“Why? I like telling people’s stories. I like solving other people’s problems. Like when someone’s getting bullied and you shut that down. Or when something’s been plaguing a client for months or even years and we can settle a case or win a case, and they can move on with their lives. Get some kind of closure.”
Andy Hays did a fair amount of exploration and experimentation before settling down to law. Originally from Kansas, he did odd jobs in Oregon, was a snowmobile tour guide in Lake Tahoe, a curious foreign student in Rome, a grad student in Tempe, an assistant brewer in Denver, and a masterbrewer and law student in Chicago. Law felt as if it suited him. It would supply a steady stream of stories in need of a good conclusion, and give him an outlet for his argumentative nature.
Upon receiving his J.D., Mr. Hays took a position as an associate attorney at a small Chicago firm for two years before starting his own firm, Hays Firm, in Chicago in 2008. He has more or less stayed in one place – both professionally and geographically – with the exception of 3 years in Costa Rica and the pandemic winter in Southern Colorado, where he ran the practice remotely.
Mr. Hays concentrates his practice in the areas of trust and estate administration and litigation, decedent’s probate estates, and guardianship. He also enjoys working with restaurant and bar entrepreneurs to structure, buy or sell a business, or acquire a liquor license. He enjoys business, enjoys growing the firm, and anticipates taking a more managerial role in the future.
