While working on an undergraduate degree in history and economics, Cindy Worthing Kolb knew she wanted to further her education but had no idea that she was destined to follow in her father’s footsteps and become an attorney who specializes in insurance defense.

“I thought about going to grad school for history, but wondered about job opportunities, and I considered medical school but my math classes kind of did that in,” says Kolb. “I had a good feeling about the law profession from being around my father and basically I knew I would like it and I do.”

Kolb’s husband, Joe Kolb, also an attorney at the Barber Law Firm, one of her younger sisters, and a brother-in-law are also lawyers, bringing the family’s attorney total to five, three specializing in insurance defense.

“I’ve asked my Dad questions over the years and now my sister asks me questions from time to time,” says Kolb. “It’s a tremendous advantage being able to discuss different ways of handling things, how we’ve handled similar situations in the past. Joe can’t do that because all of his family members are doctors. We’re definitely the law nerds.”

Now a member of the Insurance Coverage Law Practice Group at the Barber Law Firm, Kolb grew up the oldest of three girls in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Miami of Ohio, earned a law degree from Case Western Reserve, passed the Ohio bar, and started working for a firm that specialized in insurance defense. Everything seemed to be going as planned. Less than two years later, Kolb was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27.

Participating in a clinical trial that included higher doses of chemotherapy administered more often than traditional treatment plans, Kolb endured chemo once every two weeks for four months; followed by six weeks of radiation treatments, five days a week. 

“I felt horrible and missed some days, but I did work through it,” Kolb says. “You don’t feel sick when you’re diagnosed, you feel perfectly fine, but then they make you sick because they’re basically killing parts of your body. All my hair fell out so I wore a wig to work. I had to give myself shots in the stomach to keep my white blood cell count up.”

But it worked. After lumpectomy surgery in 2000, Kolb has been cancer free for more than a decade.

Kolb moved to Little Rock about a month after her surgery and interviewed at the Barber Law Firm with “super short hair.” Kolb met Joe at the firm and they started dating, tying the knot in late 2003.

Tragedy struck the family two years later when Kolb, pregnant with identical twin girls, went
into labor at 22 weeks.

The loss of their twins made the birth of Caroline, now three, and Emily, 14 months later, even more special.

“They’re hilarious, so funny and smart,” Kolb says of her daughters. “It’s a little nuts with us both working, picking them up, getting them home, fixing dinner, and getting them to bed. But we work it out. Getting through the hard stuff makes the good times better.”

Cindy and Joe, who celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary in November, are thankful for their daughters and are enjoying life one day at a time.

“Life is crazy,” Cindy says, “but it’s good.”