It was a Saturday. The office web site went live. My professional liability insurance policy kicked in. I scheduled my first client meeting. It was fifteen years ago, October 1, 2005, and my journey as a solo estate planning & probate attorney had begun.
Over the decade and a half to follow, my days were filled with interesting legal questions and fact patterns. Laws evolved, statutes were modified, courts shifted to online filings only. The well from which I drew stories to illustrate concepts of estate planning & probate deepened. For example, a Personal Representative has the ability to "demolish or erect structures" in the course of a probate. I had a case once where this power was needed; decedent had built a garage over the lot line and it needed to be torn down before the property could sell. I have a lot of stories I can pull from to educate current clients, and I mean a lot.
None of this really surprised me. Back in 2005 I anticipated building a wealth of knowledge in the subject area I decided to focus on. I assumed my career path would allow me to give seminars (I do, routinely), to teach (I have at the undergrad level), and even to write (in 2013 I released a small book on philanthropy). But there was something I didn't see coming back when I went through the mechanics of setting up this practice. Along with the graying hair, bouts of carpal tunnel, and an increased need for "my readers", I've learned how critical it is to sit down at a client meeting with open ears and a caring heart.
My clients are not textbook hypotheticals. They are real people. And they deserve a lawyer who has more than the mere mechanical tools of estate planning & probate. They need a lawyer with a heart, one who cares, one who listens, and one who helps them navigate the terrain of illness and death. More than once I have cried with a client grieving the death of a spouse; handed tissues to clients telling me how their child died, necessitating an update in their documents; and going to the hospital so a client in palliative care can sign her final papers.
Looking back I can say that an estate planning & probate practice is far more than citations, processes, and official signings. It is navigating another person through the sea of family dynamics, thorny relationships, and the reality that none of us are getting out of this alive. It is far more rewarding than I could have ever imagined on that Saturday long ago.
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