MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR:

Raymond Goldstein

Service is at the Heart of What We Do

"You’re going to be a Lawyer one day." That was a statement I often heard my mother say to me. Sometimes, I’d hear it after a debate centered around my alleged breach of a household chore, like the requisite distance needed to qualify for having taken the dog for a walk. Or, it might have been said after I’d proffer an argument for another 9 minutes of sleep, explaining that getting to school on time should be measured not by when the bell rings, but 10 minutes later when the teacher first takes role. As I recall, I accepted her proclamations of my future career as homage to my logical thinking, developing oratorical skills, and dogged persistence. Sometimes, I think my mom might have even agreed with these self-grandiose inferences; other times — probably most times, usually marked in complete exacerbation, I’m pretty sure she just meant that I was stubborn and argumentative. Let’s put those childhood memories on hold, for a moment.

Last year, I was retained by a woman to, well, do what I do, enforce a past-due family law obligation, this one close to a half million dollars in support arrears. (Let’s make up a name and change a few facts: we’ll call her, Ms. White.) As I always do prior to offering representation, I thoroughly analyzed the known facts about the debtor, Mr. White, his streams of income and enforceable assets, and then strategized the course of action, which I believed would ultimately lead to satisfaction of the obligation. The final step before offering representation was to lay out for Ms. White the enforcement strategy I intended to implement.