Kenneth J. Allen: The man beneath the hat




Kenneth J. Allen of Allen Law Group

Kenneth J. Allen of Allen Law Group

You may have never met him, but you surely know him. He’s the guy smiling down from maybe dozens of billboards in Lake and Porter counties, even in Chicago and Indianapolis. What sets him apart from all the other lawyers advertising their services in this way is the hat. It gives him a jaunty air, like a confident crooner just about to step up to the mike and belt out a song.

Recently, Ken Allen sat down for an interview with the Chesterton Tribune, to answer probing questions like, “What’s with the hat?”

A: “I have a hat on right now, “he said over the phone. “Seriously.” Q: “When do you take it off?” A: “When I go to bed. Or when I take a shower. Or when it’s raining outside. I hate to get it wet.” Q: How many hats do you have? A: “Oh, I don’t know. I’d be embarrassed to say.” Q: “Do you have as many billboards as you have hats? A: “That’s a good question. I’ll have to add them up.”

An electronic billboard in front of a regular billboard at Allen Law’s Merrillville office. SUSAN HAUSER/photo

An electronic billboard in front of a regular billboard at Allen Law’s Merrillville office. SUSAN HAUSER/photo

Lately, the people of Chesterton have been more aware of Allen’s face on a billboard because yet to be decided by the Advisory Plan Commission is whether he will be allowed to install an electronic billboard next to the $10 million, 41,000-square-foot office building he is erecting just west of Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve. Already, he has one of his standard billboards, showing him in the hat, next to the construction, which is expected to be completed next spring. The commission next meets on July 21.

One concern is that an electronic billboard, with rotating slides of photos or graphics, would be too great a distraction on Ind. 49, which already has had its share of crashes due in part to distracted drivers. Allen counters that his office building in Merrillville, just off U.S. 30, has an electronic billboard that has not been the cause of accidents.

In fact, he says, it displays rotating photos of local teachers nominated by the public and named Teachers of Excellence.

He wants to continue the tradition in Chesterton, due to his high regard for educators, and if granted permission to install an electronic billboard (which is not as high as a regular billboard), he will start taking nominations for Duneland teachers to be honored in this way.

He considers teacher recognition a service to the community, in the same way that his ken4kids organization serves the needs of kids. Last fall, Allen visited a first-grade class at Yost Elementary School in Porter to distribute stuffed animals called Reading Buddies.

“We give it to the child and say, ‘OK, you don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it or brush it. The only thing you have to do for it is read to it at least 15 minutes each day,’” said Allen. “I get a list from the teacher of the names of the kids. I pull one of the things out of the bag and I put it to my ear, and I act like it’s whispering to me. I say, ‘Is there an Allie here? Here’s your Reading Buddy.’ And these kids are so excited that they’ve got a Reading Buddy that’s asked for them by name.”

Allen, who has been practicing law since 1981, has two office buildings already, one in Merrillville and one in Valparaiso, which is where he first established his personal injury practice. His staff of 15 lawyers also occupy offices in Chicago and Indianapolis. “Our firm is the largest firm of its kind that just does accident work in our part of the state,” he said.

His Chesterton office building will be much larger than the other two, which are both one-story structures. Why is he making this kind of investment in Chesterton?

“The whole idea,” said Allen, “is to try to get ahead of the curve. Chesterton is what Valpo was 20 years ago.” In other words, Chesterton is the up-and-coming place, the place to be for a lawyer who wants to reach a lot of people. And as for the 640-acre development near Coffee Creek where he’s erecting his new office, “It’s a gem,” he says. He expects some national tenants to soon join the development. (He’s hoping for Whole Foods.) He even bought a townhouse in the area so he can walk to work.

Allen, 65, was born and raised in Gary, where he held jobs in the building trades, in the steel mill and on the railroad. At Valparaiso University he majored in English, and at Indiana University Bloomington he received his jurisprudence degree, cum laude. He says in the past 25 years, he and his firm have won the highest jury verdicts for their clients than any other Indiana law firm.

That’s one reason why he feels it’s important to advertise with billboards, whether they’re electronic or not. “I believe we do a better job than the others, so it’s important to get people’s attention and get them to consider us. Because if they do, then they’ll hire us. I haven’t lost a jury trial in almost 30 years in Indiana or Illinois state courts.”

Q: “Do you wear your hat in court?”

A: “Sometimes. Some judges don’t care.”

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