The practice of law is veering 180o. Fighting in court is too expensive. And takes too long to get there.
Collaborative law, Alternate Dispute, Mediation are now coming to the forefront.
These three posts are how the practice of law errs on the side of being human.
Her life partner, a medical doctor, had died.
My client was a palliative care nurse.
Very sweet, very kind, very thin and small, and very meek.
Her partner had left her an estate of $300,000 –
in today’s figures it was the equivalent of almost $2 million dollars. From the furnishings of the apartment, you would never have known that there had been wealth. The furniture might have been bought at the Salvation Army.
The rug was thread bare (a la Jackie Onassis, who at her death
the newspapers took great care to describe her thread-bare rug!) After I settled the estate, the nurse had a request. “Would you draft my will?” I immediately accepted! But on one condition...
“That when you die, you won’t have one cent left of your inheritance!” It was like in a movie....SHE ACCEPTED THE CONDITION! I took her in hand and did my utmost to spend as much of her inheritance as possible. First stop: A High Fashion Hair Salon for a hair styling, a great makeup job!
and a stock pile of makeup jars and bottles. Then "The" place in town for Designer Clothes for a mad shopping spree
lasting over a few months for a Designer Wardrobe
replete with all the matching accessories "for each outfit." -
Shoes, bags, scarves and jewellery! The nurse was transformed. She looked beautiful. She looked....oh so happy!
And I carried out my part of the bargain.
I drafted her will. We lost touch. One year later she died. I have no idea whether she continued with her new persona. Or whether she had managed to spend the rest of the money. I do know, however, that in the few months of the spending spree,
she had lived out her inner fantasies... and she realized her dreams once buried! How much was that worth?
