Updates: Cycling and Professionally

No racing for me this weekend. I need the money so I am working at the shop for a full shift today instead of going down south to race. And as far as for racing tomorrow--I am hanging with the family. They tire of me being gone on weekends. I will race at the Cross Crusade final next weekend, both days of the USGP and two of the final three Psycho Cross races. That will be the rest of my season--12 races total. Not too shabby.

So far I have 6 races in the top 50%, 4 in the top 25%, a 3rd place and a 1st place (both non-Cross Crusade Races with few other racers). I would count this a successful season thus far.

Professionally, I am still in a flux. I finished my Continuing Legal Education stuff this week. It was a three day conference--which is a reason why I wasn't posting much. I was busy with that and then I worked a few hours at the shop after it ended each day. The CLE was pretty informative and it gave me a chance to gain some perspective regarding my legal future. First of all, the job market is tighter than it has been here in years apparently. Second, going on your own is possible right out of law school. And it is possible to go solo on a shoestring budget. So that is what I am going to do.

I will forgo the office. I will instead make an office at home and do work from here and research at a library. I will have get a PO Box for business stuff. I will advertise narrowly and only after doing some more research among my colleagues regarding what has worked. I will call in favors to get a good web presence. I will spend some time trying to get some more contacts both in and out of the legal realm. I will probably focus a fair amount of my practice to family law because the initial costs are low and the ability to turn the work quick to get a paycheck is better. I may, in lieu of family law or in addition to it, get into one of a couple of other fields depending upon info I get from a couple of people.

These "I will" statements are the result of several conversations with local lawyers that have been through the start up phase. I don't know if these are the right answers, but it is the best that I have right now. I am still working on all of the details. Nevertheless, I feel like I have finally seen a possible path out of the forest. I am not sure if this path leads out the forest or deeper in it though. Frankly, to make this work I am going to need help. So if I call in a favor in the future, just know the following: I am desperate, I would only ask for the favor if I had no other way, and please feel free to advise me and tell me of another route if you think I am being foolhardy. I have been humbled over the past year and I am willing to listen if anyone who has something of value to say.

Up until this past month I really felt like going out on my own was not possible. Now I guess I am desperate enough to dream the impossible. I have little money, school loans are coming due and I am going to put out my own shingle. Sweet. I have no idea how to even practice law really. Law school does so little to prepare you to actually practice. But I do have a pretty good idea about how to figure it all out. I am a fast learner--I hope.

To be clear: I have passed the bar, but at this time I am not a practising lawyer. To hold myself out as a practicing lawyer would require me to obtain professional liability insurance which costs a substantial amount of money. Since I have been spending my time advising folks about which tube they should put into their tires instead of practicing law I had no reason to spend this money. So this post is not a solicitation for business. But soon. Very soon I hope. I don't want anyone thinking this post is about that because that would land me in trouble with bar for doing so without the insurance in place.

I am excited while fairly anxious. I think this will be a good thing. It will all work out if I can pay our bills, have some time for the family and some riding/racing and enough money left over for a new ride of some sort. I mean those are the necessities of life, right?