ABOVE: Linda Egeness celebrated her 50 year work anniversary as a secretary for the Erickson, Zierke, Kuderer and Madsen Law Firm on Monday. Since 1975, Egeness has handled important issues from this exact desk.

FAIRMONT – Monday marked 50 years for Linda Egeness as the Secretary at Erickson, Zierke, Kuderer and Madsen Law Firm.

The desk Egeness works from today is the same as when she first started in 1975.

“When I first started, there were seven attorneys here in this office,” Egeness said. “My duties were receptionist, which is all the telephone work. You sit at the front desk, you greet the clients as they come in. I was scheduling appointments for seven attorneys.”

Further down the line, Egeness said they had a maximum of 11 attorneys. She said this was one of her busiest times in her career. Throughout her career, Egeness said there have been several changes.

“Office equipment changed a lot,” she said. “Office procedures, that type of thing. There are a lot of people that came and went, attorneys, staff, all that. I always adapted to it.”

While the technology has changed, Egeness said the face-to-face has stayed relatively similar in her time.

“Working with the people, working with the public, working with my co-workers,” she said. “Always have a need to be helpful. I don’t want to be the cause for somebody to have a bad day. [It’s] an empathy kind of thing where I want to be able to help out in a situation.”

Law Firm President Greg Kuderer has been at the firm for nearly as long as Egeness, around 46 years. He said when he and Egeness got started, there were more lawyers in rural areas.

“It’s not quite that way anymore,” he said. “A lot of the legal work, for whatever reason, has drifted into the larger cities. I think that’s probably because lawyers coming out of law school like the larger communities, and they want to be there in practice. Today, with the ability to practice remotely, you can still almost be anywhere and practice law through the computer.”

In his experience, Kuderer said having Egeness at the firm has been priceless.

“Linda understands the area, the people, the clients,” he said. “She essentially is the voice and image of our firm. I believe the successes we’ve had over the past few years are in large part because of Linda’s input and contributions, that clients feel comfortable with her. She just handles it with such grace and professionalism that you can’t replace.”

With the experience accumulated over time, Kuderer said the work Egeness does goes further than just as a receptionist secretary.

“Legal assistant, semi-paralegal,” he said. “She knows everything the paralegal would know, and I would trust her with anything in the case to do.”

Having worked side by side for so long, Kuderer said it has been a privilege to work with Egeness.

“For Linda to have given us 50 years of her life to the firm and to the people that we have serviced and assisted,” he said. “It’s been truly remarkable. I wouldn’t do it without her. It’s just necessary to have somebody like that. At some point in time, she’s going to be greatly missed.”

Right now, Egeness said she doesn’t have a plan as to when she’ll retire, but she’s looking forward to enjoying some time for herself.

“A little bit of travel would be good,” she said. “I have a couple sisters not in the area, a family of six girls. I’m the oldest, so it’d be fun to share time with them. I’ve got kids, grandkids. Maybe just not do much of anything, kick back.”