Business Plan: Mission Statement

As I am writing the business plan, the biggest thing that I am struggling with is the mission statement.  This should sum up your business neatly with what you are about and plan to do.  I spent the whole weekend fine tuning mine, running it by people, figuring out what core values I want my firm to hold.  I decided that my whole model will be based upon scripture in a round about way.  In Isaiah 1:17, the bible defines justice for us.  My model is going to paraphrase it to:  do right, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause, and fight for rights.  All that  I do, all that I promise will be based upon those words.  If it doesn't fit in with that model, it's not me.

If you are thinking you might open your own practice, think carefully about this.  Think about what you will put out there for the world to think of your business.  Choose wisely, choose carefully. 

The kids....

My practice is going to focus on family law and disputes.  I know this is a hard area of the law, I don't pretend that it will not be.  The hardest part of this is that I am finding out how much parents use their children as weapons.  Over the last three years, I have had several friends that have gone through a divorce with children involved.  Here is what I have learned:

1.  Petty complaints abound.  That's right.  These complaints are numerous.  A few of my friends have new "legal" (what they think at least) complaints every few days.  They think that the court will intervene.  I use to play counselor to these (they psych kind, not legal kind) and entertain each of the complaints.  But that is NOT the way to deal with it.

2.  Ex wants to control morals.  Yep.  The big thing, more so with moms than dads, is that pesky new girlfriend around the kids.  And unfortunately, some ex's have a revolving door of new hookups and dates.

3.  "I just want him/her to stop being a selfish person and put the kids first."  What can I do to make the other parent, parent?  It is as if the parent believes that there is a motion to file in order to make someone stop being selfish.  Sorry, if your ex does not put your children first, (s)he is never, ever going to.  A court can do nothing about this -- and the truth is neither can you.

Bottom line:  I'm not an attorney yet.  I don't give legal advice to these friends.  I actually refer them to speak to their lawyer AFTER I ask this question:  What is your goal/objective in filing a new motion?  That is, what do you want the court to do?  Inevitably it comes down to something that I want to drive home emotionally and logically to them.......................  They will say things like:  I want him to be a dad, or, I want him to ______.  Then I say this:  No, that's not something a court likely enforce -- that's morality, it seems.  So what do you want the court to do?  The court can ordering parenting classes, or issue a noncompliance contempt order, or require supervised visitation in severe cases -- so what do you want that is within the power of the court??? When asked that they pause.  See the really GOOD parents realize quickly that the outcome means their ex being further alienated from the child's life and the child being hurt even more.  They stop and think about it.  Or, you get the truth:  I don't care, I just want him/her to hurt.

So I have learned quickly something I will apply in my practice:  What do you want the court to do?  What is your goal/objective? 

Yeah, no wonder attorney's are referred to as counselor's.

Trust Accounts....

One thing that the bar is SUPER crazy strict about is definitely those pesky trust accounts.  And as a law student, this is not something that we think about too often.  We are told about the need for a trust accounts and taught a few little things about it.  For instance, in Oregon, any interest earned off the accounts is paid into a fund that goes to legal aid. 

For me, after the fiasco's I have had with my personal banking and customer service, I am definitely going with a local bank.  I want to go be able to go to a bank when I have an issue and deal with someone face to face.

I was able to call the bar today and find out which bank pays the best interest rate off the trusts.  I narrowed my choice down to two banks.  Then from there, I networked out to other solo practitioner's asking their good and bad experiences with the banks.  I think I have narrowed it down. 

I am nervous, unsettled, excited, itching to get going..... all the dominoes are falling into place.

Here and carrying on...

Sorry about the lack of posting... At some point I figure I need to change the title of my blog, but we will wait a bit.  I have been super busy trying to get an office set up and operational by October.  There is a lot involved, from finding space that is affordable, to getting all the "legal" stuff out of the way....

Things have been interesting for me in personal ways.... my health has been a struggle in ways I did not expect, my mom was hospitalized and has been ill so I have been running her office, and making adjustments to my personal life and finances so that I could focus on opening my own business.

I want to share some of my planning, but I need to wait.   But in the months to come, I am certainly going to make notes of things that I want to share with my readers as I continue to make my journey.  I also want to share some of my personal struggles with employment that I have previously been silent about.  There is so much on my mind, so much to share. 

Ticking Clock

The ticking clock is ticking slowly.  Do you remember sitting in high school and watching the clock ticking by, so slowly?  You could hear the second hand as it chugged along and you were convinced that time could not go any slower?  This is me right now.  The clock is ticking slowly.  I can hear the time tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock......

I am now a little under a week away from the bar results.  April 22nd at 2:00 is the time.  If all goes well, I will be sworn in on May 6th at 1:30 in the afternoon.    I still don't know what I will do, where I will work, what direction I will take.  I have an idea rolling around in my head, but as someone who operates with caution, I don't know if this idea is the answer to a dream, or the start of a headache.... But I still have seven days of tick tock, tick tock............

Gut Instinct

Interviewing.. I rock them.  I just do.  This last time, I interviewed for a firm that is my dream firm to work for.  I was going through a recruiter.  One of the benefits of a recruiter is that you hear back almost immediately how the interview went.

Here was the result:  "They loved you.  Said you were great, interviewed well, confident, dynamic, highly intelligent and would make a wonderful attorney.  But they are not asking you back for a second interview.  I tried to press them as to why and they said it was a gut instinct."

A gut instinct?  Everyone that I have asked about this has said that this is a cop out.  I don't know.  My guess is that for some reason I did not seem like a good fit.  Maybe my big personality would not mesh well with others.  So it's back to the drawing board.  I am bummed but not giving up. 

MPRE Results...

Were posted today and yes, I passed... one exam result down, 1 more to go.  April 22nd is D-Day for the bar exam results.  Can I tell you that it feels like part of the weight on my shoulders has fallen off??? What a great feeling.  Now, pass bar, get a job! Yeah!