Giving up my "super commuter" badge...and other career changes.

This Friday, I officially retire as a "road warrior." 

Good news!  I've accepted a position as Associate General Counsel at US Lloyds Insurance! I'm very excited about the new opportunity - lots of benefits, "normal" hours, no billables, lots of trial experience, and close to home!!  It's an incredible step forward and I'm excited beyond words to be home with Charlie and Jared for dinner every night! 

But, after almost 8 years, I'm leaving Touchstone Bernays.  The decision was excruciating.  Touchstone is, by far, one of the most well respected insurance defense firms in Dallas and carries such a long tradition of success and good lawyers.  I've been honored to be a part of the Touchstone family for all of these years and the graciousness they've shown me through this transition has reminded me why I've always been proud to call Touchstone home. 

Since I started at Touchstone, I've gone through three cars (and luckily no accidents and only 1 speeding

ticket!) and driven around 185,000 miles (not including trips to destinations other than Dallas). I've spent over 6,000 hours (that's about 254 days!) commuting on the road with about a million idiot drivers.  My current car, "Ingrid #2" (Apparently, I loved Ingrid #1 a little too much - I replaced her with EXACTLY the same car, 2 years newer, hence Ingrid #2, but I digress...) helped me make the decision to stop the madness.  She's tired.  She already had to take over for "Gretel" and "Ingrid #1."   She's too young to feel this old.  And, after a two week stint in the shop with a near miss on having a new transmission and a windshield scarred from the rock trucks on the highway, I'm showing her mercy.  She'll now tote me 6 miles each way to my new office where she can bask in the sunshine as I drive a company car around town.  I think I saw her dance around in excitement like one of the characters from "Cars!"

All that being said, I'm sad, too. Each step of the packing process has been sad and my office looks sad now that it's all boxed up and packed.  I was convinced I was going to live out the rest of my days as a lawyer, and eventually partner, at Touchstone.  It's hard to reach such an unexpected fork in the road and choose the road less traveled.  Change is hard.  And, this all happened SO fast.  I wasn't looking, but for some reason, stumbled upon this opportunity.  For some reason, it was an easy process, and for some reason, they picked me!  I like to think that the reasons for all of this is that it was just "meant to be."  I saw something on FB the other day, "Your life may have taken a detour, but God is still on the throne. He has brought you this far, and sooner or later, your peace will be restored."  I know God has placed me at this point in my life and that I'm just accepting a blessing - he's given me more time with my family.  

I've been blessed to have the best boss in the world for all of these years.  Rocky has taught me so much and I'll be forever grateful.  He's a genius (he was even on Jeopardy and served as a "phone a friend" lifeline on Millionaire!) and one of the most incredible lawyers I've ever known - brilliant strategist and masterful in front of a jury.  He's been a friend and father figure to me, too, and was the first person outside our family to hold Charlie when he was born, which will always be special to me.  He's also a jokester and prides himself on some of the ones he's pulled on me - apparently I can be gullible (ok...so he convinced me that I was naming my baby boy after a serial killer from England.  I only spent about a half a day on the internet before I realized he was kidding).  "Team Feemster" (Rocky, Lisa, Wendy and Me) is a well oiled machine.  I hate to put a wrench in that - no pun intended!  But, they've been wonderful about all of this and I hope I've made the transition easy.  Rocky has flattered me saying I'm not going to be easy to replace.  I'm humbled, although, as I declared (in a very "Legally Blonde" moment the other day when I struck some sort of awkward pageant pose in Rocky's office), "you can't find this kind of fabulous just anywhere!"

I won't let Ingrid #2 get lazy.  I'm still a road warrior on the weekends - Jarvis and Eric have Jac going too well for me to leave right now! But, Jac, the Tulsa show, and all of that are another story for another day!

So, as I reach the end of my road as a Touchstone lawyer in three more days, I'll sign off with the 5 "trial lawyer" rules I learned at Touchstone (passed down from the late Webber Beall, to Rocky, to me):(1) wear a white shirt, (2) shine your shoes, (3) zip your fly, (4) memorize the juror's names, and (5) always have the facts on your side.  :-) 

MJ