Most of my best qualities I have I owe to my family: the rest I owe to great teachers and trying to teach others. A great lawyer should strive to educate others about their legal problems, options, and best course of strategy. It makes you a better lawyer and person.
Along the same lines, my grandmother once gave me the best compliment I have ever received. She called me sterling and said it was the greatest compliment you could give to someone of the highest moral character. While I do not agree with her kind words, as I do not consider myself to be sterling, I am continually striving to be sterling and perhaps one fine day I will achieve it. However, after she gave me the compliment, I contemplated her words. Since I am highly competitive almost by nature, I started thinking about whether there was a higher compliment you could give someone. I came up with the term platinum because it is more valuable and harder to find than silver. Being platinum refers not only to being sterling in your own life but helping others to become sterling in theirs. Our firm will strive to be platinum in everything we do.
Being a lawyer is a privilege not a right. A lawyer is tasked with solving people’s legal problems, and this task should not be taken lightly. A lawyer’s job is not always glamorous. I have twisted this old saying a little bit to fit my purposes, but I think it holds true. I love hotdogs, but I do not want to see how they get made. Along the same lines, I love justice, but most people do not want to see the wheels of justice move. The wheels of justice do move (great judges ensure that they do), but they tend to move slowly and with a lot of legal maneuvering along the way. If a rational and reasonable judge believes you have a case, they will ensure you will eventually get your day in court, but this process takes time and patience. When that day comes, Lexstop will strive to ensure you are as prepared as possible for your day in court if we have the privilege in representing you.
It is getting harder and harder to be a great lawyer in this day and age, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to become rich being a lawyer. This is due in large part because there are so many lawyers out there today as opposed to twenty years ago. However, if people’s riches are judged by the people they positively touch, our firm will strive to be the richest firm in the world.
There has been much written about the butterfly effect. Although it is theoretical in that it suggests that a hurricane might be caused by a distant butterfly flapping its wings, there are kernels of truth that you can observe in your everyday life. If you throw a penny into a calm lake, you will see small waves emanate from the point at which your penny hit the water. For every action, there is a reaction. Lexstop’s actions have a reaction. We want our actions to have positive reactions on the community. If we help an accident victim obtain a large cash settlement, we will strive to ensure that the proceeds from that settlement are spent well. Along the same lines, if we are draft up an estate plan for an individual, the reaction should be to help that person’s family with the unenviable task of settling up their affairs when that client’s life on this earth comes to an end. Finally, if we are not the best fit for your legal needs and circumstances, we will strive to point you towards the right lawyer to help you. By doing this, we hope to improve people’s opinions of lawyers and by extension the reputation of the legal profession in general.
Trust is a peculiar thing. It can take a lifetime to build and one silly or innocent mistake to lose. Once you have lost it, it is hard to get it back. However, people will not fully trust a lawyer unless they trust a lawyer to do the right thing. We will strive continually to create and build and maintain trust in the Saint Louis community about what we are trying to do.
Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” Excellence is not achieved over night. Lexstop will continually strive to be excellent in all endeavors. We will do this by asking questions about the client’s needs and concerns, listening carefully to their answers, and working hard to solve those legal problems and issues.
I believe everyone is capable of immortality. It is a different kind of immortality than going to heaven when you die. I believe we see people who have passed on in the good work and lessons they pass on to other people and how they in turn pass it along to the next generation. Lexstop will strive towards immortality. We will always try to teach valuable legal lessons to its clients and encourage them to pass them along to the next generation.