Joseph Douglas Peterson

After 20+ years in corporate finanace, primarily in the electronic payments industry, I decided to further my education and attend law school.  While starting my own practice was not an end-goal I had in mind, several events occurred while I was in law school that drove me in this direction.  First, I gained exposure to areas of the law I had not previously considered, and developed an instant interest.  One such interest was in Wills & Trusts and Estate Planning.  Estate Planning fits my finance background well, but what really made the connection for me was the death of my grandmother that occurred while I was in a Wills & Trusts class.  While I certainly miss my grandmother, it was nice to have a real world case of dealing with a Will and the probate proces at the same time I was learning doctrine.  

A second factor that drove me to open my own practice was the company I was working for during law school was sold, and my position was eliminated.  I attended law school part-time, at nights, while maintaining a full-time day job.  When my job was eliminated, though, I took the opportunity to take extra classes and graduate a semester earlier than my peers.

The third factor that led to me opening my own practice was graduating from law school in the middle of the Covid pandemic.  While this might not have been the greatest time to open a business, the fact is very few organizations were hiring.  I was not willing to sit around and wait for a job to open up, so I decided to create my own job.  Thankfully, I have built a fantastic support network of attorneys and practitioners that I can rely on when I have an issue that I am not familiar with.  If a potential client comes to me with a problem that I am not comfortable with handling, I have someone I trust that I can refer them to.