Peace Corps
Living in a foreign country long enough to learn its language and customs became the basis for his eventual legal practice.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
RJ’s father was a college graduate, employed as an engineer by the US government. RJ’s mother had been a legal secretary before staying home to raise the four children.
Neither parent offered specific career advice, beyond the expectation that their children should graduate from college. RJ inherited his father’s dry sense of humor.
CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER
As a child, RJ thought he would either follow his father’s career path into engineering.
HIGH SCHOOL DAYS
RJ was comfortable with math concepts, though he struggled initially with geometry ‘proofs.’ Apparently scoring exceptionally well in a standardized geometry test, the teacher asked RJ whether RJ had stolen the test answers in advance. (He hadn’t).
Making friends easily, RJ was elected Freshman Class President, later Student Council President, while also a valuable member of both the football and track teams (not too valuable on the latter). Aided by ‘decent’ college board (SAT) scores and a ‘well-rounded’ background (then popular with admissions officers) and teacher recommendations, RJ was admitted to an Ivy League school, where he knew, he would have to abandon varsity athletics in favor of devoting himself to academics.
COLLEGE
Based on his apparent ease with math courses throughout high school, RJ signed up for a college freshman course in linear algebra, which he quickly determined was ‘way over my head’, causing him to shift his courses concentration to ‘American Civilization’ with no specific goal other than preserving options to attend graduate school in either business or law.
As college graduation approached, RJ, a ‘so-so’ student, did not look forward to day-dreaming through more classes in graduate school or to getting drafted into military service (since he opposed the Vietnam War, as did a high percentage of all US citizens). RJ considered taking a chance on a real-estate venture but ultimately signed up for the Peace Corps, a two-year commitment.
PEACE CORPS – AN EYE-OPENING INTRODUCTION TO THE LARGER WORLD
If accepted, RJ would be committed to serve wherever sent, in whatever capacity, but requested assignment to Thailand, a country that had never been colonized. Following acceptance, RJ was sent to Hawaii for a three-month training course in teaching English as a foreign language. He has often described his Peace Corps training as “the best three months of my life.” Thereafter, RJ was assigned to teach English in Thailand to Thai high school students. Although English was the national second language, it was spoken poorly by most students, if at all.
For some volunteers, service in a foreign country without many of the basic conveniences available to even ‘poor’ Americans, can be a cultural shock but RJ, ever the optimist, quickly accustomed to ‘bathing’ in the dry season at a muddy hole and a squat privy in a bathroom where fairly large lizards resided behind the flashing. Most important, he did his best to adapt to the cultural norms of the Thai people, whose homeland was nicknamed “Land of the Smiles.” RJ noted that Thais considered that kindness to strangers was one way to ‘make merit’ as a Buddhist. The typical greeting in later afternoon was “Have you taken your bath yet?” which meant “Are you ready for dinner?”
During breaks from teaching English, RJ got involved with projects further interacting with the locals, including a ‘leprosarium’ providing recreation programs for ‘well’ children of lepers (not themselves suffering from leprosy).
Now looking back, RJ has concluded that service in the Peace Corps was the best thing he ever did for himself, as he learned to understand and appreciate both the differences and similarities between vastly different cultures.
LAW SCHOOL
Toward the conclusion of his Peace Corps service, RJ had to decide whether to continue his foreign service, but he failed the Foreign Service Test and then opted to apply to law school, which seemed like a respected profession with high earnings potential (he was correct about that generally, just not specifically for himself), rather than just a general businessman.
During law school, the Vietnam War heated up. RJ, an opponent of that war, switched to night law school and took a job teaching English as a last-ditch effort to avoid the military draft. This ploy did not work, as RJ was drafted out of law school, thus spending his 26th birthday at Fort Dix (N.J.)
MILITARY SERVICE
Following his Army basic training, RJ had advance training as an MP in Fort Gordon, Georgia. However, he was later deemed too short to be an MP (Editor’s note – though RJ was a tough and fearless, football halfback, eagerly running into defensive linemen who he knew were always bigger and whose goals were to tackle RJ violently to the ground). So, RJ was sent to Fort Peters in Virginia for training in ‘Petroleum, Oils and Lubricants’ – basically how to pump gas on a helicopter base. RJ describes himself as the valedictorian of his gas pumping class (achieving a 100% grade), thus earning promotion to PFC (Private First Class.) On the fateful day that graduates were assigned to posts, he and all the others in the class over age 21, were sent to Vietnam. Although he had passed the Army tests in spoken and written Thai, it mattered not.
RJ was assigned to a helicopter base at Soc Trang RVN (Republic of Vietnam), where he was promptly transferred from a gas pumper to ‘Clerk, Legal.’ He served also in Canh Tho, RVN. Although RJ remained an opponent of the war, he extended his time in Vietnam by 6 months, to qualify for an ‘early out’ from his Army service. Despite his aversion to military service, RJ concluded his military career as a ‘Specialist 5’, the equivalent to a ‘Buck Sergeant.’
LEGAL CAREER ZIGS AND ZAGS UNTIL AN INTERESTING FOCUS DEVELOPS
RJ’s first employment as an attorney resulted from his mother (having once been a legal secretary) mentioning to a lawyer friend about her son, “a new lawyer looking for a job.” The friend, a trusts and estates lawyer, hired RJ. Later, RJ joined the state’s Attorney General office within their department of trusts and estates, including protecting the interests of charities. RJ remained so employed for the next 5 years. One of his cases took him to a court appearance in Gibraltar.
By chance, RJ was introduced to a native-born, adult Thai female who evidently was a mentor / community activist within the local Thai community. She was impressed with RJ’s knowledge of Thai language and customs plus his appreciation for the Thai people, whose local immigrant population was growing and needed legal services. So, she persuaded RJ to enter a business relationship with a Chinese woman who was a paralegal ‘rain maker’ (an informal term within any business for an individual who procures a high number of customers / clients). In the beginning, most of RJ’s clients were Chinese. As time passed, his law practice served a mostly Thai clientele for a range of legal issues, including immigration, litigation, business formation and sales, real estate, restaurant and liquor law, leases, and matrimonial problems.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF ONE LAWYER’S CAREER
RJ has (to at least his own self-amusement) set a personal goal of “no dull moments!” for which the following is a short list of examples within his career:
- Representing clients in hundreds of immigration cases, hundreds of real estate matters, and hundreds of matrimonial matters
- One contested US. Patent infringement litigation
- One Bankruptcy Court trial for a bankrupt, extended auto warranty company
- Representation of a purported Thai drug lord in Federal Court; client was arrested on his way back from a nearby, well known area of crime and gambling
- Representation of a landlord attempting to evict a tenant who was ‘a nightly dancing fool’ with a penchant for putting a water hose into the building’s heating system
- Immigration case representing a prostitute facing deportation (RJ won; fee paid in cash)
- Fire insurance litigation where RJ’s client was accused of torching his own store (RJ won)
- Criminal misdemeanor case where the client, a purveyor of live fish to local restaurants, was accused of dumping foul water on the streets of NYC (a cruel loss, as living fish emit no odor) – “Win some, lose some, just do your best!”
CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF A ONE ATTORNEY LAW PRACTICE
Challenges
- You, alone, are responsible to produce sufficient income more than expenses to provide a salary for your employees and living expenses, plus retirement funding, for yourself
- Hiring and managing all employees
- Maintaining an escrow account, as required for all attorneys, to deposit retainers for fees not yet earned
- Meeting client expectations by yourself or being responsible for supervising others with the same high standard goals for client service
- Keeping up with constant new developments in the law, especially within your area(s) of practice (e.g., immigration, taxation, business formation and advice)
- Absence of fellow attorneys to whom you can turn for advice
Rewards
- You have the discretion to accept or reject representation of any client
- Discretion to hire people who you assume will fit your office culture, with the discretion to terminate the employment of anyone who doesn’t
- No need to negotiate or squabble with non-existent partners over assessing business priorities and division of net profits
- Decorating the office will always reflect your personal wishes
- The best office, parking space, and flavors of coffee, will be your choice
