Bang Head Here

Today was a tough one. We were scrambling to get our marketing materials out the door. Just two sets. Two sets people! But FedEx Kinkos Lapnet is not compatible with Paul's computer. It essentially spit on his computer. So then we sent the documents from home to Kinko's, where they can print them. $13! Did I mention in a previous post that we need to get some printer cartridges pronto? Then, when I got over to Kinko's to pick them up, majorly slow service. And don't even get me started about the line at the Post Office!

The good news is that we got the sets out the door and on their merry way to people who are (hopefully) yearning for our legal services. Of course I'll keep all those in cyberspace updated on those eventual clients. The breaks are really starting to squeek. Come on people!

I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite authors.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion...I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Join the Club!

Yesterday we took the plunge and signed up for a private club. It's not super snooty, but no shorts or tank-tops allowed. Since we only wear suits now, no problem.

This club is trying to recruit younger members (after all, we are the future) so it had a very reasonable initiation fee ($100) and a low monthly fee ($60). I'm very excited about it because the club has several private meetings rooms which can be used free of charge. It also offers breakfast and lunch service daily. I told my aunt and uncle we will take them to lunch there when we have our first client.

Which brings me to the list of things we plan to purchase when we get that mysterious first client. On the list there are new brakes and shocks for one of our cars (which Paul will install himself), iPhones or BlackBerrys for each of us (maybe that will be the second client), dry-cleaning services for our suits and shirts, shoe repair, a huge box of printer paper and some ink cartridges, and a good $10 bottle of wine.

Other good news--free online legal research! For all of our law school or new lawyer friends, if you don't already know this, there is a whole world beyond Lexis and West Law. Anyways, since Paul is a newbie attorney, he gets free online access to all the sections of CEB for a year! Incredible stroke of luck. That saves us over $1,200 per year.

The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage.
-Thucydides

A Good Day

On Friday we visited a lawyer in Riverside who graduated from our law school and has become one of our mentors. This guy is a genius. We are in awe of what he has been able to do with his practice in estate planning. He's getting into some new areas which would land him five figures per client. FIVE FIGURES. Needless to say, we had to pick our jaws off the table.

Anyways, his partner had an almost new Lexmark 543DN printer that she is not using anymore. She said we could take it. Take it we did! We were floored by her generosity. This is way better than the $100 junky printer Elizabeth bought for law school four years ago. This baby can can duplex and do full color laser. It has a network interface. We think it's great.

Today I have phone calls to return and a luncheon to attend.

Every morning I wake up and I think, "something good is going to happen today."
-Pete Carroll

The Adventure Begins

Well, the adventure has begun. It's been two weeks since we officially opened our law firm.

First let me explain the name of the blog. We are married, with a combined student debt load of about $200,000 and have a couple of cars. One beater, one a bit nicer. We have a few thousand bucks in the bank, which are quickly being depleted by our new law firm adventure. But seriously folks, we've got nothing to loose. Except our dignity. Which we didn't have much of to begin with. Hence the title "Judgement Proof." Take it all people, you won't get much!

Next, a bit of background. We met our first year of law school in Washington State. We both wanted to open our own firms. We both wanted to move to Sunny Southern California. It was love from there on out.

We studied for the California Bar. Studied our butts off. He passed, I did not (perhaps I have enough dignity that I don't like the word "fail.") Now, all throughout Barbri, when I was calling my mom with tears streaming down my cheeks that I would fail, she promised me "Sweetie, it doesn't matter. You can still open the firm. Only one of you has to pass." My current title is Director of Client Relations. Soon it will be "Attorney at Law Extraordinaire." But that will be about a year from now.

We have awesome business cards. We look good in suits. I'm still getting used to wearing pantyhose every day. And heals. Stepping out, with my baby....

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-Confucius