Jamie B. Greusel Legal Legacy Continues

Caleb Pringle is dedicating himself to carrying on the same manner as his professional and personal mentor, the highly respected, long-time Marco Island attorney Jamie Greusel.  

After working under her for years, he’s stepped in to help clients from her practice, The Law Office of Jamie B. Greusel, after her sudden passing in April. She practiced law on the island for 37 years, specializing in estate planning, trust and probate, business and real estate law, including condominiums.  

Those specialties remain unchanged under Pringle, a 2015 graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, who worked closely with Greusel.  

“I’ve just kind of stepped into her shoes, which, of course, I’m never going to fill,” he said. “Whatever she was doing, I had pretty much helped her with it, and shetaught me how to do it. So there's not much that comes through the door that I can't handle or help with.” 

Immediately after graduating, he joined his family’s law firm, Strayhorn and Strayhorn, in Fort Myers. He also began traveling to Marco to assist Greusel, whom he’d known since childhood. She and his father, attorney Richard Pringle, became friends while attendingthe Stetson University College of Law together in the 1980s.  

“I started coming down once or twice a week,” he said. “It started with me working on cases with her and then slowly, I started doing pretty much all of her litigation. Anything involving going to court, I would help with and slowly but surely, I started doing a little bit more and a little bit more. I did pretty much everything Jamie did because she taught me how to do it. If there was a problem that she thought I could handle, she would turn it over to me.” 

The experience he gained through the relationship was invaluable in terms of practicing law and on a human level. 

“I really thought the world of her,” said Pringle. “She was very sweet. She was just a very, very nice, knowledgeable person. She just knew pretty much everything. You could ask her something, and she would know it off the top of her head. I was very honored that she took me on as a protege.” 

He suspects that Greuselhad come to regard him as her successor. Her response when he asked about her long-term intentions is the reason for that belief.  

“I said what do you want to do with your practice? Do you want me to buy you out?” he said. “It's hard to believe, but she said, ‘Don't worry about it. I'm just going to give it to you, and you just keep an office for me. I'll stick around and I'll do the work that I want to do. But mostly you just take it over.’  I'm sure she could have sold the practice and gotten good money because she is a legend on the island and everybody knows her. I'm incredibly grateful for this. I don't know what I did to earn that trust and the generosity.” 

In the wake of her death, the practice’s name is now Law Office of Caleb Pringle, mirroring Greusel’s wording.  

Her sudden passing, which occurred over a weekend, was a gut punch for Pringle and the staff. 

“It’s been very difficult having lost her like this,” he said. “She was a special, special person. It was a shock. There was really no warning at all. Nobody knew that she was not going to show up to work on that Monday. She left on a Friday, took a sick day, and then she wasn't there Monday.” 

After her death, Pringle sent letters to the client basenotifying them of her death and that he was there to assist with any legal needs they might have, should they decide to remain with the practice. The letter closed with an invitation.  

“I said, you know, it would really mean a lot to me if you came by and said hi and if they wanted to, to share a story about Jamie,” he explained. “I’ve had people come by and tell me different stories about how she was. I spent a lot of time with her in the office but not as much with her out and about and interacting with clients. So it would be good if anybody wants to come by and say, ‘Hey, Jamie, helped me out this way or that way. I would love to talk to them about it.”  

The Law Office of Caleb Pringle is located at 1104 N. Collier Boulevard. For more information, please call 394-8111.