As long as I can remember I wanted to grow up and become a lawyer and fight injustice and help people. I went to law school thinking that I could make a difference in peoples lives and right wrongs. After graduation I interviewed with the Public Defenders Office but ended up getting a job with the States Attorneys Office. I figured I could go after corrupt public officials, corporations that polluted the environment and ripped off the public, and slime ball criminals. Instead I ended up in traffic court prosecuting people for speeding, illegal turns, and other traffic offenses. In six months I lost only two cases that went to trial. It was me, the cops, and the judge day in and day out versus Joe Citizen. I usually had to ask ten questions to win the case. Often I would ask question one and the officer would answer all ten at once. If I forgot one or the officer missed one the judge would ask the question. The poor citizen would argue that the officer was lying. Now the judge would spend one day a month with this officer and he did not know the citizen at all so the deck was stacked in favor of the officer. Those citizens represented by lawyers still lost but they lost doubly as they had to pay fines and their lawyers. Thankfully I thought I received an offer to escape the States Attorneys Office to work for a medium size general law firm. When I interviewed with the partner I indicated that I was interested in criminal or health law but that I did not want to do family or domestic relations law. So of course I was assigned to the divorce section right away. I was not happy handling divorces. Many of the cases I handled had been with the firm for years and involved issues of child support or maintenance. A wise old friend told me that divorce cases do not end until the youngest child graduates college or both of the exes dies. I grew tired of people refighting the issues which lead to their divorce. The only winners were the lawyers and that seemed like a sad way to make a living to me. One day another associate was sick and I covered his caseload in court. He had a few simple bench trials and they were a piece of cake. I got back to the office and advised the managing partner that I had won them and told him that I would be glad to fill in any time he needed help. A month or two later I got switched to the litigation team and it was like a breath of fresh air. There was more prep work but with discovery there is no surprise like in the old Perry Mason t.v. show. Sometimes you have a good case and sometimes you have a dog case. Then you have to put your lawyer skills to use. I stayed at this job for several years but the long hours just did not justify the time away from the family. The wife and I had started a family by then and I did not want to be like other lawyers with the firm who put the firm ahead of everything else. Killing yourself for a huge salary did not seem worth the loss of time with wife and family. Plus my free spirit attitude was rubbing some of my fellow partners the wrong way and it was time to split ways. I formed my own firm with one partner and several associates. My partner likes to handle all the serious stuff and he does the meet and greet with all the big name clients. I am the one who runs out and gets the clients who like me are chasing after imaginary tilted windmills. I am the one who signed up the client who paid us in vegetables as she was on Social Security and had no extra cash but a green thumb and a great vegetable garden. I may also have been the one who bartered legal services for a painter to paint the office who turned out to be either color blind or the lovely salmon I selected turned out to be pink. I am finally having fun and sometimes I feel like a superhero who fights injustice and rights wrongs. It is not always easy but it is exciting because you never know who or what kind of case is coming in the door. Having said that I must make this disclaimer or my partner will have a fit: no legal representation or advice will be offered or solicited by me here. He gets worried when I talk with people.
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