Benjamin Kirke Sanchez

I am an experienced litigator, having represented individuals and businesses as plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of civil, family, and criminal cases. Having represented creditors, banks, and other financial institutions for several years, I now represent people and small business owners in litigation ranging from consumer fraud and criminal defense to business-vs-business disputes. I pride myself on my common-sense yet aggressive approach in representing clients and my professionalism and integrity in dealing with opposing counsel and the courts.

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My Attitude

     I am a true believer in faith, love, and happiness.  I have persevered through thick and thin with a positive attitude.  I do not expect that we can go through life without failure, but I aim for "failing forward" each time.  I learn from my mistakes and become a better person because of them.  I have made my share of mistakes, but after each mistake, I pick myself up and move forward!  I am grateful to my father for teaching me as a young boy that life is too short to waste time being mad or sad.  I took that advice to heart and made it a life philosophy.  I routinely speak to children and adults about a variety of subjects, but I always try to convey a positive message about hope, attitude, and achievement.

     I would be remiss if I did not include here a quote that symbolizes my life philosophy, by one of my heroes, President Theodore Roosevelt:  "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

My Charity

     I have been blessed with a warm, nurturing, and generous family.  My friends and family have always given me the gifts of love and charity, and I try to pass those gifts on to others.  I believe in helping others because it is not only the right thing to do as a successful professional in today's world, but also the moral thing to do as a Christian and the social thing to do as a human being.  I give of my time extensively, especially when it involves children or helping those unable to hire attorneys.  I regularly speak to students on a number of topics, including life as an attorney, the legal system in Texas, how to achieve success, and keeping a positive attitude.  For one of my speaking engagements, I spoke on the special meaning of Brown vs. Board of Education to three classes at Waller High School in Waller, Texas, as part of the Houston Bar Association's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of that landmark United States Supreme Court 1954 opinion that essentially ended the "separate but equal" doctrine of the Jim Crow era in our country's history.  The Waller Times, the local newspaper, was kind enough to highlight me on their front page.  One of my most cherished speaking highlights was being the keynote speaker of the Year 2000 graduation ceremony of my alma mater, Hamilton Middle School in Houston.

     I donate enough time to be part of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, an exclusive organization whose members qualify by going above and beyond the call of their professional duty in donating free or low cost legal services.  In order to effectively help others, I believe in being skilled and knowledgeable in my legal practice and thus participate in enough continuing legal education to qualify me as a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, an exclusive organization whose members qualify by going far above and beyond the minimum annual continuing legal education requirements to maintain their law licenses in Texas.  The greatest reward for me is the sincere appreciation I get from people I meet from all walks of life and the simple knowledge that I adhere to the values in which I firmly believe!  In honor of the volunteer work that I perform, The Houston Lawyer kindly named me a "Local Hero" and profiled me in its May/June 2005 issue.

My Hobbies

     With all that goes on my life, I don't have a lot of personal free time. Rather than watching TV, I am a columnist in a national legal magazine and prolific writer and speaker. I am also certified by John C. Maxwell and Les Brown as a speaker, trainer, teacher, and coach, so I engage in a lot of leadership-based speaking and training.

My Future

     While I do not know where God will take me in the future, I know that I will continue to love and be loved, help and be helped, and show and be shown that all things in life are possible.  The end of one era is the beginning of a new one!  Life is not meant to be passively watched as it goes by, but actively participated in as we go through it!  As Dr. John Maxwell, one of my favorite speakers, says, "Success is not a destination; it is a journey!"  I leave you with another of my favorite quotes:  "Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire," by President Abraham Lincoln.