Noland Hamerly Etienne & Hoss, a small firm in Salinas, has a mighty long reach in all aspects of the community.

In the pantheon of long-lived businesses in Monterey County – and not only for the purposes of this issue in which we’re highlighting businesses as old or older than the Weekly, but also in general – the law firm of Noland Hamerly Etienne & Hoss may be one of the oldest around. Established in 1928, when Harry Noland moved to Salinas to establish a practice after graduating from Stanford Law School, the firm today has 14 attorneys. It’s 90 years later and it’s never grown to be huge in size.

But it is huge in impact.

Of those 14 attorneys, one has been with the firm for 47 years and one has been there for a year-and-a-half. Firm member Christine Kemp, who specializes in land use and environmental law, says the law firm has lasted as long as it has because it provides quality work for clients in the realms of litigation, business and labor law, trusts, real estate and land use, and a quality working environment for its employees.

“We’re careful about who we hire in terms of if they’ll fit in with the culture. You have to be a team player, because we all are. We all have different personalities, but this is very much a collaborative and congenial place. We all have a common goal or values and work ethic and that’s kept us together,” she says. “And we really respect each other.”

The firm also puts an emphasis on community involvement, something handed down from named partners Peter Hoss, who has since retired, and the late Myron “Doc” Etienne, who died in 2016 and was part of the inception of the Monterey Jazz Festival and on the board of the California Rodeo Salinas.

Other nonprofits touched by Noland Hamerly include: the Carmel Bach Festival, the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, Hartnell Community College and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, just to name a few.

The firm has two offices and serves clients throughout Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, broadening its reach in Central California.

Without knowing it, you’ve probably read about some of their cases in the news. The firm recently won a $1.3 million settlement for back wages for a client against the United Farm Workers, and another million dollar-plus verdict for a victim of child sexual abuse.

“A lot of our work is behind the scenes, not in front of the public or in the news,” Kemp explains. “But we treat small matters as equally as important as a big case.”