 In the early stages of my legal career, I represented hundreds of individuals and workers secure fair compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of others. I worked for more than twenty years on one bitterly fought case that arose out of an avoidable levee failure that flooded hundreds of my clients’ homes and businesses, causing them very significant losses. At the end of that long wait, each client received their fair compensation because we never gave up. As in all things in life, bad things happen. I lost my twin sister to melanoma that had metastasized to her brain. After that happened, I was even more saddened to see what an attorney had done in preparing her family's estate plan. It could only be called a "trust mill" plan that pretty much churned out the same document for everyone that, in the end, served no one well--except the trust mill. It was very inappropriate and would now burden my brother-in-law (pictured at right with my twin) with a cumbersome and emotionally challenging situation—on top of the grief he was already suffering. At the time the attorney prepared my sister’s family estate plan, estate planning was not my area of expertise. That old saying of “jack of all trades, master of none” is very true when it comes to the practice of law. Disheartened by what had happened to my twin’s family, I was driven to try to right the wrong by endeavoring to deliver professional, competent and caring estate planning services and solutions. I believe my sister and her family deserved better. I believe all clients deserve better. I knew I could do better, and so I embarked on a journey to learn what was necessary to provide a far superior level of service that all clients deserve. While I was no doubt far older than most of my fellow classmates, I've always had a "where there's a will, there's a way" kind of attitude, so I returned to school. As I progressed through the advanced law degree program, I recognized that I wanted to focus on serving our aging population. As with my earlier career, I would be working with those less fortunate, and that's what I knew I wanted to do. The icing on the cake is that it is an area of law where clients actually give you hugs because they're so pleased with how you've helped them and their families. Return to my Profile |