Tom Kerrick, shareholder and partner in Bowling Green’s Kerrick Bachert law firm that had its State Street building destroyed by fire last year, is shown outside the law firm’s new headquarters at 1411 Scottsville Road.

It took a few months, but the Kerrick Bachert law firm that had its downtown Bowling Green building destroyed by fire on July 21, 2023, now has a new home.

The law firm’s 10 attorneys and 15 support staff have moved into the former headquarters of the Tony Rhoades State Farm Insurance business at 1411 Scottsville Road after Rhoades’ business moved to 5806 Otte Way near Alvaton.

“We’re happy to be here,” Tom Kerrick, a shareholder and partner in the law firm, said on Tuesday. “We decided to buy this and make it work. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.”

That tunnel was pretty dark in the hours and days after the fire, but Kerrick and his staff bounced back quickly, even without a permanent home.

“We were fortunate that all our computer stuff was backed up to the cloud (servers),” Kerrick said. “I don’t think we lost many documents that couldn’t be reproduced.”

Kerrick Bachert was also fortunate to find a temporary home almost before the smoke had cleared after the fire in the wee hours of the morning at the 1029 State St. building.

The law firm set up shop at Western Kentucky University’s Innovation Campus on Nashville Road, a space that served as its home for several months.

“We already had a relationship with WKU,” Kerrick recalled. “We went out there within days of the fire. The Innovation Campus was a blessing for us.

“I thought we might have to go to different locations, but we were able to stay together. Honestly, I don’t think we missed a beat.”

Except when it came time to find a permanent home. Warren Fiscal Court bought the 1029 State St. property for $300,000, and Kerrick Bachert went looking for a new home.

“The most frustrating time was when we were looking for a new building,” Kerrick said. “I realized we couldn’t replace what we had. It was a nice older building that we had fixed up.”

After striking out on a number of possible new locations, Kerrick took a close look at the Scottsville Road property owned by Rhoades.

At roughly 9,000 square feet, it was big enough to meet the law firm’s needs. Kerrick Bachert’s State Street building was approximately 13,000 square feet, but about 4,000 of that was leased as the local office of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.

Paul eventually landed in the office building owned by Johnny Webb and Jim Scott in The Hub development on Lovers Lane, meaning the Scottsville Road building was large enough to meet the law firm’s needs.

Built in 1950 and added to in 1991, the building comes with a bonus Kerrick Bachert didn’t enjoy downtown: plenty of parking.

“We rented some parking spaces from the county downtown,” Kerrick said. “This is much better. We have 30 parking spaces here.”

Kerrick Bachert, formed in 2016 when Kerrick and Scott Bachert merged their separate law firms, now has a new headquarters that can be expanded if needed.

“We kind of knew immediately that this was where we wanted to be,” Kerrick said. “The other partners liked the location and the parking. It’s going to work out fine.”