KMA Law Office Celebrates 15 Years Of Serving The Community

Over the last decade and a half, KMA Law Office has grown to a staff of eight, and its team has helped more than 2,000 families in the greater Severna Park area and beyond. The business officially reached its 15-year anniversary on August 10, and the team celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house featuring live music, food trucks and more on August 16.

As many businesses do, the firm began with humble beginnings. Owner Karen Authement, a resident of Anne Arundel County since she was 6 years old, followed a gradual path to opening the law firm.

Authement said she always knew she wanted to be an attorney. She first earned an associate’s degree in paralegal studies and began working in law firms as support staff. She quickly developed a passion for helping people, particularly those who had suffered injuries.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Authement began law school at the age of 28 – while working full-time and starting a family. She began her career as an attorney in a personal injury firm and expanded to practicing real estate law. But a long commute and an exhausting volume of business prompted her to branch out on her own.

“I decided if I’m going to do it, just do it on my own. And that’s what I did,” Authement said. “So on August 10, (2010), I started on my own, and the first month was in my dining room, and then I found a space to rent. The first two years I was in Baltimore City, and then I moved my office closer to home in Severna Park, and I’ve been there for the last 13 years now.”

Gradually, the firm grew. A paralegal and an administrative assistant joined KMA Law Office. In 2021, Authement welcomed the firm’s first associate attorney. Today, the team consists of three attorneys, two legal assistants, two paralegals and an administrative assistant.

Together, they have recovered millions of dollars for clients over the years, including two recent cases with verdicts over $1 million each.

Early on, the business was a general practice firm.

“After the first five years, we started tailoring it down,” Authement said, reflecting on the evolution of KMA Law Office. “I realized … I just wanted to focus on the two areas I feel we give back the most in, and that’s the estate planning – making sure people have things set up for the worst-case scenarios – and then the personal injury (side), helping people work through that process – nobody plans for that – and get what they’re entitled to under the law.”

Attorney Kelly Arnold joined KMA Law Office a little over a year ago and focuses on personal injury law. Attorney Ryan Leeb came on board in April and practices estate planning.

For generations, Leeb’s family has served people through retirement planning, which is where he got his start. Though he enjoyed it, he pursued law school to focus on estate planning. Leeb found success working at a few firms, but he dreamed of working alongside attorneys who treated clients the same way his family did.

“It wasn’t until I started (at KMA Law Office) that I felt like I found something that matches, as close as possible, to working with my family, and it feels great,” he shared.

KMA Law Office prides itself on offering “big-firm services with small-firm personal attention.” Authement noted that some people have an image of attorneys as unapproachable people in stuffy suits, but she and her team are committed to helping their clients feel cared for and comfortable.

She has witnessed clients enter her office anxious and leave relieved. “When our clients tell us that they felt comfortable … you can see the weight lift off of them, and that’s why I take a great deal of comfort in seeing them feel relieved,” she said.

KMA Law Office also gives back to the community: the firm sponsors events at the Severna Park Community Center, is involved in the chamber of commerce, and was the main sponsor of Art in the Park in 2024.

Another longtime local, Arnold is equally passionate about serving the community she calls home.

“I grew up in this community, so helping clients here in the greater Severna Park area … really is like helping our neighbors, helping our community, protecting the people that are close to us and serve the same community that we do,” she shared.

Arnold added, “For us that’s really one of the driving factors of staying here in Severna Park, because it is such a small community. We could go to Annapolis or Baltimore, but we don’t serve our community by doing that. So for us, it’s a very client-centric and community-centric practice.”

To learn more about KMA Law Office and its practice areas, go to www.kma-law.com.