December 16, 2024 • 46 mins
Working with family and friends can be challenging. Imagine if it's a mother and daughter and their both attorneys! Meet Patricia Miramon and Julia Todd, two Louisiana lawyers and mom/daughter duo, who make it work. Find out how they do it in this interesting and informative episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi, Welcome to inside the Mom's Club, where being a
mom is the coolest place to be.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Here in the.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Mom's Club, we believe that what embarrasses you now will
make a great story later. And let's face it, you
don't laugh sometimes you're gonna cry. Join us in having
a good laugh together. I'm Monica Samuels. You are now
inside the Mom's Club, your private destination for all things mom. Welcome, moms,
(00:44):
Welcome inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host, Monica Samuels,
and I am here with my lovely.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Co host, Julie or.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's so great to see you again after all this time.
She ran off on a big European vacation, but she's off.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I needed to go off the grid for a little bit.
Sometimes you got to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I know you did. You went to the Olympics,
you went everywhere well.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
I mean listen, that was a trip long planned for
a long time, and I it was electric. It was
it was everything that I was hoping it would be.
And it was safe, and it was cool. It was
really cool to watch people do their dreams.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And you went with your daughters.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I did you daughters, I did, and we survived. I mean,
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Traveling, you know, with females through Europe who are sharing
a small hotel room, it can get a little dicey,
you know, every now and then. But we did it,
and I think it's going to be a memory. I'm
hoping it's imprinted on their brain, you know, and then
when they're thirty, they'll be like.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Hey, lady, that was super cool. Thanks a lot. So
I have that, Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Think they do.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So do you think now our guests today, we're going
to have a conversation about working with your kids. But
do you ever think you could work with either or
both of your daughters in a business?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Well, first, it depends on the business and as long
as they know I was the boss, and I think
it wouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well that could be the tricky part though.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I know you have two daughters with.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Very different personalities.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
If I'm being very honest, I really don't know the
answer to that. On some days, like pretty much eighty
percent of the time, yes, I'm not sure they would
say the same thing. But listen, we love each other
and I think that it just depends on the business.
And I'm so curious to hear what these ladies have
to say.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I am too. For example, just doesn't give you an example.
If one of your daughters, when you were working with her,
and she continually called in sick. Yeah, based on your
current experience, HU, would you what would you do in
that situation? Would you keep her?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Lloyd, would you wonder if that was the case.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But we would have to have a little human resources chat.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, so if you were to work together, you'd also
have to have an HR person in between.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
That's right, Well, that's right, We're always going to have
another party in the office.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Anyway, I do know this says a really good Would
you work with Chase.
Speaker 7 (03:11):
Or Jared?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I you know, I think Chase would end up being
my boss. I don't know how that would work.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Oh, that's really what I meant to say. There is
one child I would actually be working for, ye yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But you know he's quite talentant, so I wouldn't but
grudge him if he decided just to take over the
whole business.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah. I don't see that happening.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
My husband and my son, my oldest son, do work together,
but it's in a larger firm, so there's like twenty people.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, and they don't work. He doesn't my son.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
In fact, they very clearly try to, yeah, keep it
out of because of nepotism and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Well that's a larger firm. I love the powerhouse that
you know, you could do with your kids in any
type of family business.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
And so I can't wait to hear the dynamics.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I know, I know.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, let's get right to it, because it's going to
be a fun show. Well, we are fortunate to have
today a daughter team who are both attorneys. The first
Patricia Mirraman, is a graduate of LSU Law School and
she opened her law office in nineteen eighty eight. She
specializes in elder law and she has three adult children,
(04:15):
one of whom you will meet Julia Todd, who is
a CPA and also an LSU graduate. I'm a ut graduate.
So now that we're both in the SEC and I
will comment further on that. She is a mom of two,
a son and daughter, very small children. And as I mentioned,
they are both part of the Mirraman Law firm. Welcome ladies,
welcome to inside.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Them all welcome unk.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So this is such an interesting dynamic in so many
ways to have I mean, a mother and daughter is
like I've observed because I don't have daughters, but I
had sisters, Julie and her daughters, and you know how
this how this works exactly. So let's start from the beginning. Patricia,
you are an attorney. And how long are you priced
(05:01):
this night? Since your children before they were born, you've
been practicing then you had three.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
Children, Yeah, thirty nine years.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, and really are you in a big firm or
did you started your own firm?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I guess I know.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
When I first got out of When I first got
out of law school, I went to work for just
a one person law firm, and I was there for
about six months, and then I kind of jumped ship
and went to work for another very small law firm,
and I was there for about a year, and I decided,
for just a number of reasons, that I was just
(05:36):
going to go ahead and do it myself. So I
hung out ma Shinele and did every kind of work
that anybody asked me to do in the legal field,
and then eventually every time dropped the things that I
didn't really enjoy and then concentrated in the elderlaw area
for the last many many years.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, I admire you so much for that, because I
I was never been brave enough to go hang out
my own shingle. In fact, I always my father always
joked that anytime he had a legal problem, like with
a neighbor that he was bothering or something, he would say,
you know, I would get my daughter to take care
of that, but she doesn't specialize in that area, so
she can't.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
She can't help me.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It's always use that as my excuse because I was
in a big law firm, so I did environmental and
immigration law. But we were very, very very specialized. So
anyone that can hang out their shingle and do all
of that, I my hat's off to you. But you
certainly learn a lot doing that.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Yeah, you just you just kind of have to take
everything and just get to know as many people as possible.
But you know, my husband would would joke, you know
that the reason that I opened my own office is
that I couldn't get along with anybody.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
You know.
Speaker 8 (06:49):
Not exactly true, but but it is. It is different,
and like you said, with with being a parent. So
I was a practice law for a number of years
before my children were born. But one good thing about
working for yourself is that, you know, if I knew
that I was going to you know, moms, you know,
the mom's day or you know, uh, something that was
(07:12):
going on at school or whatever, I could go and
I made myself available as much as possible.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yeah, well that was one of my questions, is like,
why did you go out on your own?
Speaker 9 (07:24):
And was it?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Did it have to do with the fact that you know,
you knew you wanted children, you had children, and you
could be be your own boss, right?
Speaker 8 (07:33):
And I think I think too, you know, uh, you
have to in the legal world and yell, everybody who's
who's a lawyer knows this. People practice law in different ways.
So the people that I worked for were good people,
but I just knew that I wanted to do things
a little bit differently. So, for instance, one of the
things that that I did from the very beginning, which
(07:56):
has ended up being a huge, uh a huge thing
for us. I think the reason we get a lot
of people is that we set flat rates for most
of what we do, so unlike back then in the eighties,
and I think even now, a lot of lawyers would
you say, well, it'll be x by the hour, you know,
and and so the client doesn't have an idea, so
(08:18):
what it would cost. And I used to say all
the time, I don't understand why no one knows what
things cost.
Speaker 9 (08:25):
I mean, why can't we tell them what it costs?
Speaker 8 (08:28):
And so I started setting flat rates and that was
a huge you know, that's that's something that people really
really appreciate because when people come to see you, they
want to know how long is it going to take
and how much is it going to cost? And if
you give them the lawyer answer, which is it depends,
you're going to be very anxious and unsure and you
(08:50):
need you know, they're going to there, they're they're not
going to feel comfortable. And so there's times when we
can't do that or times we have to change it, obviously,
but overall, people really appreciate knowing those two things.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, it is interesting because yeah, I worked at a
big loft service and we did it the other way.
We did build by the hour. And a little helpful
hint to all you out there, all you moms out
there who might hire an attorney, watch out for if
it's build by the hour, you look at your bill.
A lot of times they'll bring in an associate. And
what we worked for big institutional clients too, so they
(09:23):
had deep pockets and if we missed something, that was
the worst thing you could.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
If you missed anything, you were and you were done.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But you'll notice on your bills and review the file,
review the file, review the file. A lot of people
reviewing your file, you know, for several hours. So yes,
it's and they're incentivized.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To bill a lot of hours.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's how the firms make their money. So but yeah,
it's not fair to the client. You get a lot
of uncomfortable conversations with people when they don't have any idea.
They see their bill and they I've seen my bill
before and killed over because I.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Thought that's not right.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
So I just thought it was I thought it was
a crazy scenario.
Speaker 9 (09:58):
I just didn't know.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
I didn't know any lawyers. So when I got out
law school, I didn't really know any lawyers. I didn't
know any lawyers when I went to law school, and
so I was just I was I'm just a you know,
normal person saying well how much does that cost? And
I work with like like, I mean, you don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I've always wondered for myself particularly, is being a lawyer?
Is that partly a genetic thing? Because I'll tell you,
I'll give you this, this is why, this is why.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I'm asking question.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You know that, Rightilia, My youngest son was just born
to be a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
From the time he was two three years old.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
You could say something to him and he can give
you the best argument why you were wrong and he
was right and you couldn't really argue with that, or
he would and then injustice would happen in kindergarten and
his first question would be could we say, can we
sue that person? And so I don't know if that
was because he lived around me and that was just
sort of the thing, or if he's just you know,
if that's if it's genetic all right?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Like were you always Patricia, did you know.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
From your time you were a small child and people
said you're a born lawyer, you you would just have
the personality to be a lawyer or was it something
you'd given to you later?
Speaker 8 (11:11):
Absolutely not at all. I wanted to be a librarian.
And when the card catalog was taken out of you know,
you don't use card calumph anymore. That was a really
sad day for me because I just I grew up
just loving libraries.
Speaker 9 (11:29):
That was all that was.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
My goal was to be a librarian. And I got
a degree in English literature. I intended to pursue that
that route and you know, maybe end up, you know,
going further in that. And I had an English professor
that said, I really think you ought to take the
l SAT, which is the intrith exam for law school.
(11:50):
And I said, I don't know what that is, and
so he told me, and he told me how to
do it, and I took it and then I got
an acceptance letter.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Uh so that is such an awesome story that I
was like, wow.
Speaker 8 (12:03):
I never, like I said, I didn't know any lawyers.
I I just didn't. It wasn't something I even considered.
But then when you know, this professor told me, you know,
I think you ought to pursue that. I think you know,
you you don't being being in the being in the
education area has a lot of you know, a lot
(12:25):
of things you're not. You're going to have to constantly
be publishing, You're probably going to be moving from school
to school, You're going to all these things you're not,
you know, so anyway, Yes, he really changed the course
of my life.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
You know, so that's a weird story.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And you know, you you might have answered part of
my question because maybe it is genetic, because I too
love the library and mourned the end of the Dewy.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
So I think there's a large crowd out there that.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Lawyers. I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So when Julia was born, and she's your oldest child, yes, now,
did you see any traits in her, like, oh, you
should be a lawyer? Or was this not a thing?
Julia can share her perspective on it.
Speaker 9 (13:08):
I was gonna say no. I mean, so.
Speaker 8 (13:12):
My husband is a math person and all my kids
are all my kids were math people. So Julia was
a CPA. My other two are engineers. I'm kind of
the odd man out in my family, you know, because
I sometimes I didn't understand what they were talking about
when they start talking about velocity and things like that,
and I, you know, but I always she was always
(13:34):
a math person and that was what she really wanted
to do, and so it was a natural thing for
her to become a CPA. And she can tell you
how she came from being a CPA to being a lawyer.
But I did not expect her. I expected her to
stay in the CPA world.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Well then, what a delight for you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So maybe she was inspired by her mother. Well, Julia,
so what what made you decide to go to law school?
Speaker 7 (14:00):
You know, you kind of grow up looking at how
your family was. Right, So I saw a mom who
was able to, in my eyes, do it all work
and have a family. And you know, granted we had
plenty of help. But I graduated from college and I
got married and moved, you know, back here to Shreport
(14:21):
with my husband, and we started talking about having a family,
and all I could think about was, you know, I
should have gone to law school.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
I could do what my mom does. You know, she
gets to meet with people.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
You know, we do a lot of estate planning or
product work, so we get to meet with people all
day long. And you know, I had actually drafted my
first will when I was probably seven or eight years old,
because we had just gotten computers at home, and she's like, okay,
well i'll pay you a couple of dollars or you know,
I don't know what it was. This will be your chore,
(14:54):
you know, if you if you draft these will. So
I was doing you know, wills and successions, but I
didn't know what that was.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
I mean, was pretty young.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
You should have submitted billable hours to your mind.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
At learn how to type.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
I was.
Speaker 8 (15:08):
I would get like comfortable on the computer.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Okay, ahead, go ahead, you were doing this right.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
My dad was a computer teacher, so it was all
about learning how to type and you know, excelling in
that area. So I, you know, I said I should
have gone to law school. And my husband said, you.
Speaker 9 (15:27):
Know, why don't you? Well we can We're still young,
you know we can. We can do it.
Speaker 7 (15:32):
And I and I said.
Speaker 9 (15:35):
I'm going to get in first.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
I'm going to make sure I can get into law
school before I even have a conversation you know with mom,
because I'm not going to do this and go.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
I would never thought i'd be in some kind of
big law you know.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
It was going to be about being here and making
relationships with people.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
So I did and I got in and I just
took the path.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Now, So you were you were back in Shreveport when
you made this decision, and did you have children at
that time?
Speaker 7 (16:02):
I did not, so I had my first child. Really
the first year that I was practicing. Okay, so made
it through law school.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
But you're in then you have to go back to
Baton Rouge to go to law school, right, So how
did her act that work?
Speaker 9 (16:16):
Uh? It was it was a wild few years.
Speaker 7 (16:19):
My husband worked at a bank at the time, who
uh was wonderful to him and just transferred him to
South Louisiana and we rented our house out here and
just truly up and moved for for the three years.
And then when we got done, I moved right back
into the same house.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Well that's a nice that's a great commitment. What a
nice husband.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yes, she like you guys like have a movie in
the making here or something like that.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, for sure. I was like, there's more to yeah
out there, this would be really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's nice. So working for your well, I guess for
your mom. Are you both partners now? I mean, how
does this work? How does that? How did that shake
out at this point?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, so we're not equal partners, but.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay, see that's what I'm talking about, Patrishall.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Part of my question.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So, you have two young children and when you need
to take time, it sounds like you have a very
great situation there because your mom made it where she
could go be at school for you and things. So
when things come up for you where you need to
do something for the kids, I'm sure it's easy for
you to manage that. And your mother especially they're her grandchildren.
Is she really gonna denied them?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know? So how does that work?
Speaker 7 (17:28):
We don't, I will say, I mean, you know what,
I work a lot, or you know, I don't think
that's ever really been an issue with us. I mean
one thing about even though we're not equal partners, from
the very beginning, you know, she and we do succession planning.
She has always been about preparing me for my future,
(17:51):
and so so much of that has been okay, what
things can I let go? What? You know? So the
first thing she doesn't like doing is the business side
of things.
Speaker 9 (18:00):
Well that's my brain. I love that part of it.
So all the math stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
All the math stuff, that's right, right.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
So, all the finances, the pricing, the HR stuff, all
of those things have from probably day one, she has
either accepted my criticism or critique of them, or she
has been on board, you know.
Speaker 9 (18:25):
With with change.
Speaker 7 (18:27):
I think someone you know told me that it was
maybe exciting for her for me to come because.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
You know, she thought, Okay, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 7 (18:36):
I'm going to retire, But I've built this business, so
what happens to it?
Speaker 9 (18:40):
And so now it's been kind of a little bit
of a.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
New excitement, you know, from her, and and she gets
to focus on what she likes to do while also
being open to some things that maybe my generation is
excited about it.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So, and that makes you a great team. And I
can say for me personally, I'm not a math. I
hate math, actually not good at it. And so I
would appreciate somebody like you in the office. And also,
since you do wills, and since you've been doing will
since you were seven, I hope that if they made
you do their will for them, that you made sure
you put your little extra in there for yourself that is.
Speaker 8 (19:16):
But no, we can't do that.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, no, no, I know, I know, especially yes, I
especially well you guys were elderlaw.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Can you tell me why you picked.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That, Like, I mean, out of everything that you you
started out doing, I'm dying to know. And I'll tell
you a little bit. This year has been a wild ride.
I put moved my parents into independent living, and it's
been a huge shift and change. And then moved my
aunt there and she passed away. I became the executor.
I feel like I've been kind of, you know, invisibly
sitting in your office listening to a lot of things,
(19:48):
because I've had to sit in a lot of attorney's
office this year. So can you tell us why that
you picked it? What was so special about it? Was
there a case that you're like, I can be of
service here. What you know made your heart explode over
the this particular area of law.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
Well, I think two major things. One, I'm the youngest
of six kids. My parents were forty two and forty
six when they had me, So my dad died when
I was twenty four. My mother died on my fortieth birthday.
But so they were already, you know, I was already
(20:24):
dealing with my dad's illness and most of his siblings
and my aunts and uncles were very elderly. And then
my mother had had Alzheimer's, so I dealt with that.
But really, I think besides that, the thing that was
was that made me really do this more as a
profession is that my dad was retired military, and so
(20:46):
I grew up going Barkstell Air Force Base is right
across the river from US, Yes, and so I grew up,
you know, going to Barkstelle Air Force Base, going to
the library at Barksdell Air Force Base in the swimming pool.
And when my father died, I met a person named
Colonel Steve Depisler. And he was the head of the
Casualty Affairs office at Barksdale Air Force Base for many, many,
(21:09):
many years. And his philosophy was everything he did was volunteer.
His philosophy was I will help one person every day
that I am alive. Okay, wonderful person. He died at
one hundred and one years old. But I met him
and I had done a succession for a friend and
(21:33):
I met him because he called and he said, this
is Colonel Steve Depislo.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
BEA's your office in five minutes and he hung the
phone up.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
And so if you know about colonels in the military,
they just tell you what they're going.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
To do and do it and then don't ask questions.
You do what they say.
Speaker 8 (21:48):
So he came over to my office and he said,
I need to know if I trust.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
You, and I am willing to say that.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
You're my lawyer and my widow. I want someone my
widows can trust. I want someone who will not take
advantage of my widows. I want someone who will tell
my widows a price. I want someone who will tell
my widows how long it will take and to treat
them fairly. And I said I will. And it just
(22:17):
been for thirty years. I did a lot, a lot
a lot of people who were retired military who had
ties to Barkstelle Air Force Base.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
And then you know, once you do it, once you
do it, and you do something, people think you do
it well, you just get clients on repeat, right, sore sure,
And that's really why, And that's how I just really
got into it and got into it very heavily.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
From that point forward.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So what all does elder law encompass? Like I have
a friend of mine does care for senior citizens for families.
She's brought into be a caretaker, and she's told me
nightmarish stories about elder abuse among family members. I mean,
it's shocking how people treat their family. And do you
(23:11):
get involved in that? And how is that emotionally for
you all to be involved? Because I know like they
always said when I was in law school, don't be
in criminal law or family law unless you want to
be emotionally. You know, it'll affect you emotionally. So do
you all get involved in those types of cases too,
or do you mostly do wills and succession and guardianships
(23:31):
and things like that.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
You know, I'd say some of our guardianships sort of
are interdictions, as we call them here in Louisiana definitely
have the mental component that you're talking about to it.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
We as far as elder.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Abuse and those those types of things go, there are
places that you can call for immediate action and we
just can't act fast enough on those types of those
types of things. We of course recommend people you know,
contact you know, specific agencies on those, but you're right,
(24:06):
sometimes it's pretty taxing with.
Speaker 9 (24:09):
With family members.
Speaker 7 (24:11):
We you know, I think one thing that makes us
different is that we're the ones that are talking to
the clients every day and so we're we're calling them,
we're in.
Speaker 9 (24:21):
It with them.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
But I think that that's that's important, that makes us sympathetic,
that makes us good at what we do. So the separation,
while hard, maybe it's good that it's not there sometimes.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I was just I was surprised because she was talking
to me about this the other day and she said,
it's usually these family members, and she talked about how
as the as their parents getting in the end of
their life and it's getting harder to take care of them.
She said, they'll ask me all the time, well, how
much longer do you think they have? But it's not
in a way that's they're sad about it. It's like
they're just you know, this is taking there.
Speaker 9 (24:57):
It's kind of right.
Speaker 8 (24:59):
There is a lot of abuse, and and you know,
what we really try to get people to do, if
they possibly will, is make some plans. You know, have
have a will, have a power of attorney for someone
to make your financial decisions, have a power of attorney
for someone to make your health care decisions. Have all
those things in place, because if you don't, then you're
(25:20):
really at the mercy. You know, we all of us
are going to get to the point at some point
in our lives where we can't take care of ourselves,
whether it's physically or mentally or both. And if people
would just take a little small step forward and make
do a little bit of planning, you don't have to
have something super complicated or that's really really expensive, and
(25:43):
you know, you can have just basic documents that protect yourself,
you know, in the case something happens to you and
you've got someone in place that you trust. You know,
there are still times when someone you trust betrays you,
of course, and that's really sad, But most of the
ones that we see that are really heart wrenching, or
when people have not done any planning themselves.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, and finding that right person that you can trust,
because some of the stories that I've seen personally with
people that I know, they they the siblings will then
take try to take charge of the parent and try
to and the parents like diminishing in in you know,
what they can do, and then they have them signed something. Oh,
I've got a new power of attorney. Everyone's fighting over
(26:28):
this one has the power of attorney. No, I got
a different one. And I even had a friend who
was dying of cancer and she had given her ex
husband medical power of attorney and he realized that he
wasn't going to be in the will, so he had
them lift and you know, lift pain medicine from her
to try to get her to sign something that would
benefit him. I mean, people are pretty awful in those
(26:49):
So how you you're right, you need to plan like
you're when you're my age or even younger. Like how
early do you tell people, Hey, you need to start
thinking about this and you actually need to put documents
in place so that it's very clear to everyone that.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I mean, I think they're going to say early.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, like maybe maybe I'm too late.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I'm saying eighteen. So an eighteen year old at least
needs a power of attorney. Because an eighteen year old,
let's say you're successful and you're going off to college
and mom and dad want to call and they want
to pay you your tuition, they are not going to
release your financial information without a power of attorney, or.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
They should even to the parent.
Speaker 8 (27:30):
And people who are parents of college students have dealt
with this, I'm sure they so tell you how much
how much your child owes. And also the other thing
is you know medical, your child is nineteen years old.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
And gets in a wreck, Yes, in the hospital, you
find out the hard way, power to make their decisions.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah, now I had that.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
My son was an awful accident, was in a coma
for a short period of time, and it was the
end of the semester for college, and the school came
to me and said, well, does he want to take
an incomplete? I'm like, he's in a coma coma, so
I said, I guess he's going to have to. Well,
then later on they tried this. University of Texas tried
to say, well, you can't get an extension on that
(28:15):
because you voluntarily took an incomplete. So I went in
there with him and I said, I'm the one that
took the incomplete.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
He was in a coma. They were lovely about it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They reversed that decision, but you're right, it's better to
have something in place. So even though on your shingle
it says elder law you can come to you even
at twenty years old and SAYD were thirty years old
the family and say hey, I want to I want
to have a plan in place.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
So I don't mean to like I know all of
your lawyers, but I've been through so much this year
with this, and I think a lot of our listeners
have too. Can you kind of point in the direction
trust will will trust?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Like where I mean, how do you.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Like explain this to people who don't do this on
a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, this is an hour long discussion.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Well I need to know.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
I mean I know that, but I'm just saying, like
for most people, it's just good to have a basic
wills from what I understand, and then you kind of if.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
You need to go into you know, revocable trucks.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
I'm gonna letull you answer that.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
And he's a question that we get asked all the time.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Well, see that's why I asked it.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
Yeah, it's a great questions.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
You don't have to have a long answer, but just
to give people a basic idea because I think they
get overwhelmed. I mean, people like me get overwhelmed when
everything like this happens all at once and then someone
dies and then I had to go to court to
you know. So I'm not going to go on and on,
but you get what i'm saying.
Speaker 7 (29:40):
So, Sure, the short answer is in Louisiana, it's something
totally different than it is where you guys live. Sure,
so you need to go to a lawyer who knows
this area of law and can tell you what the
probate or the succession process looks like. Sure, here, it's
not a big deal. We can do a basic will
for most people, but in other states there are reasons
(30:03):
to avoid that process.
Speaker 9 (30:06):
I will say, you know, TikTok.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Everyone loves to get on there and scroll and receive
legal advice through you know, these fun little channels. But
the problem with those is is that those those lawyers
are people that are doing that are actually state specific.
We're licensed in each state, So it's important to find
somebody that can talk to you about that in your
own stay.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Each state is individual and people need to know. You
know that that true.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Every state is different. Every state has different fees and
how this is done. So I just wanted you to
say something about it so people know that it's this
is possible, This is possible to plan, this is possible
to take out some of the drama that has happened
in all of our lives. I mean, I'm in my fifties,
so I'm dealing with you know anyway, when.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You dealt with it a lot, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Know you back in the old days, you would just
you in apprentice with a leather attorney and become a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Julie's almost there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
I need a lot of lawyers. Do you need an intern?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, she's practically ready to take the bar.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Well, we are very excited. We have some other ladies
that would like to ask you questions and they are
our zoomer moms and zoomer daughter this time.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Welcome Zoomer moms. Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
So, ladies, let's I'm going to go around and you
tell us a little bit about yourself and if you
have a question for Patrician Julia, let's start with Janine.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
Hi there, ladies, it's a pleasure to meet you. I
am Janine and I live in Austin, but was raised
in Shreveport. Really so that could be a whole other conversation,
but so excited to meet you, ladies. I have a
twofold question, and it would be how do your styles
(31:58):
your work style compared to each other given the unique
circumstances of you being.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Family.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
And the second is now, I understand that you both
went to LSU law school.
Speaker 9 (32:14):
Is that that was correct?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Yes, during different generations attending law school. So Patricia, I
guess my question would be directed to you in a
way that how do you see law school compare your
daughter's experience Julia to what the experience was back in
(32:37):
the early eighties going to law school and vice versa.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Well, when I.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Was in law school, it was I think this, you know,
I don't have all the statistics, but this is my
understanding from my experience, is that it was easier to
get in but harder to stay in. So I remember
when I first went to law school and I was in.
We were divided in what's called sections, and each section
(33:06):
had like one hundred and fifty people in it, and
the professor came out and said, by the end of
this year, there will be less than a third of
you left. That was on day one, and it was true.
And so it just you know, people were not invited
back or left or didn't make it for whatever reason.
(33:28):
So and I kind of looking back, thought, well, maybe
that's why I got an acceptance letter when I just
was an English major, you know. But anyway, that's was
my experience was. It was everyone trying to just really
struggle to stay in and to and to graduate. And
then when Julia got in, I felt like from her
(33:49):
and she can tell you, but I felt like from
her perspective it was the opposite.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
Maybe it was harder to get in. Yeah, and one
thing too.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
I mean, of course when you were there, there were
not nearly as many women when I was there, So
that was.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Kind of a cool shift to see.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
She got to come actually maybe my first year of
law school and sit in my class with me one day.
Speaker 9 (34:14):
I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I remember.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
So she got to come and actually see what my
day looked like. So much of it was oddly similar,
I think, and then some was was definitely different. I
had an experience of going through law school knowing what
my job was going to be, so there was just
zero pressure which allowed me to do well. And I
(34:39):
think that that was something that was totally different, you know,
for her.
Speaker 9 (34:43):
She just kind of figured it out along the way.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
So as you know, as far as work styles going,
you know, I think we definitely have different work styles generationally.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
I'll work from home, great deal, she's here every Saturday.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
You know, she doesn't work unless she's in her chair
for the most part. Uh, the way that we deal
with staff is probably a little bit different, or maybe
years has changed over the years.
Speaker 8 (35:17):
Yeah, that that's something that's definitely changed. That could be
a whole other topic. But you know, how how employees
what employees expect and dealing with employees is completely different
than it was thirty nine years ago or forty years ago.
And uh, Julia has a handle on that, thankfully, because
I'm from the school where, you know, everyone's happy to
(35:39):
have a job and they just come in and do
their job and that's it.
Speaker 9 (35:41):
You don't have to do anything.
Speaker 8 (35:42):
You don't have to give them any perks or celebrate
or any of those kind of things. And Julia has
a good handle on what what people now are wanting
and expecting in terms of their where they're spending a
lot of their time, their time of their life. They're
spending a lot a lot of time at work, and
what they're expecting to get from that work.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
So I think that's.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, you know what I can really just to add
to this conversation, so, my son's girlfriend just graduated from
law school at ut Law School where I went, and
back when we were in law school, it was more
like what Patricia experienced, and what she experienced is she
explained to me, she was in the middle of the
finals one semester and she said, yeah, we've got that
(36:27):
barista and then they're gonna do massages for us. We're
supposed to sign up like you have.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You have massages and a barista. We did not have
that at.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
The same law school.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
So yes, things have changed for sure. Thanks Jennifer, Welcome
to the Mom's Club. Tell us a little about yourself
and you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Have a question.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Hi, so great to meet you both, and here about
your practice. I'm you know, unfortunately we're all in the
thick of having, yes, older people in our lives. I
live in Austin, Texas this I have two children, I
have five living grandparents, so we're very in the thick
of all this, all different levels of health. So we're
(37:09):
really kind of learning the difference between you know, take
six trips to go to schwab to activate your power
of attorney, like you can have it, but like actually
getting into the bank account is a whole different thing.
So and we dropped our son off at college, who's
our last on the twenty fourth of September, and the
(37:30):
very next day my husband flew to Florida to his
father who just had a stroke.
Speaker 9 (37:35):
So that is most people don't.
Speaker 10 (37:37):
Realize that feel as you go straight from being a
parent to your children to be taking care.
Speaker 9 (37:42):
Of your parents.
Speaker 10 (37:43):
And I think that's more of our generation because people
are living longer. But and I also had a cousin
who died at twenty six no will, and that was
a real mess. So it's funny, like there's it's like
a whole you can take it as an opportunity, but
it's a whole new education you have to get about
managing this next phase of life. And you know, I
(38:06):
love that you said eighteen is when you really need
to have start having a game plan for this, because
that was very.
Speaker 9 (38:13):
Much my experience.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
So given the way kids are with like using AI
and being online and legal zoom, Like, you know, what's
the argument for when your daughter comes to you and says,
don't worry about a mom, I got an AI that's
just going to write me up a will in Texas
and we're good.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Would you answer that?
Speaker 9 (38:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:35):
Every day, the ones that I'm getting from various websites
or that people have drawn up themselves are invalid, and
so obviously, depending on your state, you just have got
to have an attorney review it because you know, the
worst case scenario is that the document that you planned
(38:55):
for and you did a lot of work on does
not go into play.
Speaker 9 (38:58):
I mean, I can't Louisiana.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
If if your document's not valid, nothing on it matters.
Speaker 9 (39:05):
It just doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
It's like you didn't even have one.
Speaker 7 (39:08):
Is that.
Speaker 9 (39:10):
Okay?
Speaker 10 (39:11):
So if you're if you let's say you're in your twenties,
just graduated from college, and you're wanting to go just
have a kind of the basic things in place. How
much time and energy does that take to kind of
get those things in place? If you're going to give
someone an aspect, Oh, I.
Speaker 9 (39:29):
Don't think long.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
I mean, you know, I have plenty of people who
specifically like on say young child, a college age child
that you're talking about getting documents. Sometimes people will just
send us an email or call us and say, hey,
you know, my daughter needs a power of attorney. Is
there anything else she might need? Chances are they don't
own very much, so are anything, so a will might
(39:52):
not be necessary at that point. But we'll take that
information over the phone and then they'll just either come
into our office and sign, or we'll p documents for
them to sign in front of a notary somewhere else.
Speaker 9 (40:03):
Thirty minutes. I mean, you know you could.
Speaker 7 (40:05):
It doesn't have to be a longer on out thing
unless you want it to be right.
Speaker 10 (40:10):
Yeah, Yeah, that's great to hear because you know, what
I know is that you don't ever want to end
up in probate and you just need to do it
whatever it takes to not be there. And it's worse
in some states and others, but my cousin was in
New York.
Speaker 9 (40:23):
And it was a real mess.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yes, you just yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
See.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
The thing is to see that's completely different for Louisiana
because Louisiana it's better for you to go through probate.
Louisiana because we have what's called non administered probate and
we have this this really fast procedure and it's it's
you get there's perks to it, okay, and we have
no inheritance tax, which is very different, very different from
other places.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah, which goes to the point of every state has
very very states, different different laws.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
And it is yes, and you also do want to
make sure it's a valid document because I think there's
a lot of people lately because of all the AI
and legal zoom and things. I've heard of cases where
people will do other types of documents and they think
they do them themselves, and they take them to their
lawyer and say is this okay? And it's not okay,
And it's hard to explain to them when I really
need to charge you a lot to make this right.
(41:09):
They think they can be a little cheaper if they
do it themselves, but it really doesn't work up well.
Speaker 8 (41:15):
And you know, we review a lot of things, and
we have a huge volume of clients and a huge
volume of new people coming in. So you know, it's
if somebody says, hey, can you take a look at this,
they can email it to us or drop it off
and I'll say, hey, it looks fine, or you know
this is really old, or this has this weird language
(41:37):
right here, you might want to consider it getting it
redone And we can do that.
Speaker 9 (41:42):
We do that all the time for me.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Well, and I will give you so for me personally,
I'm an attorney, but I always have my attorney just
check over and see when I write something like if
I'm missing something because I've ben't practiced in a while,
so yeah, just to always make sure the attorney looks
at it well. Our last Zoomer is a Zoomer daughter.
It was actually a Zoomer niece in this case, but
she's an aspiring lawyer in law students. So let's welcome Emily.
(42:06):
Welcome to the Mom's club. And do you have a question.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Yes, hello, my question. Just as she said, I'm currently
studying for the ELSAT and planning on applying to law
school this round. So I was just wondering if you
guys had any piece of advice or words of wisdom
for me.
Speaker 7 (42:28):
Well, you know, for law school itself. When you first one, congrats,
you're amazing, You're gonna do great. But you know, sometimes
when you're starting something brand new and you go in
on your first day and you look around and you're like,
everyone here is incredible, everyone here smarter than me. You're
(42:49):
you're very capable of doing it one. And then the
thing is is that it's just school. So granted you
want to do well, but there are of different types
of law, there are tons of different ways to practice.
There are tons of you know, small firm, big firm,
certain law where you never see anybody, and mine where
(43:12):
you know, I'll see fifteen clients a week.
Speaker 9 (43:15):
Like I love that part.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
And so I would have never gone to law school
if I didn't know that this area or this you
know way exists. So just try everything, do everything intern
with as many people as you can and see what
you like, and if you don't like it, then move
on to the next one because you'll find a place.
Speaker 9 (43:36):
That works for you.
Speaker 8 (43:37):
What do you do, You have an idea what you want,
what area you're interested in, or you're.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Just starting As of now, I'm thinking about pursuing media law,
but that could obviously change. I'm not one hundred percent sure.
I don't have any experience in it, but that seems
to be what I'm most interested in, So we'll see.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
But I think what Julia's saying to you before you
do that you're going to get a power of attorney
today because you're twenty two. Yeah, and so I hope
you've picked up on that too, and that you text
my daughter as soon as we get out.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well, it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And also, there is a difference between big firms and
small firms. Like you could your sister is graduated from
law school. You could be in the same big firm
with her and never see you ever see her except
for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean, you know, it's like you,
there's a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So, yeah, you want to experience all of it. Well,
thank you, ladies.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
This is sending credible, as we.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Say here on the Mom's Club, lomazing, amazing. We have
so enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
And tell our audience if they are in Louisiana, because
your licensed to Louisiana unless you have another state you're
a hold a license.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
In arensed to another stage where they can reach you.
Speaker 9 (44:43):
Just Louisiana's Louisiana.
Speaker 7 (44:45):
So you can reach us at our website www dot
Merriman law dot com. We're also on Facebook and Instagram
under Maryman Law.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Right, well, thank you so much. We've really really enjoyed this.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
And I learned to lot again you did I know,
look at all this listens like a million notes.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I was like, yes, so she's ready to go.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
This has been great well, and we want to thank
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Speaker 2 (45:27):
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Speaker 1 (45:30):
The way to solve that stress, ladies, and we have
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Speaker 2 (45:49):
The podcast, it's in uc ALM.
Speaker 9 (45:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
It's just about to ask you that. Can you spell that?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I just hear me, Thank you and you see ALM yeah,
and you can check. You can find us on Instagram
and inside the Mom's Club on TikTok, where you will
never believe I was once an attorney because I'm once
point hopping on a hopity hop. So that's my political career,
that's for sure. And on our website is inside the
(46:14):
Mom's Club dot com.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Well, it's like always, this has been so quick.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
And fun, like really fun. And you know who knew
that a law episode would be so much fun?
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yes, And remember Armato ladies out there, If you don't laugh,
sometimes you are going to cry. So let's laugh all everybody,
and we will see you next time Inside the Mom's
Club
Hi, Welcome to inside the Mom's Club, where being a
mom is the coolest place to be.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Here in the.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Mom's Club, we believe that what embarrasses you now will
make a great story later. And let's face it, you
don't laugh sometimes you're gonna cry. Join us in having
a good laugh together. I'm Monica Samuels. You are now
inside the Mom's Club, your private destination for all things mom. Welcome, moms,
(00:44):
Welcome inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host, Monica Samuels,
and I am here with my lovely.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Co host, Julie or.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's so great to see you again after all this time.
She ran off on a big European vacation, but she's off.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I needed to go off the grid for a little bit.
Sometimes you got to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I know you did. You went to the Olympics,
you went everywhere well.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
I mean listen, that was a trip long planned for
a long time, and I it was electric. It was
it was everything that I was hoping it would be.
And it was safe, and it was cool. It was
really cool to watch people do their dreams.
Speaker 6 (01:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And you went with your daughters.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I did you daughters, I did, and we survived. I mean,
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
Traveling, you know, with females through Europe who are sharing
a small hotel room, it can get a little dicey,
you know, every now and then. But we did it,
and I think it's going to be a memory. I'm
hoping it's imprinted on their brain, you know, and then
when they're thirty, they'll be like.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Hey, lady, that was super cool. Thanks a lot. So
I have that, Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Think they do.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So do you think now our guests today, we're going
to have a conversation about working with your kids. But
do you ever think you could work with either or
both of your daughters in a business?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Well, first, it depends on the business and as long
as they know I was the boss, and I think
it wouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well that could be the tricky part though.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I know you have two daughters with.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Very different personalities.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
If I'm being very honest, I really don't know the
answer to that. On some days, like pretty much eighty
percent of the time, yes, I'm not sure they would
say the same thing. But listen, we love each other
and I think that it just depends on the business.
And I'm so curious to hear what these ladies have
to say.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I am too. For example, just doesn't give you an example.
If one of your daughters, when you were working with her,
and she continually called in sick. Yeah, based on your
current experience, HU, would you what would you do in
that situation? Would you keep her?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Lloyd, would you wonder if that was the case.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But we would have to have a little human resources chat.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, so if you were to work together, you'd also
have to have an HR person in between.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
That's right, Well, that's right, We're always going to have
another party in the office.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Anyway, I do know this says a really good Would
you work with Chase.
Speaker 7 (03:11):
Or Jared?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I you know, I think Chase would end up being
my boss. I don't know how that would work.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Oh, that's really what I meant to say. There is
one child I would actually be working for, ye yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But you know he's quite talentant, so I wouldn't but
grudge him if he decided just to take over the
whole business.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah. I don't see that happening.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
My husband and my son, my oldest son, do work together,
but it's in a larger firm, so there's like twenty people.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, and they don't work. He doesn't my son.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
In fact, they very clearly try to, yeah, keep it
out of because of nepotism and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Well that's a larger firm. I love the powerhouse that
you know, you could do with your kids in any
type of family business.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
And so I can't wait to hear the dynamics.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I know, I know.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, let's get right to it, because it's going to
be a fun show. Well, we are fortunate to have
today a daughter team who are both attorneys. The first
Patricia Mirraman, is a graduate of LSU Law School and
she opened her law office in nineteen eighty eight. She
specializes in elder law and she has three adult children,
(04:15):
one of whom you will meet Julia Todd, who is
a CPA and also an LSU graduate. I'm a ut graduate.
So now that we're both in the SEC and I
will comment further on that. She is a mom of two,
a son and daughter, very small children. And as I mentioned,
they are both part of the Mirraman Law firm. Welcome ladies,
welcome to inside.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Them all welcome unk.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So this is such an interesting dynamic in so many
ways to have I mean, a mother and daughter is
like I've observed because I don't have daughters, but I
had sisters, Julie and her daughters, and you know how
this how this works exactly. So let's start from the beginning. Patricia,
you are an attorney. And how long are you priced
(05:01):
this night? Since your children before they were born, you've
been practicing then you had three.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
Children, Yeah, thirty nine years.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, and really are you in a big firm or
did you started your own firm?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I guess I know.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
When I first got out of When I first got
out of law school, I went to work for just
a one person law firm, and I was there for
about six months, and then I kind of jumped ship
and went to work for another very small law firm,
and I was there for about a year, and I decided,
for just a number of reasons, that I was just
(05:36):
going to go ahead and do it myself. So I
hung out ma Shinele and did every kind of work
that anybody asked me to do in the legal field,
and then eventually every time dropped the things that I
didn't really enjoy and then concentrated in the elderlaw area
for the last many many years.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, I admire you so much for that, because I
I was never been brave enough to go hang out
my own shingle. In fact, I always my father always
joked that anytime he had a legal problem, like with
a neighbor that he was bothering or something, he would say,
you know, I would get my daughter to take care
of that, but she doesn't specialize in that area, so
she can't.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
She can't help me.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It's always use that as my excuse because I was
in a big law firm, so I did environmental and
immigration law. But we were very, very very specialized. So
anyone that can hang out their shingle and do all
of that, I my hat's off to you. But you
certainly learn a lot doing that.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Yeah, you just you just kind of have to take
everything and just get to know as many people as possible.
But you know, my husband would would joke, you know
that the reason that I opened my own office is
that I couldn't get along with anybody.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
You know.
Speaker 8 (06:49):
Not exactly true, but but it is. It is different,
and like you said, with with being a parent. So
I was a practice law for a number of years
before my children were born. But one good thing about
working for yourself is that, you know, if I knew
that I was going to you know, moms, you know,
the mom's day or you know, uh, something that was
(07:12):
going on at school or whatever, I could go and
I made myself available as much as possible.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yeah, well that was one of my questions, is like,
why did you go out on your own?
Speaker 9 (07:24):
And was it?
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Did it have to do with the fact that you know,
you knew you wanted children, you had children, and you
could be be your own boss, right?
Speaker 8 (07:33):
And I think I think too, you know, uh, you
have to in the legal world and yell, everybody who's
who's a lawyer knows this. People practice law in different ways.
So the people that I worked for were good people,
but I just knew that I wanted to do things
a little bit differently. So, for instance, one of the
things that that I did from the very beginning, which
(07:56):
has ended up being a huge, uh a huge thing
for us. I think the reason we get a lot
of people is that we set flat rates for most
of what we do, so unlike back then in the eighties,
and I think even now, a lot of lawyers would
you say, well, it'll be x by the hour, you know,
and and so the client doesn't have an idea, so
(08:18):
what it would cost. And I used to say all
the time, I don't understand why no one knows what
things cost.
Speaker 9 (08:25):
I mean, why can't we tell them what it costs?
Speaker 8 (08:28):
And so I started setting flat rates and that was
a huge you know, that's that's something that people really
really appreciate because when people come to see you, they
want to know how long is it going to take
and how much is it going to cost? And if
you give them the lawyer answer, which is it depends,
you're going to be very anxious and unsure and you
(08:50):
need you know, they're going to there, they're they're not
going to feel comfortable. And so there's times when we
can't do that or times we have to change it, obviously,
but overall, people really appreciate knowing those two things.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, it is interesting because yeah, I worked at a
big loft service and we did it the other way.
We did build by the hour. And a little helpful
hint to all you out there, all you moms out
there who might hire an attorney, watch out for if
it's build by the hour, you look at your bill.
A lot of times they'll bring in an associate. And
what we worked for big institutional clients too, so they
(09:23):
had deep pockets and if we missed something, that was
the worst thing you could.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
If you missed anything, you were and you were done.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But you'll notice on your bills and review the file,
review the file, review the file. A lot of people
reviewing your file, you know, for several hours. So yes,
it's and they're incentivized.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To bill a lot of hours.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
That's how the firms make their money. So but yeah,
it's not fair to the client. You get a lot
of uncomfortable conversations with people when they don't have any idea.
They see their bill and they I've seen my bill
before and killed over because I.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Thought that's not right.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
So I just thought it was I thought it was
a crazy scenario.
Speaker 9 (09:58):
I just didn't know.
Speaker 8 (09:59):
I didn't know any lawyers. So when I got out
law school, I didn't really know any lawyers. I didn't
know any lawyers when I went to law school, and
so I was just I was I'm just a you know,
normal person saying well how much does that cost? And
I work with like like, I mean, you don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I've always wondered for myself particularly, is being a lawyer?
Is that partly a genetic thing? Because I'll tell you,
I'll give you this, this is why, this is why.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I'm asking question.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You know that, Rightilia, My youngest son was just born
to be a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
From the time he was two three years old.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
You could say something to him and he can give
you the best argument why you were wrong and he
was right and you couldn't really argue with that, or
he would and then injustice would happen in kindergarten and
his first question would be could we say, can we
sue that person? And so I don't know if that
was because he lived around me and that was just
sort of the thing, or if he's just you know,
if that's if it's genetic all right?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Like were you always Patricia, did you know.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
From your time you were a small child and people
said you're a born lawyer, you you would just have
the personality to be a lawyer or was it something
you'd given to you later?
Speaker 8 (11:11):
Absolutely not at all. I wanted to be a librarian.
And when the card catalog was taken out of you know,
you don't use card calumph anymore. That was a really
sad day for me because I just I grew up
just loving libraries.
Speaker 9 (11:29):
That was all that was.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
My goal was to be a librarian. And I got
a degree in English literature. I intended to pursue that
that route and you know, maybe end up, you know,
going further in that. And I had an English professor
that said, I really think you ought to take the
l SAT, which is the intrith exam for law school.
(11:50):
And I said, I don't know what that is, and
so he told me, and he told me how to
do it, and I took it and then I got
an acceptance letter.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Uh so that is such an awesome story that I
was like, wow.
Speaker 8 (12:03):
I never, like I said, I didn't know any lawyers.
I I just didn't. It wasn't something I even considered.
But then when you know, this professor told me, you know,
I think you ought to pursue that. I think you know,
you you don't being being in the being in the
education area has a lot of you know, a lot
(12:25):
of things you're not. You're going to have to constantly
be publishing, You're probably going to be moving from school
to school, You're going to all these things you're not,
you know, so anyway, Yes, he really changed the course
of my life.
Speaker 7 (12:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
You know, so that's a weird story.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
And you know, you you might have answered part of
my question because maybe it is genetic, because I too
love the library and mourned the end of the Dewy.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
So I think there's a large crowd out there that.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Lawyers. I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So when Julia was born, and she's your oldest child, yes, now,
did you see any traits in her, like, oh, you
should be a lawyer? Or was this not a thing?
Julia can share her perspective on it.
Speaker 9 (13:08):
I was gonna say no. I mean, so.
Speaker 8 (13:12):
My husband is a math person and all my kids
are all my kids were math people. So Julia was
a CPA. My other two are engineers. I'm kind of
the odd man out in my family, you know, because
I sometimes I didn't understand what they were talking about
when they start talking about velocity and things like that,
and I, you know, but I always she was always
(13:34):
a math person and that was what she really wanted
to do, and so it was a natural thing for
her to become a CPA. And she can tell you
how she came from being a CPA to being a lawyer.
But I did not expect her. I expected her to
stay in the CPA world.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Well then, what a delight for you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So maybe she was inspired by her mother. Well, Julia,
so what what made you decide to go to law school?
Speaker 7 (14:00):
You know, you kind of grow up looking at how
your family was. Right, So I saw a mom who
was able to, in my eyes, do it all work
and have a family. And you know, granted we had
plenty of help. But I graduated from college and I
got married and moved, you know, back here to Shreport
(14:21):
with my husband, and we started talking about having a family,
and all I could think about was, you know, I
should have gone to law school.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
I could do what my mom does. You know, she
gets to meet with people.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
You know, we do a lot of estate planning or
product work, so we get to meet with people all
day long. And you know, I had actually drafted my
first will when I was probably seven or eight years old,
because we had just gotten computers at home, and she's like, okay,
well i'll pay you a couple of dollars or you know,
I don't know what it was. This will be your chore,
(14:54):
you know, if you if you draft these will. So
I was doing you know, wills and successions, but I
didn't know what that was.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
I mean, was pretty young.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
You should have submitted billable hours to your mind.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
At learn how to type.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
I was.
Speaker 8 (15:08):
I would get like comfortable on the computer.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Okay, ahead, go ahead, you were doing this right.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
My dad was a computer teacher, so it was all
about learning how to type and you know, excelling in
that area. So I, you know, I said I should
have gone to law school. And my husband said, you.
Speaker 9 (15:27):
Know, why don't you? Well we can We're still young,
you know we can. We can do it.
Speaker 7 (15:32):
And I and I said.
Speaker 9 (15:35):
I'm going to get in first.
Speaker 7 (15:36):
I'm going to make sure I can get into law
school before I even have a conversation you know with mom,
because I'm not going to do this and go.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
I would never thought i'd be in some kind of
big law you know.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
It was going to be about being here and making
relationships with people.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
So I did and I got in and I just
took the path.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Now, So you were you were back in Shreveport when
you made this decision, and did you have children at
that time?
Speaker 7 (16:02):
I did not, so I had my first child. Really
the first year that I was practicing. Okay, so made
it through law school.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
But you're in then you have to go back to
Baton Rouge to go to law school, right, So how
did her act that work?
Speaker 9 (16:16):
Uh? It was it was a wild few years.
Speaker 7 (16:19):
My husband worked at a bank at the time, who
uh was wonderful to him and just transferred him to
South Louisiana and we rented our house out here and
just truly up and moved for for the three years.
And then when we got done, I moved right back
into the same house.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Well that's a nice that's a great commitment. What a
nice husband.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yes, she like you guys like have a movie in
the making here or something like that.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, for sure. I was like, there's more to yeah
out there, this would be really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's nice. So working for your well, I guess for
your mom. Are you both partners now? I mean, how
does this work? How does that? How did that shake
out at this point?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay, so we're not equal partners, but.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay, see that's what I'm talking about, Patrishall.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Part of my question.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So, you have two young children and when you need
to take time, it sounds like you have a very
great situation there because your mom made it where she
could go be at school for you and things. So
when things come up for you where you need to
do something for the kids, I'm sure it's easy for
you to manage that. And your mother especially they're her grandchildren.
Is she really gonna denied them?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know? So how does that work?
Speaker 7 (17:28):
We don't, I will say, I mean, you know what,
I work a lot, or you know, I don't think
that's ever really been an issue with us. I mean
one thing about even though we're not equal partners, from
the very beginning, you know, she and we do succession planning.
She has always been about preparing me for my future,
(17:51):
and so so much of that has been okay, what
things can I let go? What? You know? So the
first thing she doesn't like doing is the business side
of things.
Speaker 9 (18:00):
Well that's my brain. I love that part of it.
So all the math stuff.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
All the math stuff, that's right, right.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
So, all the finances, the pricing, the HR stuff, all
of those things have from probably day one, she has
either accepted my criticism or critique of them, or she
has been on board, you know.
Speaker 9 (18:25):
With with change.
Speaker 7 (18:27):
I think someone you know told me that it was
maybe exciting for her for me to come because.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
You know, she thought, Okay, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 7 (18:36):
I'm going to retire, But I've built this business, so
what happens to it?
Speaker 9 (18:40):
And so now it's been kind of a little bit
of a.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
New excitement, you know, from her, and and she gets
to focus on what she likes to do while also
being open to some things that maybe my generation is
excited about it.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So, and that makes you a great team. And I
can say for me personally, I'm not a math. I
hate math, actually not good at it. And so I
would appreciate somebody like you in the office. And also,
since you do wills, and since you've been doing will
since you were seven, I hope that if they made
you do their will for them, that you made sure
you put your little extra in there for yourself that is.
Speaker 8 (19:16):
But no, we can't do that.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, no, no, I know, I know, especially yes, I
especially well you guys were elderlaw.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Can you tell me why you picked.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That, Like, I mean, out of everything that you you
started out doing, I'm dying to know. And I'll tell
you a little bit. This year has been a wild ride.
I put moved my parents into independent living, and it's
been a huge shift and change. And then moved my
aunt there and she passed away. I became the executor.
I feel like I've been kind of, you know, invisibly
sitting in your office listening to a lot of things,
(19:48):
because I've had to sit in a lot of attorney's
office this year. So can you tell us why that
you picked it? What was so special about it? Was
there a case that you're like, I can be of
service here. What you know made your heart explode over
the this particular area of law.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
Well, I think two major things. One, I'm the youngest
of six kids. My parents were forty two and forty
six when they had me, So my dad died when
I was twenty four. My mother died on my fortieth birthday.
But so they were already, you know, I was already
(20:24):
dealing with my dad's illness and most of his siblings
and my aunts and uncles were very elderly. And then
my mother had had Alzheimer's, so I dealt with that.
But really, I think besides that, the thing that was
was that made me really do this more as a
profession is that my dad was retired military, and so
(20:46):
I grew up going Barkstell Air Force Base is right
across the river from US, Yes, and so I grew up,
you know, going to Barkstelle Air Force Base, going to
the library at Barksdell Air Force Base in the swimming pool.
And when my father died, I met a person named
Colonel Steve Depisler. And he was the head of the
Casualty Affairs office at Barksdale Air Force Base for many, many,
(21:09):
many years. And his philosophy was everything he did was volunteer.
His philosophy was I will help one person every day
that I am alive. Okay, wonderful person. He died at
one hundred and one years old. But I met him
and I had done a succession for a friend and
(21:33):
I met him because he called and he said, this
is Colonel Steve Depislo.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
BEA's your office in five minutes and he hung the
phone up.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
And so if you know about colonels in the military,
they just tell you what they're going.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
To do and do it and then don't ask questions.
You do what they say.
Speaker 8 (21:48):
So he came over to my office and he said,
I need to know if I trust.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
You, and I am willing to say that.
Speaker 8 (21:57):
You're my lawyer and my widow. I want someone my
widows can trust. I want someone who will not take
advantage of my widows. I want someone who will tell
my widows a price. I want someone who will tell
my widows how long it will take and to treat
them fairly. And I said I will. And it just
(22:17):
been for thirty years. I did a lot, a lot
a lot of people who were retired military who had
ties to Barkstelle Air Force Base.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
And then you know, once you do it, once you
do it, and you do something, people think you do
it well, you just get clients on repeat, right, sore sure,
And that's really why, And that's how I just really
got into it and got into it very heavily.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
From that point forward.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So what all does elder law encompass? Like I have
a friend of mine does care for senior citizens for families.
She's brought into be a caretaker, and she's told me
nightmarish stories about elder abuse among family members. I mean,
it's shocking how people treat their family. And do you
(23:11):
get involved in that? And how is that emotionally for
you all to be involved? Because I know like they
always said when I was in law school, don't be
in criminal law or family law unless you want to
be emotionally. You know, it'll affect you emotionally. So do
you all get involved in those types of cases too,
or do you mostly do wills and succession and guardianships
(23:31):
and things like that.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
You know, I'd say some of our guardianships sort of
are interdictions, as we call them here in Louisiana definitely
have the mental component that you're talking about to it.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
We as far as elder.
Speaker 7 (23:46):
Abuse and those those types of things go, there are
places that you can call for immediate action and we
just can't act fast enough on those types of those
types of things. We of course recommend people you know,
contact you know, specific agencies on those, but you're right,
(24:06):
sometimes it's pretty taxing with.
Speaker 9 (24:09):
With family members.
Speaker 7 (24:11):
We you know, I think one thing that makes us
different is that we're the ones that are talking to
the clients every day and so we're we're calling them,
we're in.
Speaker 9 (24:21):
It with them.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
But I think that that's that's important, that makes us sympathetic,
that makes us good at what we do. So the separation,
while hard, maybe it's good that it's not there sometimes.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I was just I was surprised because she was talking
to me about this the other day and she said,
it's usually these family members, and she talked about how
as the as their parents getting in the end of
their life and it's getting harder to take care of them.
She said, they'll ask me all the time, well, how
much longer do you think they have? But it's not
in a way that's they're sad about it. It's like
they're just you know, this is taking there.
Speaker 9 (24:57):
It's kind of right.
Speaker 8 (24:59):
There is a lot of abuse, and and you know,
what we really try to get people to do, if
they possibly will, is make some plans. You know, have
have a will, have a power of attorney for someone
to make your financial decisions, have a power of attorney
for someone to make your health care decisions. Have all
those things in place, because if you don't, then you're
(25:20):
really at the mercy. You know, we all of us
are going to get to the point at some point
in our lives where we can't take care of ourselves,
whether it's physically or mentally or both. And if people
would just take a little small step forward and make
do a little bit of planning, you don't have to
have something super complicated or that's really really expensive, and
(25:43):
you know, you can have just basic documents that protect yourself,
you know, in the case something happens to you and
you've got someone in place that you trust. You know,
there are still times when someone you trust betrays you,
of course, and that's really sad, But most of the
ones that we see that are really heart wrenching, or
when people have not done any planning themselves.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, and finding that right person that you can trust,
because some of the stories that I've seen personally with
people that I know, they they the siblings will then
take try to take charge of the parent and try
to and the parents like diminishing in in you know,
what they can do, and then they have them signed something. Oh,
I've got a new power of attorney. Everyone's fighting over
(26:28):
this one has the power of attorney. No, I got
a different one. And I even had a friend who
was dying of cancer and she had given her ex
husband medical power of attorney and he realized that he
wasn't going to be in the will, so he had
them lift and you know, lift pain medicine from her
to try to get her to sign something that would
benefit him. I mean, people are pretty awful in those
(26:49):
So how you you're right, you need to plan like
you're when you're my age or even younger. Like how
early do you tell people, Hey, you need to start
thinking about this and you actually need to put documents
in place so that it's very clear to everyone that.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I mean, I think they're going to say early.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah, like maybe maybe I'm too late.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I'm saying eighteen. So an eighteen year old at least
needs a power of attorney. Because an eighteen year old,
let's say you're successful and you're going off to college
and mom and dad want to call and they want
to pay you your tuition, they are not going to
release your financial information without a power of attorney, or.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
They should even to the parent.
Speaker 8 (27:30):
And people who are parents of college students have dealt
with this, I'm sure they so tell you how much
how much your child owes. And also the other thing
is you know medical, your child is nineteen years old.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
And gets in a wreck, Yes, in the hospital, you
find out the hard way, power to make their decisions.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah, now I had that.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
My son was an awful accident, was in a coma
for a short period of time, and it was the
end of the semester for college, and the school came
to me and said, well, does he want to take
an incomplete? I'm like, he's in a coma coma, so
I said, I guess he's going to have to. Well,
then later on they tried this. University of Texas tried
to say, well, you can't get an extension on that
(28:15):
because you voluntarily took an incomplete. So I went in
there with him and I said, I'm the one that
took the incomplete.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
He was in a coma. They were lovely about it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
They reversed that decision, but you're right, it's better to
have something in place. So even though on your shingle
it says elder law you can come to you even
at twenty years old and SAYD were thirty years old
the family and say hey, I want to I want
to have a plan in place.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
So I don't mean to like I know all of
your lawyers, but I've been through so much this year
with this, and I think a lot of our listeners
have too. Can you kind of point in the direction
trust will will trust?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Like where I mean, how do you.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Like explain this to people who don't do this on
a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, this is an hour long discussion.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Well I need to know.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
I mean I know that, but I'm just saying, like
for most people, it's just good to have a basic
wills from what I understand, and then you kind of if.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
You need to go into you know, revocable trucks.
Speaker 8 (29:15):
I'm gonna letull you answer that.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
And he's a question that we get asked all the time.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Well, see that's why I asked it.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
Yeah, it's a great questions.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
You don't have to have a long answer, but just
to give people a basic idea because I think they
get overwhelmed. I mean, people like me get overwhelmed when
everything like this happens all at once and then someone
dies and then I had to go to court to
you know. So I'm not going to go on and on,
but you get what i'm saying.
Speaker 7 (29:40):
So, Sure, the short answer is in Louisiana, it's something
totally different than it is where you guys live. Sure,
so you need to go to a lawyer who knows
this area of law and can tell you what the
probate or the succession process looks like. Sure, here, it's
not a big deal. We can do a basic will
for most people, but in other states there are reasons
(30:03):
to avoid that process.
Speaker 9 (30:06):
I will say, you know, TikTok.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Everyone loves to get on there and scroll and receive
legal advice through you know, these fun little channels. But
the problem with those is is that those those lawyers
are people that are doing that are actually state specific.
We're licensed in each state, So it's important to find
somebody that can talk to you about that in your
own stay.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Each state is individual and people need to know. You
know that that true.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Every state is different. Every state has different fees and
how this is done. So I just wanted you to
say something about it so people know that it's this
is possible, This is possible to plan, this is possible
to take out some of the drama that has happened
in all of our lives. I mean, I'm in my fifties,
so I'm dealing with you know anyway, when.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You dealt with it a lot, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Know you back in the old days, you would just
you in apprentice with a leather attorney and become a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Julie's almost there.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
I need a lot of lawyers. Do you need an intern?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, she's practically ready to take the bar.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Well, we are very excited. We have some other ladies
that would like to ask you questions and they are
our zoomer moms and zoomer daughter this time.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Welcome Zoomer moms. Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
So, ladies, let's I'm going to go around and you
tell us a little bit about yourself and if you
have a question for Patrician Julia, let's start with Janine.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
Hi there, ladies, it's a pleasure to meet you. I
am Janine and I live in Austin, but was raised
in Shreveport. Really so that could be a whole other conversation,
but so excited to meet you, ladies. I have a
twofold question, and it would be how do your styles
(31:58):
your work style compared to each other given the unique
circumstances of you being.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Family.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
And the second is now, I understand that you both
went to LSU law school.
Speaker 9 (32:14):
Is that that was correct?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Yes, during different generations attending law school. So Patricia, I
guess my question would be directed to you in a
way that how do you see law school compare your
daughter's experience Julia to what the experience was back in
(32:37):
the early eighties going to law school and vice versa.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Well, when I.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Was in law school, it was I think this, you know,
I don't have all the statistics, but this is my
understanding from my experience, is that it was easier to
get in but harder to stay in. So I remember
when I first went to law school and I was in.
We were divided in what's called sections, and each section
(33:06):
had like one hundred and fifty people in it, and
the professor came out and said, by the end of
this year, there will be less than a third of
you left. That was on day one, and it was true.
And so it just you know, people were not invited
back or left or didn't make it for whatever reason.
(33:28):
So and I kind of looking back, thought, well, maybe
that's why I got an acceptance letter when I just
was an English major, you know. But anyway, that's was
my experience was. It was everyone trying to just really
struggle to stay in and to and to graduate. And
then when Julia got in, I felt like from her
(33:49):
and she can tell you, but I felt like from
her perspective it was the opposite.
Speaker 9 (33:53):
Maybe it was harder to get in. Yeah, and one
thing too.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
I mean, of course when you were there, there were
not nearly as many women when I was there, So
that was.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
Kind of a cool shift to see.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
She got to come actually maybe my first year of
law school and sit in my class with me one day.
Speaker 9 (34:14):
I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I remember.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
So she got to come and actually see what my
day looked like. So much of it was oddly similar,
I think, and then some was was definitely different. I
had an experience of going through law school knowing what
my job was going to be, so there was just
zero pressure which allowed me to do well. And I
(34:39):
think that that was something that was totally different, you know,
for her.
Speaker 9 (34:43):
She just kind of figured it out along the way.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
So as you know, as far as work styles going,
you know, I think we definitely have different work styles generationally.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
I'll work from home, great deal, she's here every Saturday.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
You know, she doesn't work unless she's in her chair
for the most part. Uh, the way that we deal
with staff is probably a little bit different, or maybe
years has changed over the years.
Speaker 8 (35:17):
Yeah, that that's something that's definitely changed. That could be
a whole other topic. But you know, how how employees
what employees expect and dealing with employees is completely different
than it was thirty nine years ago or forty years ago.
And uh, Julia has a handle on that, thankfully, because
I'm from the school where, you know, everyone's happy to
(35:39):
have a job and they just come in and do
their job and that's it.
Speaker 9 (35:41):
You don't have to do anything.
Speaker 8 (35:42):
You don't have to give them any perks or celebrate
or any of those kind of things. And Julia has
a good handle on what what people now are wanting
and expecting in terms of their where they're spending a
lot of their time, their time of their life. They're
spending a lot a lot of time at work, and
what they're expecting to get from that work.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
So I think that's.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, you know what I can really just to add
to this conversation, so, my son's girlfriend just graduated from
law school at ut Law School where I went, and
back when we were in law school, it was more
like what Patricia experienced, and what she experienced is she
explained to me, she was in the middle of the
finals one semester and she said, yeah, we've got that
(36:27):
barista and then they're gonna do massages for us. We're
supposed to sign up like you have.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You have massages and a barista. We did not have
that at.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
The same law school.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
So yes, things have changed for sure. Thanks Jennifer, Welcome
to the Mom's Club. Tell us a little about yourself
and you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Have a question.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Hi, so great to meet you both, and here about
your practice. I'm you know, unfortunately we're all in the
thick of having, yes, older people in our lives. I
live in Austin, Texas this I have two children, I
have five living grandparents, so we're very in the thick
of all this, all different levels of health. So we're
(37:09):
really kind of learning the difference between you know, take
six trips to go to schwab to activate your power
of attorney, like you can have it, but like actually
getting into the bank account is a whole different thing.
So and we dropped our son off at college, who's
our last on the twenty fourth of September, and the
(37:30):
very next day my husband flew to Florida to his
father who just had a stroke.
Speaker 9 (37:35):
So that is most people don't.
Speaker 10 (37:37):
Realize that feel as you go straight from being a
parent to your children to be taking care.
Speaker 9 (37:42):
Of your parents.
Speaker 10 (37:43):
And I think that's more of our generation because people
are living longer. But and I also had a cousin
who died at twenty six no will, and that was
a real mess. So it's funny, like there's it's like
a whole you can take it as an opportunity, but
it's a whole new education you have to get about
managing this next phase of life. And you know, I
(38:06):
love that you said eighteen is when you really need
to have start having a game plan for this, because
that was very.
Speaker 9 (38:13):
Much my experience.
Speaker 10 (38:14):
So given the way kids are with like using AI
and being online and legal zoom, Like, you know, what's
the argument for when your daughter comes to you and says,
don't worry about a mom, I got an AI that's
just going to write me up a will in Texas
and we're good.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Would you answer that?
Speaker 9 (38:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:35):
Every day, the ones that I'm getting from various websites
or that people have drawn up themselves are invalid, and
so obviously, depending on your state, you just have got
to have an attorney review it because you know, the
worst case scenario is that the document that you planned
(38:55):
for and you did a lot of work on does
not go into play.
Speaker 9 (38:58):
I mean, I can't Louisiana.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
If if your document's not valid, nothing on it matters.
Speaker 9 (39:05):
It just doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
It's like you didn't even have one.
Speaker 7 (39:08):
Is that.
Speaker 9 (39:10):
Okay?
Speaker 10 (39:11):
So if you're if you let's say you're in your twenties,
just graduated from college, and you're wanting to go just
have a kind of the basic things in place. How
much time and energy does that take to kind of
get those things in place? If you're going to give
someone an aspect, Oh, I.
Speaker 9 (39:29):
Don't think long.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
I mean, you know, I have plenty of people who
specifically like on say young child, a college age child
that you're talking about getting documents. Sometimes people will just
send us an email or call us and say, hey,
you know, my daughter needs a power of attorney. Is
there anything else she might need? Chances are they don't
own very much, so are anything, so a will might
(39:52):
not be necessary at that point. But we'll take that
information over the phone and then they'll just either come
into our office and sign, or we'll p documents for
them to sign in front of a notary somewhere else.
Speaker 9 (40:03):
Thirty minutes. I mean, you know you could.
Speaker 7 (40:05):
It doesn't have to be a longer on out thing
unless you want it to be right.
Speaker 10 (40:10):
Yeah, Yeah, that's great to hear because you know, what
I know is that you don't ever want to end
up in probate and you just need to do it
whatever it takes to not be there. And it's worse
in some states and others, but my cousin was in
New York.
Speaker 9 (40:23):
And it was a real mess.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yes, you just yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
See.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
The thing is to see that's completely different for Louisiana
because Louisiana it's better for you to go through probate.
Louisiana because we have what's called non administered probate and
we have this this really fast procedure and it's it's
you get there's perks to it, okay, and we have
no inheritance tax, which is very different, very different from
other places.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah, which goes to the point of every state has
very very states, different different laws.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
And it is yes, and you also do want to
make sure it's a valid document because I think there's
a lot of people lately because of all the AI
and legal zoom and things. I've heard of cases where
people will do other types of documents and they think
they do them themselves, and they take them to their
lawyer and say is this okay? And it's not okay,
And it's hard to explain to them when I really
need to charge you a lot to make this right.
(41:09):
They think they can be a little cheaper if they
do it themselves, but it really doesn't work up well.
Speaker 8 (41:15):
And you know, we review a lot of things, and
we have a huge volume of clients and a huge
volume of new people coming in. So you know, it's
if somebody says, hey, can you take a look at this,
they can email it to us or drop it off
and I'll say, hey, it looks fine, or you know
this is really old, or this has this weird language
(41:37):
right here, you might want to consider it getting it
redone And we can do that.
Speaker 9 (41:42):
We do that all the time for me.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Well, and I will give you so for me personally,
I'm an attorney, but I always have my attorney just
check over and see when I write something like if
I'm missing something because I've ben't practiced in a while,
so yeah, just to always make sure the attorney looks
at it well. Our last Zoomer is a Zoomer daughter.
It was actually a Zoomer niece in this case, but
she's an aspiring lawyer in law students. So let's welcome Emily.
(42:06):
Welcome to the Mom's club. And do you have a question.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Yes, hello, my question. Just as she said, I'm currently
studying for the ELSAT and planning on applying to law
school this round. So I was just wondering if you
guys had any piece of advice or words of wisdom
for me.
Speaker 7 (42:28):
Well, you know, for law school itself. When you first one, congrats,
you're amazing, You're gonna do great. But you know, sometimes
when you're starting something brand new and you go in
on your first day and you look around and you're like,
everyone here is incredible, everyone here smarter than me. You're
(42:49):
you're very capable of doing it one. And then the
thing is is that it's just school. So granted you
want to do well, but there are of different types
of law, there are tons of different ways to practice.
There are tons of you know, small firm, big firm,
certain law where you never see anybody, and mine where
(43:12):
you know, I'll see fifteen clients a week.
Speaker 9 (43:15):
Like I love that part.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
And so I would have never gone to law school
if I didn't know that this area or this you
know way exists. So just try everything, do everything intern
with as many people as you can and see what
you like, and if you don't like it, then move
on to the next one because you'll find a place.
Speaker 9 (43:36):
That works for you.
Speaker 8 (43:37):
What do you do, You have an idea what you want,
what area you're interested in, or you're.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Just starting As of now, I'm thinking about pursuing media law,
but that could obviously change. I'm not one hundred percent sure.
I don't have any experience in it, but that seems
to be what I'm most interested in, So we'll see.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
But I think what Julia's saying to you before you
do that you're going to get a power of attorney
today because you're twenty two. Yeah, and so I hope
you've picked up on that too, and that you text
my daughter as soon as we get out.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well, it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And also, there is a difference between big firms and
small firms. Like you could your sister is graduated from
law school. You could be in the same big firm
with her and never see you ever see her except
for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean, you know, it's like you,
there's a huge difference.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So, yeah, you want to experience all of it. Well,
thank you, ladies.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
This is sending credible, as we.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Say here on the Mom's Club, lomazing, amazing. We have
so enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
And tell our audience if they are in Louisiana, because
your licensed to Louisiana unless you have another state you're
a hold a license.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
In arensed to another stage where they can reach you.
Speaker 9 (44:43):
Just Louisiana's Louisiana.
Speaker 7 (44:45):
So you can reach us at our website www dot
Merriman law dot com. We're also on Facebook and Instagram
under Maryman Law.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Right, well, thank you so much. We've really really enjoyed this.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
And I learned to lot again you did I know,
look at all this listens like a million notes.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I was like, yes, so she's ready to go.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
This has been great well, and we want to thank
our sponsors, the Beaman Hotel in Dallas. We love them,
love them, love them. And we have some exciting you
about the Beaman coming up. We can't talk about it
quite yet, but we are very excited to about that
and New Calm, which if you've seen recently, the Surgeon
General has said that parenting is hazardous to your.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Health because of stress. New Calm is.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
The way to solve that stress, ladies, and we have
a great deal for you. If you put Mom's Club
in the in the code at checkout, you will get
fifteen percent off every month of your subscription, not just
the initial month, but every month. So put Mom's Club
in the code at checkout. It's new Calm and for
those on listening on.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
The podcast, it's in uc ALM.
Speaker 9 (45:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
It's just about to ask you that. Can you spell that?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I just hear me, Thank you and you see ALM yeah,
and you can check. You can find us on Instagram
and inside the Mom's Club on TikTok, where you will
never believe I was once an attorney because I'm once
point hopping on a hopity hop. So that's my political career,
that's for sure. And on our website is inside the
(46:14):
Mom's Club dot com.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Well, it's like always, this has been so quick.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
And fun, like really fun. And you know who knew
that a law episode would be so much fun?
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yes, And remember Armato ladies out there, If you don't laugh,
sometimes you are going to cry. So let's laugh all everybody,
and we will see you next time Inside the Mom's
Club
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