Time Flies
Six Years in the Blink of an Eye
This photo popped up as a reminder of where we were and what we were doing six years ago, 2019. That’s my beautiful wife, Nancy, just outside the WVU College of Law during a football weekend.
That setup allowed me to present my last CLE lecture, titled “Planning for the Future.”
I used that as a basis for the following article in The WV Lawyer Magazine. I was 73. My “plan” was to spend a year easing into retirement but not until age 80, in 2026.
Since my health is robust, that’s where I thought I’d be, using my 80th year to transition.
But, thanks to some fortunate timing, and the technology that was a key factor in my 52-year career as a lawyer, that transition occurred over just 4 months, and resulted in our closing our office door for the last time, just a year ago, when I was a youthful 78.
Having Dale Hawkins, Tresa Lipps, and Fish Hawk Acres purchase our building and become our Landlord was another remarkable stroke of good luck.
The last six years also included a Pandemic, tragic losses of family and friends, from which we and our family have not yet recovered, the drifting apart that this modern world seems to facilitate, and deep thought into how to finish up our lives with some dignity, class, and happiness.
Note: social media has allowed us to make and renew wonderful relationships with family and friends, some whom I’ve known for over 70 years. For that I am grateful.
This is not a political post, but it is accurate to say that some of our happiness and security was dissipated by the election of a despicable, despotic, divisive, and devious man as President of the United States and the rise of his MAGA movement.
He is an example of everything I detest in a human being.
During my life, I have been blessed with wonderful good fortune, some earned and some luck, and some received in spite of truly stupid mistakes that fate allowed me to overcome.
I wish I had been a better friend, lawyer, son, brother, husband, and father.
I think I did the best I could, considering my flaws, and that you might agree if you knew the story, which you never will. There were some “close calls”.
To those who I insulted and offended, I apologize.
To those who offended and hurt me and my family, I’m doing my best to move on.
I am not done yet.
These were my keys to my successfully leaving the practice of law:
A superlative staff that protected and covered for me. Letetia, Faye, and of course our office manager, my Nancy. Even now, I have them to lean on.
An exceptionally orderly and well-run office. Letetia, especially, spent years, starting 20 years ago, digitally archiving my first 35 years of practice.
Over ten years ago, we stopped saving paper client files, so now the entirety of my practice resides in duplicate copies of a hard drive. I believe I am the first WV small firm lawyer who can say that virtually all of my cases have been stored and indexed. Every paper file was returned to the client or shredded. THAT’S A KEY!
4-5 of the ugliest, most challenging, time-consuming, and stressful cases of my career. I still have a few “loose ends” but not as a practicing lawyer. Those cases took everything I had learned in five decades, and they taught me there is still much to learn about this world.
One day Faye called to my attention that my caseload, in numbers, was drastically reduced. And it just “clicked”.
I don’t agonize over decisions. Some say I am impulsive, but no one says I am ambivalent. So, in four months, I finished nearly every open case.
I left no one in the lurch. The 3-4 cases I could not finish were handed to incredibly competent successors.
So, with that “luck” what has often held me up, and the things I taught at my CLE lecture and in this article, I moved on to the next phase of life.
The dark adversary at the end has never been defeated, but I will not “Go Gently into that Good Night”.
If you have read this far, my article is definitely “optional”, but the things learned here served me well.
I urge you to be curious and NOT to be afraid of technology. But settle on tools that work, and try to do good in the world.
