I got my first job in a law office at age 14, alphabetizing files and repetitively stamping numbers on thousands of pages of documents with a mechanical ink stamp. (This numbering was required for documents to be used within the court system). Like most after-school jobs, it was boring and low-paid work. But, it caused me to look at legal documents and become curious about their meaning.
I did not expect to find anything REALLY interesting in those documents -- I was just looking for something to occupy my mind while I earned my paycheck. My plans at that young age were to work hard and go to college and graduate school, eventually becoming a professor so as to help educate others. I dreamed of "raising awareness, fighting injustice, and saving the world." These goals seemed to me at the time to be millions of miles away from the quiet paperwork done by lawyers. Working in the legal field, I thought at the time, would be nothing more for me than a temporary "day job" to help pay the bills while I was a student.
Since my initial goal of becoming a professor involved many years of schooling, I knew that I would need my "day job" to help pay the bills for a long time. I continued to work at law offices while studying Philosophy in college and graduate school. I continued to observe and to make careful mental note of the things going on around me at the office.
As with many intellectual endeavors, what initially seemed boring and insignificant began to take on meaning.
It was not long before I realized that the arguments that unfold within legal proceedings really do affect people's lives. Whether or not a person will receive medical care, whether or not a person will keep their job, and whether or not a person will be able to keep their home are all examples of questions that can depend entirely on whether or not that person has a good lawyer. As I grew up and matured, I also came to understand the statement "injustice to one is injustice to all." A corollary of this statement is that helping restore justice to even just one individual person through the court system really can help to "raise awareness, fight injustice, and save the world."
Learning on the job, I worked my way up the ladder, from file clerk to receptionist, to secretary, to paralegal. A paralegal performs legal work under the supervision of an attorney, and it is a very interesting position because you get to work closely with different attorneys and gain insight into their methods. After working my way up the ladder as a paralegal employed by various local attorneys and law firms, I eventually opened my own paralegal business offering services to multiple attorneys here in San Diego. I always sought out the most experienced and successful attorneys I could find to work for.
A surprising thing about attorneys is that they have different styles of accomplishing the same goals for their clients. It was very enlightening to compare these different successful styles and to learn from each. Another surprising thing I learned about attorneys is that we generally do not spend most of our time making passionate speeches to juries. Although being able to address a jury with passion and zeal is a very important skill in which many of us are trained, these trial skills by themselves are not enough. If an attorney is not studious, no amount of impassioned speeches, glamor, or drama can make up for it.
I consider the opportunity to work for various local attorneys to have been more educational than law school.
During my early 20's, I tried some other interesting endeavors. Between college and graduate school, I taught Spanish at Julian High School, and then worked for the Imperial County Health Department on a program that discouraged teens from smoking. Between graduate school and law school, I opened a lunch restaurant in downtown San Diego. These were interesting and professionally enriching experiences for which I am grateful. But I always found myself drawn back to the law.
As an attorney, I have worked on cases involving more than 5 million dollars in actual damages, and on small cases involving mostly the principle of the matter.
When I became officially licensed as an attorney in 2009, I spontaneously received some very attractive job offers from attorneys for whom I had worked. I greatly appreciate everything I have learned from these attorneys, and I am especially grateful that I have had the opportunity to work in an "Of Counsel" capacity for a very prestigious insurance bad faith law firm while operating Cress Law Firm. Although one could truly spend a life time learning from other attorneys, I knew it was time for me to start my own firm. As I write this it has been 21 years since I got my first after-school "day job" in the legal field. I hope I get to spend at least another 21 years advocating for the interests of my clients.
Adrian Cress, 2011