A pretty cool day.

Today was a pretty cool day. I had something shocking happen that proved I did the right thing in walking away from big paying "downtown" law firm job to open my sole practice 20 years ago. In the mid-1990's, a woman called me very upset wanting to appeal something that happened in family court. A bad result in a child support matter. By the grace of God, I was able to get the woman and her then-very young son some more child support. I also negotiated a fee reduction with the family lawyer (who recognized she could have done a better job). I didn't charge the woman anything (because I thought she had been through enough with the legal system, and frankly, she didn't have much for herself or her son). Flash forward 15 or so years later to a few months ago. Out of the blue, I received a thank you note from her son, who had just graduated from law school. He said that he went to law school because his mother told him how I had helped them, and he wanted to do the same thing for someone else. The mother told me that without the increase in child support, they probably would not have had enough resources for her son to attend college or law school. Today, while working on a brief, I received a telephone message from the woman that her son passed the Nevada bar exam on the first try. She said he wanted me to know right away. Sometimes we're fortunate enough to find out that we made a meaningful difference in the lives of others.