F&P Spotlight on Principal Cindy L. Armstrong

What is your practice area and how did you choose it?
I focus solely on representing Employers and Insurance Companies in Workers’ Compensation matters. I took a Workers’ Comp class in law school and found it interesting. My first job out of law school was with a Workers’ Comp firm and I’ve been doing it ever since.

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
I have two favorite aspects about working at F&P. The first is that I have the best support staff that I have ever had in 16.5 years of practicing law. The second is that someone is always willing to stop what they are doing to answer questions, brainstorm on a case, etc. Although I am the only attorney in the Hagerstown office, my colleagues in Baltimore and Easton let me know that they are available if I need help with anything.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
In addition to passing the bar, my proudest accomplishment is completing the Frederick Half Marathon in 2014. I got up 5 days a week at 4:30 a.m. for 12 weeks to train with my next-door neighbor. All of the training was outdoors, including a 7-degree morning in February. My kids were 3 ½ and 6 months old when we started training. It was exhausting but completing the half marathon was something I am very proud of.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
Few of my colleagues know that I am a diehard Baltimore Orioles’ fan, and have been since I was in middle school, when I would carry my parents’ portable AM radio throughout the house during games to make sure I didn’t miss a play. If I went outside to play, the radio came too. I have one tattoo, and it’s an Orioles’ tattoo.

Have you read any good books or seen any good movies that you would recommend?
I recently got back into reading books. Verity by Colleen Hoover and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides are both very good books, with an unexpected twist at the end.

Do you have any bizarre talents?
I have a weird ability to remember numbers. I can see a number once or twice and never forget it-phone numbers, license plate numbers, etc. When I was in college, if my roommate needed to remember a phone number, she would just tell it to me rather than writing it down. I still remember my childhood phone number, and several neighbors’ phone numbers, from a neighborhood that we moved out of when I was 8.