It’s unusual to have a family tradition of mother-daughter lawyers compared to father-son lines, Pamela Baschab said. So for her two daughters to follow in their mother’s footsteps, Pamela thinks it is the beginning of a legacy.

“It’s like if you’re running a relay race and passed the baton off to the next person,” she said.

Pamela had a law office in Elberta dating back to more than 22 years ago. Her daughters, Denise Baschab and Mary Baschab-Haslacker, and her son, John Baschab, would come to the office when they were just kids to visit their mother.

“That’s where I raised Mary,” Pamela said. “They were watching me the whole time and learning and I didn’t know it.”

“I was in high school at the time,” Denise said about visiting her mom’s first law office. “I would visit after school.”

Now, Mary is a third-year law student at the University of Alabama law school and will work with Sen. Jeff Sessions in Washington, D.C., once she graduates in May, Pamela said, and Denise owns a law office in Foley. The office is a general practice firm that handles civil litigation, criminal defense, adoptions, child support, document preparation and divorces, Denise said.

The office is called Baschab & Baschab, P.C. One name refers to Denise.

The other, refers to her mother, Pamela.

“She has a passion that’s burning just as brightly as it ever was,” Denise said about her mother. “Any female attorneys that I know would give their right arm to work for Judge Baschab, and she’s my mom.”

Pamela works in an advisory capacity for Denise, a position she’s held since 2009.

“When I retired, I came back here and started working for Denise,” Pamela said, noting she has been reactivated to work as a part-time judge throughout the county.

Pamela’s track record speaks for itself. She said she was the first woman in the state of Alabama to be elected to a circuit court without being appointed first, and she was a former Baldwin County judge and presiding judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

“My mom was a pioneer in southern Alabama,” Denise said.

“Denise is a much better lawyer than I ever was,” Pamela said. “I’m a better judge (than a lawyer).”

However, Pamela said her two daughters showed no early signs of wanting to follow their mother into legal practice, and if any legal connection were to exist, it would be Pamela representing her daughters in a legal issue.

“I thought I’d be defending them,” Pamela said about her daughters.

Denise graduated from the University of Alabama with an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Archeology, and then graduated form the University of Alabama’s law school in 2000. Mary graduated with an undergraduate degree in Wilderness Education.

Denise said she didn’t tell her mom about her intentions until she was accepted to law school with a scholarship.

“I never intended or planned to be a lawyer. Ever,” Denise said. “I saw what (my mom) went through. It’s extremely difficult, especially with a husband and three kids. I know she didn’t sleep for three years.”

Denise worked as the assistant district attorney in Baldwin County after graduating law school. She opened her first law office in August 2005, and she purchased her current office in 2007.

But there was no pressure to follow in her mother’s footsteps, Denise said.

“(My sister and I) were allowed to make our own choices, and we did,” Denise said.

Similar to how Pamela and Denise now work together, Mary and her mother also have a connection beyond both being lawyers. Mary currently is studying a book titled “Domestic Violence law in Alabama.”

One of the authors of the book? Pamela Baschab.