along with a sea turtle, a small wild kitty, and a few other critters.

Nope, it’s not a bad bar joke, it’s the long list of new cases I agreed to take from my wonderful environmental mentor.

A few days before the interview from hell I emailed my mentor and told him I needed help figuring out how to build a practice in environmental law, as I was fairly certain I didn’t want to work outside the home. I explained I was interviewing for a position with the D.A., and was really excited about what I could learn from her, but was doubtful that it was the right time to leave the kids in so much non parental care, and was feeling incredibly anxious about working that many hours so far away.

I asked him how realistic it was to build a practice that focused on environmental law about 20 hours or so a week. I offered him pie in exchange for advice. (Homemade pie could conquer the world if used correctly). My pie got me a wonderful meal with one of my favorite people, a discussion of the various issues facing an environmental practice, and an action plan, along with 8 or 9 solid cases with different timings, and an offer to create my own work in the future and accept more work as it come down the line.

I will have to do some rainmaking, though not in the traditional sense. I will have to file some petitions (without pay) in order to set in motion some of the actions I will later be filing suit on. However, the work is solid, and my client has too much to handle on their own and few attorneys to take it on such a speculative basis. It appears I will be able to fill my platter with all sort of fun creatures. Even better, these cases have a variety of issues to them, so I will not be focusing on only one thing time and time again. I have some critical habitat issues, some recovery issues, and some listing issues to argue. One case even touches on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which cracks me up every time I see the traffic on Downing stopped for the Canadian Geese. I will even be able to potentially pick up some Clean Water Act permitting work, which would correlate nicely with my Water Law class and open me up to a whole new area of law.

Additionally, I got a call on my private child and family investigator practice. It would appear that I may have a case coming to me that way too!

The wheels are turning and the clients are coming in! It may be possible to do this “work from home” gig after all! I have to say I like the jeans and teva crowd a lot more than the vibe I got from the interview, it’s nice to work from home in my jammies, my favorite coffee really nearby. I am blessed to have a plethora of mentors interested in guiding me and advising me, so I can call on them for issues I face with each aspect of the various legal arena’s I am operating in.

So, now I am off to finish organizing my office space, and getting ready to work in earnest. I am going to be very busy, very soon.

One of the things my Trusts and Estates professor told us was to embrace the ceremony behind the execution of a will, and never forget it should be a special event, filled with pomp and circumstance, regardless of how many wills you have created. After all, it is rare for a person get more than one or two done in their lifetime, so it’s a unique experience for your client, even if  it is bread and butter for you.

Which got me thinking I should use some nice paper, get some special envelopes made for the storage, etc.

Then my mother suggested that I offer wills in a gothic style, to appeal to those friends of mine in the Goth community.

I think this would be so much fun! Imagine the possible textures and colors you could work with! Imagine wax seals on the envelopes! How cool would it be to have an entire set of legal documents designed to appeal to the lifestyle of your client instead of making them use the same old template everyone else uses? After all, it’s not as if the court will toss the Will out because it’s on parchment paper and has a neat font at the top, so long as the requirements for validity are met, design is simply the fun part!