you put in the long hours, give up nights and weekends, or sacrifice holidays with family.  One day you’re abruptly told you’ve been “let go.”  You’re told your hard work isn’t good enough.  Maybe your boss says you don’t deserve the promotion you worked so hard for.  Or maybe you’re made to feel like it’s your fault.  Deep-down you have a feeling it could really be about something else. 

This type of treatment is why I went to law school and why I love being a lawyer.  It’s the type of treatment our legal system can step in to help you with.  The environment of your job and the decisions your employer makes about you are very important.  If it’s really about the color of your skin, your gender, your age, your disability, or any other protected area, it’s not just wrong.  It’s illegal.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee (one of my favorite authors) wrote some famous words.  “You never really understand a person until you consider things from [their] point of view.”   That line has stuck with me since I first read it back in grade school.  I’ve always wanted to understand other people’s points of view.  I love fighting for my hard-working clients who are “let go,” who are harassed at work, or who are passed over for the job they deserve.  It’s amazing when the law can bring healing to the trauma that a toxic workplace inflicts.

When I’m not busy fighting for my clients in and out of the courtroom, you can find me reading a good book, gardening in the backyard of my Strawberry Hill home, driving my truck through the deserts of the Southwest, or writing poetry snuggled up with my two pugs: Porter & Petunia.  

I look forward to listening to you and figuring out how we can bring justice to what you’ve been through, together.

Contact JR at

jr@keenanfirm.com