Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Tonight I attended my first official county bar association function - a Board of Directors dinner meeting. I was invited to attend along with several fellow East County lawyers to discuss any issues we are facing in our practice. It was a very interesting evening, and I especially enjoyed hearing from and talking to other East County lawyers.

The ten years I have lived in Antioch have been a time of tremendous growth and change for the city, but as I mentioned before one of the reasons I decided to stay and open my practice here is the relative scarcity of legal services in the area. After hearing the conversation tonight I am getting an idea why that is. Many of the courts and services that used to be available to the citizens of Antioch and Pittsburg have been consolidated to the main county facilities in Martinez, which is at the other end of one of State Route 4, one of the most congested stretches of highway in the Bay Area. Travelling from Brentwood or Antioch to the county court can take 75-90 minutes on a good day. This is a major problem for East County practitioners, not to mention our clients.

On a social level it was also great to interact with other lawyers. That is still strange for me to write, since I used to dread these types of networking or social engagement where I am forced to mingle with people I don't know well. I am very social with my own friends, but for some reason have never been very successful breaking the ice initially. The good news for those like me is that it gets easier the more you do it. I intend to do as much networking as I can, especially now that I am getting started. People seem to want to help, and have been great about offering assistance or advice.