By Attorney, Philip J. Kavesh
This month, on the 9th, Jane Lee will celebrate a great milestone. (Oh, in case you don't know who Jane is, she’s an attorney with our firm and here's her photo.)
A Long And Winding Road
That describes Jane’s life path. It began when she was only about 6 months old and she, her parents and sister moved from Taiwan to Lubbock, Texas. Her father was a scientist and came to study neuroscience at Texas Tech. When he earned his Ph.D. A couple of years later, Jane's family moved again, to Dallas, where her dad found his first job as a neuroscience researcher. Then, when Jane was 12, he came to San Diego to advance his work at Scripps Institute. These are just a few stops on Jane’s way to where she is now (and, yes, to that milestone we’ll tell you about).
A Commitment to
Hard Work and Higher Education
It’s not hard to see, from her father’s story, where Jane's ambition for higher learning originated. (Oh, and let’s not forget to mention her mother was a school teacher!) At the relatively young age of 16, after finishing high school in three years, Jane headed right to UCLA. At that time, Jane wasn't sure what professional path she might take, so she double majored in business economics and art history. The latter was sure a lot of fun, as she studied for a semester of her sophomore year abroad in Florence, a great place to appreciate Renaissance art and architecture (and enjoy weekend trips to Rome, or Pisa or Venice!). But when it came to getting serious about her future path, it was a business law class at UCLA later in her junior year that ultimately resonated with and motivated her.
So after UCLA, it was off to Washington University Law School in Saint Louis. In keeping with her strong work ethic, Jane stayed in St. Louis for three years without a break, working every summer as a clerk at a law firm. But even though she was committed to a legal career, that only wound up convincing her to move back to LA, because the summers there were so terribly hot and humid!
It happened that Jane's college roommate lived in Manhattan Beach, so she came to join her again. But Jane's professional journey wasn't nearly done yet!
A Crash Course in
Legal Document Details
Jane got her first job as a licensed attorney at a downtown LA litigation firm. They handled large-scale, complex energy company cases and as the “newbie” Jane was thrown into long hours of reviewing incredibly detailed documents.
She didn't mind the work so much, but rather the several hours commuting each day to downtown and back, plus the extraordinarily long hours of the job, convinced her to look for another area of law and office location, she wondered, “what and where?”
Jane recalled how much she enjoyed a class in law school about Trusts and Estates. And, after working in the back room, reviewing documents all day, she craved the client-facing experience that Estate Planning involved. So, Jane joined our firm, starting her career again as a “newbie” in Estate Planning. She had zero estate planning experience before that.
But Jane's thirst for knowledge and attention to detail had her up and running in front of clients right away. Other attorneys at our firm took her under their wings and she responded brilliantly. Peter Keon mentored her in estate planning (he's still with us today too) and Stephanie Lord taught her post-death estate and trust administration (now Jane’s specialty area).
Speaking of “specialty”, Jane's remarkably quick immersion in and command of estate planning led to her to becoming certified by the California State Bar as a Specialist in Trust, Estate and Probate law in only 5 years!
Oh Let's Not Overlook Another Milestone!
(Still Not the One I’ll Share in a Bit)
Shortly after her certification, Jane met her husband-to-be. She wasn't sure it would ever happen because Jane was picky. I remember her telling me at the time, “I'm not interested in online dating or matchmaking. I’m only going to go with a guy who is vouched for by my friends or other people they know!”
Sure enough, as events simultaneously occurred, Jane was visiting her upstairs duplex neighbor, who held a regular get together with his friends where they played cards. (When she tells this story, Jane is quick to point out, “I didn't play cards, I just hung out!”). Among the friends of her friend, Jane met her future husband who, not coincidentally, was another highly educated, detail-oriented professional - -an engineer at Aerospace Corp!
Well, as you guessed, Jane married that engineer and they now have two young daughters, ages 5 and 8. And, for almost all those years of child raising, Jane came to master a hybrid work-at-office and work-at-home business life. When I asked Jane for more details, she offered these - -
Tips for Other Working Mothers
About Work-Life Balance
Find a job with work tasks (like document creation and review) that can take place at home, and client or business meetings that can take place on Zoom (COVID surely helped to refine this!) Second, establish your company position and career in that job before having children. Third, have a husband or some other trusted person who can help take and pick up your children from preschool and elementary school a few days a week! (And, as a bonus tip, don't forget your passions or hobbies; Jane is now back to pursuing running and intends to participate in the Redondo 5K next year!)
And A Last, Important
Piece of Advice for
Parents and Their Estate Plans
Now, with many years of experience in both estate planning and handling post-death administration, I asked, what’s the most important thing you learned and would like to pass on to others?” To which, she quickly responded, “An Estate Plan is only as good as the family relationships. Too many families, particularly the children who will become beneficiaries, have personal issues between them that will blow up after the parents pass. The only thing maintaining family harmony is the parents. They have to, as much as they may otherwise try to avoid it, talk about these issues with or between their children while they're alive. If they don't deal with it, terrible fights will often be the result, rather than the family harmony they intend.”
That's solid advice.
And Now, The Milestone!
From all of us at Kavesh Minor and Otis, and also on behalf of the countless clients and their families you’ve touched, congratulations and thank you for 20 years of dedicated service at our law firm! You’ve made our community a better place.
