Deveney Wells-Gibson’s path to opening her own law firm shows how hard work and dedication can open opportunities for entrepreneurship and making dreams come true.
By Phillip Stephan
Pause. As attorneys, we are inherently attuned to the power of words. We seek to use them to persuade, to disarm, to indicate, and for other functions related to our practices. More than a few practitioners in our legal community have a way with words. The main goal of the words in this article is to persuade you to embrace the absence of words: not silence, but rather active listening, sincere consideration, and creating the space for dialogue by ensuring your partner in conversation has finished their thoughts and felt heard.
When I first began volunteering as a temporary judge, my mother-in-law asked me how often I got to use the “little hammer.” I correctly concluded that she was referring to a gavel, and probably had in her mind something that was a different size than what I held in a picture that recently appeared on the cover of San Diego Lawyer. When I responded, my mother-in-law was visibly aghast to learn that not only did I not use one at all, but that I also could not recall seeing one in the courtrooms I had appeared in across the state. That conversation perhaps reflects one of the challenges faced by members of our bench: a misperception about what a judge’s role is and should be.
Yesterday marked the anniversary of my sister entering the world — happy birthday again, Michelle — and the first day of spring. Both events are significant to me.
Lawyers have always had a duty to be honest and truthful pursuant to general ethical principles, as well as the State Bar Act. The newest version of the Rules of Professional Conduct, effective Nov. 1, 2018, provides more specific guidance to lawyers relative to this duty.
Hi Everyone,
I hope to see you this Saturday at NLD’s morning hike meet-up at Torrey Pines. It’ll be a great opportunity to network while enjoying San Diego’s awesome weather and coastline. Please RSVP here.
On February 10, the SDCBA Environmental Law/Land Use Section met by Zoom to discuss new environmental and land use laws for 2022 in its presentation “Ground Hog Day Review – New Laws in 2022.” The reason for a Ground Hog Day review? Because it seems that every year, policymakers go around in the same circle and end up right back where they started: trying to get policy and law aligned with saving the planet.
My mom and I work together as attorneys in a “family” law firm; we are family serving clients in family law and criminal defense matters. Deciding to work with a family member can be a difficult decision. How are we going to get along in a work environment? Is work going to interfere with our personal relationship? What if things go south? These are all questions that likely every individual who has decided to either start a law firm with a family member or join a family member’s law firm have asked themselves, including me.
Civil litigator Robert L. Theiring has never been afraid to try something new: “That’s one of the things my father taught me about life. The day you stop learning is the day you die.”
Approximately 10% of San Diego County’s three million residents speak English less than “very well,” according to a recent census. Despite this factual landscape, interpreters are not customarily provided by the courts, even for proceedings with consequential outcomes.
