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 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