Unencumbered

I officially begin the second quarter-century of my life devoted to the practice of law today.  To borrow a line from the great Bob Seger (and tweak it slightly for good measure), "Twenty-five years now, where'd they go?  Twenty-five years, I don't know." 

My professional relationship with the Firm began on January 5, 1998.  As of Monday, I shall begin year twenty-three here.  It is an extraordinary amount of time to spend in one place.  Truth be told, I stepped away from the Firm for four months in early 2009, leaving at the end of January and returning on the Tuesday following Memorial Day Weekend.  At the time I re-entered the stream of life here, I never envisioned a set of circumstances that would take me away from the Firm while remaining engaged in the practice of law.  Now?  A great deal of change has taken place in the past ten years.   

Twenty-five years.  Often, over the past five or six years, I have facetiously affixed blame for my graying beard on Margaret and Suzanne.  Actually, it is the law that has aged me,  Gracefully, I hope although I recognize that is not for me to say.  I am older and I am grayer than I was when I raised my hand and everything Judge Longhi directed us to say when I took my oath in late December, 1994. I hope I am wiser and stronger too.  

Time has weathered me.  It has not weakened me.  

Nor shall it ever...

-AK