Typically, lawyers and farmers have little in common. However, Rhame & Elwood attorney Peter Boyles manages to bridge the gap between the two professions.
By day, Boyles can be found handling Criminal Defense and Personal Injury cases. After he departs from the Rhame & Elwood office, which is located on Willowcreek Road in Portage, the Portage resident can often be found tending to his Valparaiso farm, Rancho De Cielo.
Boyles bought the family farm from his stepdad in 2000. He now has 33 boer goats and six chickens. The name of the farm is named after Ronald Reagan’s ranch in California, which is called Rancho Del Cielo.
“I’m a big Reagan fan,” Boyles said.
Boyles said he started having an appreciation for the law profession in high school, but the road to becoming a lawyer seemed daunting since no one in his immediate family had pursued that profession. After completing his undergraduate degree at Valparaiso University, he realized that entering the law field was a realistic possibility and enrolled in the Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law, where he earned his law degree.
“In order to be successful, you have to be very analytical in your thinking,” Boyles said. “You have to be organized. You have to be able to take the facts and apply them. You have to be able to think on your feet.”
Boyles got his foot in the door during his time at Ohio Northern as a summer intern for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office and as a clerk at a law firm in Ohio. He embarked on his legal career with Hugo E. Martz in 1994. A few years later, the firm became Martz and Boyles, where he stayed until landing at Rhame & Elwood in October of 2009.
After nearly two decades of practicing law, Boyles said he is proud of all of his cases, but there is no one case that stands above the rest.
“I can’t think of one case that I’ve been involved in where I felt like my efforts didn’t get the best possible result for my client,” he said. “Certainly lawyers like to tell their war stories, and I’ve certainly had big cases that have been resolved, but I don’t really judge my satisfaction with a case solely based upon the outcome.”
Boyles called his typical day “organized chaos.”
“I may be headed to a court call somewhere in Porter County, Lake County or Chicago,” he said. “I could be meeting with clients, dealing with telephone inquiries from clients or dealing with our existing clients. The less fun part of our job is dealing with the lawyers that are involved from the other side. The old joke is that the practice of law would be great if it wasn’t for the other lawyers.”
The bulk of Boyles’s spare time is spent on the farm, but he also enjoys watching the Valparaiso Crusaders men’s basketball team, downhill skiing, snow skiing and playing golf.
Boyles met Ken Elwood in about 1996 as the two worked on the opposite sides of cases. He said they had a mutual respect for each other’s abilities and talents.
“From my experience, I knew how much pride he had put into building Rhame & Elwood,” Boyles said. “When I had an opportunity to come here, I was happy to do that. John Rhame has been a part of the Portage community for a long time.”
Boyles said that at Rhame & Elwood, every case is a team effort.
“To be able to come to a firm where there were good, quality attorneys, that was very appealing,” he said. “We have the big firm talent without the big firm feel. We’re all pretty grounded individuals. We are good, quality people who enjoy serving our clients and giving back to our community.”
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3200 Willowcreek Rd
Portage, IN 46368
Phone: 219-762-0494