Associate Attorney Wes Hoyer recently joined the team at Marquess Law Office PC. Hoyer joins attorney Michael Marquess and legal assistant Teresa Vodochodsky in the office that opened in 2019. Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

A business in downtown Toledo recently expanded its operation.

Marquess Law Office, P.C. welcomed Associate Attorney Wes Hoyer to the team in November, growing the business from one attorney to two.

Attorney Michael Marquess opened his private practice in the summer of 2019. The original intent was to maintain a two person operation along with Teresa Vodochodsky who has been the office’s legal assistant since opening.

However Marquess says that his legal business has taken off over the past year and financial indicators pointed toward the potential to expand and bring on a second attorney.

“We were looking for someone who wants to be in the courtroom and who wants to do the criminal and litigation work,” Marquess said. “Someone with some zealousness and drive as well.”

Marquess believes he’s found those qualities in Hoyer who began work with the firm in November.

“Having an extra attorney as co-counsel on a more complex case is nice to have in terms of handling the work or getting an opinion on something,” Hoyer said.

I think that’s really valuable to have.”

Hoyer hails from Freeport, Ill and made his way to Iowa by attending Coe College for his bachelor’s degree, graduating in 2017 and heading straight into law school at the University of Iowa.

He plans to commute from the Cedar Rapids area where he lives with his fiance and their three rescue cats. In his free time, Hoyer enjoys online video games, reading biographies and books on history as well as watching The Great British Baking Show on TV.

Hoyer passed the bar exam earlier this year and says he’s enthusiastic about beginning work in Tama County.

“Working in a smaller community there’s a stronger sense of helping people because you get to know the people in the community,” Hoyer said. “In a rural community you feel like less of a cog in a machine. To me, it just feels more like home working in a place like Toledo or Tama.”

The move to expand the business comes on the heels of Marquess accepting a contract with the state of Iowa as a special prosecutor to represent the state of Iowa in tribal cases when offenses are committed by non-natives against non-natives (or without a victim) on the Meskwaki Settlement.

While Marquess is under contract with the state he is not allowed to take on criminal cases. Prior to posting the job to hire an associate attorney Marquess sought permission from the state to allow his associate to handle criminal cases outside of Tama County.

The state granted the request and now Hoyer has begun accepting criminal defense and litigation work, much of it court appointed, in the areas surrounding Tama County.

“As an attorney you spend a lot of time helping people solve problems they normally wouldn’t be able to solve on their own,” Hoyer said. “I came from working class parents. Neither of them went to college and so I’ve always felt just a sense of duty to give back and use the opportunities I’ve been given to help people. To provide that help to people is just a great feeling.”

Hoyer enters the full-time professional world at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the course of daily life, including the ways in which law is able to be practiced and justice is able to be served in the court system.

The court system has been dramatically slowed during the pandemic. Marquess is concerned that justice delayed is justice denied for those still waiting on their day in court.

“Our system isn’t designed for this kind of disruption but it’s doing the best that it can,” Marquess said.

For Hoyer, much of his professional legal experience, which began earlier this year with an internship at the Iowa State Public Defender’s office in Black Hawk County, has been encompassed by the pandemic.

Both he and Marquess expressed their eagerness to return to safe in-person services.

“We miss the client contact and look forward to the day when we can open our doors and welcome people in again,” Marquess said.