Notes

Quick Links

• My attorney profile, with the California State Bar Association.
• Childs Law Group, the law firm where I work. (Find us on Facebook, too!)

The (Short) Story of How I Got Here

I grew up in Madera, California, but now live and work down the road in Fresno, which is a fine place to live so long as you have air conditioning from June through September.

After obtaining an undergraduate degree in music with an emphasis on piano performance from Fresno Pacific University in 2000, I spent about five years working at a bookstore and substitute teaching in Madera. Then I decided to go to law school. Like many people who decide to go to law school, I didn’t really know what else to do. Working in a bookstore is a super fun job if you love books, but it doesn’t pay well. Substitute teaching is not a super fun job, and my experience with The System (i.e., education laws, state and local administrators, other teachers) did not make me want a career as a full-time teacher.

But law turned out to be a pretty good fit. In 2008, I graduated from the San Joaquin College of Law (“SJCL”) with the degree of Juris Doctor, with high honors. (SJCL doesn’t do the Latin thing.) And, since I ranked first in my class, I got to give a speech at the graduation ceremony. It was a great opportunity to cap my legal education with a public affirmation of centered living and lawyering. When I start to feel off-balance, I remember that speech.

During law school, I served as Assistant Editor-in-Chief for Volume 17 of the San Joaquin Agricultural Law Review. My comment “Land Use and Agricultural Exceptionalism” was published in Volume 16. Law review was a great experience that honed a bunch of important skills, like researching, writing, editing, legal analysis, and collaborative decision-making.

In the 2007 George A. Hopper Moot Court Competition, my partner and I received the award for Best Brief. Along with another finalist, we went on to represent SJCL the statewide Roger J. Traynor Moot Court Competition in 2008. (We didn’t win anything, but one of the highlights of that trip was staying at Hotel Angeleno, which you may know as that nifty round-shaped hotel from the first scene in Lethal Weapon, when drugged up wild-child Amanda Hunsaker, played by model Jackie Swanson, committed suicide. I took a picture of my balcony.)

I was also a member of the Hollis Best Senate of the Delta Theta Phi International Law Fraternity and served at its Clerk of the Exchequer during my second year.

From August 2006 through December 2008, I worked as a Law Clerk for the Fresno firm of Childs & Childs, PLC, which was later re-named Childs Law Group, PLC. This firm handles family law issues like dissolutions of marriage, child custody and visitation disputes, guardianships, and adoptions.

When I’m not working, I am usually reading, writing, trying to figure things out, or spending time with my wife Mary—we were married on October 10, 2009—and trying to beat her at Scrabble. I also try to follow legal issues relating to church and state, and other First Amendment problems. Most of the other stuff I think about is evident if you read my blog.

On November 21, 2008, at 6:00 p.m., I received my results from the California Bar Exam, which were positive. A couple weeks later, on December 3, 2008, I was sworn into the California State Bar Association and admitted to practice law in the State of California.

I am still with Childs Law Group, though now as an associate attorney, handling mostly family law and consumer bankruptcy cases.

Note: Please be aware that nothing I write here should be credited to or blamed on the law firm that employs me. If you are offended by something I say, they are innocent—and a great bunch of people to work with, too. Please see my other disclaimers, too.

If you know me and you see something on this page that is inaccurate or out of date, please send me an email and let me know.

If you would like to consult with me about a legal matter, you may use the contact form here. Please remember that requests for consultations will go to my staff, who manage my calendar. They will contact you as soon as possible to set an appointment. (Trust me, it’s better that way.)