Thirty years is a long time. Do you know where you were 30 years ago? I know where I was.
I was sitting in a tiny office about a third of the size of the one that I had had less than two years earlier when I first got out of law school. I had read a book that explained the best strategy for starting your own law firm and had decided that the time was right to start mine.
I had no money, no clients, a mountain of debt, a small child, a wife that did not work outside the home, a modest family background with no resources to fall back on, and no significant contacts or leads that would suggest that I would have an easy path to success.
But I had faith.
I was taught as a child that God would take care of me. And I believed it.
I believed it when I did dangerous things as a child, I believed it when I joined the Marine Corps, and I believed it when I began what would become Beal Law Firm.
The Firm started as just me. Then I got a part-time assistant. Then a friend from law school began helping part-time, and after a few years, I hired my first full-time Associate Attorney. We became lifelong friends, and even though he started his own firm a few years later, we still work together as much as possible.
The Firm has been helped along the way by some great people, and none of them more so than my wife, Sherry. Without her, we would never have reached the heights that we have.
But she has not been alone. We have had great friends, fantastic clients, and some awesome attorneys that have made these first 30 years absolutely incredible.
What will the next 30 years bring for the Firm? There is no way of knowing. Technology has changed so much since we first began, and the practice of law has changed with it. Divorce and Custody law continues to change every year and the challenges we face in trying to help people at what is often the worst time of their lives continue to grow.
But still, it has been an incredible, awesome journey so far, and I am so so grateful.
I am grateful to the wonderful clients that have trusted us to take care of them, I am grateful for all of the friends and employees that did so much to make Beal Law Firm a success, and I am most grateful to God.
After these first 30 years, I know two things for sure. First, Beal Law Firm will continue to be here. And second, my faith was well placed.
God is good. God has taken care of me. And he can take care of you.