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Life after Bar Passage

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published February 25, 2016

Helen Nowlin

I passed the Washington State Bar exam and was the atypical person even for attending law school. The status of the economy was an added consideration and clearly a burden to novices like me. I was not from a well to do family nor did I have an Uncle already in the business. With plenty of student loan debt, I soon realized the U.S. economy was in a downward spiral in 2008 and it would get much worse. It was clear, the name of the game was "sink or swim." Neither could I afford the expense of maintaining the myriad of fees to stay in the game with bar dues, "live" CLE presentations and the invariable malpractice insurance based only on an assumption that I might land a job.

I applied to firms, government agencies and departments and to the non-profit sector. None of these offered me an interview, let alone a job. I worked for myself as an attorney for about a year and a half getting opportunities through word of mouth, since I was scaling my fees to match my needs, not the client's ability to pay.

I had a vision and I didn't want anything to stop my personal and professional development, so I started a concept called "Take the Farm Home." I liked meeting people and had a green thumb. Conceptually, it was an idea before its time. Interest in organic food production and farmer's markets was just starting.

Take the Farm Home was intended to increase the amount of locally grown organic food through the development of gardens on donated land. Land donors were given a percentage of the produce grown in exchange for the donation and the rest was sold at the farmer's market which I had simultaneously created. It turned out to be a two year endeavor and a period of my life where I was genuinely happy. I was passionate about what I suddenly found myself doing, which was true for the first time in my life!

Since then, I continued researching and writing. My current endeavor is an online legal education website aimed at the general public called Educational Family Estate Apps. I wrote two downloadable PDF Guides and one uniquely aimed at alleviating the lack of affordable legal services in the under-served Native American communities. I have an article which has been accepted for publication by Indigenous Peoples' Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance (IPJLCR) and will be available in April 2016.

I have real reason to anticipate more and greater opportunities in the near future. We can't change the exterior things which happen to and around us, but we can still believe in ourselves. All of us have some idea about what motivates us and the life we want to live. I am here to say it might just happen.

For more information about the author, see the following links:

Helen Nowlin LinkedIn Profile
Educational Family Estates Apps

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