Latest / You Are A Lawyer: Take Risks and Change Careers in Law / How to Serve Your Community With Every Case feat. Vernon Thomas

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How to Serve Your Community With Every Case feat. Vernon Thomas · You Are A Lawyer: Take Risks and Change Careers in Law

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To be basically the arbiter of people's either a, money or b, their freedom, right, depending upon what your docket is that day, it's an awesome responsibility.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, friends. This is Kyla DeNagno, and every season, I speak to a graduate of the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That is where I graduated from law school, and it is very near and dear to my heart. So let's get right into this episode featuring an SULC graduate.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the UR Lawyer podcast, Vernon Wesley Thomas. You and I have reported before. You were on season three, I wanna say, and this is season 13 of the You Are Lawyer podcast.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta just say this because last time I didn't get video. And so I've seen all the other interviews that have come after that and everybody has video. They got something on YouTube. Everybody's, Oh, Hey. And everybody gets to see everybody in the camera.
• 0:57
  And then I just got the audio and I'm like, Oh, wow. Like, why did I get sliding?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Look, life was life. And when I started this show, I was pregnant. It took all my energy to just get on the recording. I was not turning on my camera. Today I had a little time.
• 1:12
  Okay? So that's why now I'm doing video.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So you're blaming your daughter for sliding me the video from
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: True. Technology's always changing. When I first started, it was enough to just have the audio and now you need the audio and the video.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: So But the weird thing about that is is that as we see from from season to season, I've just seen such a a maturation in your interviewing style. Everything is just it's gone up five notches. And I'm so proud of you.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. My goal is to get 1% better every season, every episode, every day. And I'm doing it.
• 1:47
  I'm doing it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Making progress. I got you.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Yes. All right. So as you mentioned, you are my mentor. You were my mentor in law school. You've been my career mentor.
• 1:56
  And the last time we talked, you were happily a lawyer doing all the things. But now you're trying to qualify to become a judge.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So there is an upcoming special election in Baton Rouge for a seat that was vacated by a judge who just went up to the first circuit. And so I'm running for that vacancy in the nineteenth JDC. It is going to be a very, very interesting race. There are, from what I'm told, four other candidates, including me, that are potentially going to run. And this is my first foray into politics, so I really don't know what to expect.
• 2:32
  I'm just kind of bringing my authentic self to the table and my experiences and hoping that the people understand that I want to be the person that they elect to make sure that they have somebody there that they can truly relate to. And hopefully, and hopefully that's it.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, okay. The nineteenth JDC, I've been there before. I went to law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You're from New Orleans though.
• 2:56
  Why are you running for judge in Baton Rouge?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So I have a deep connection to Baton Rouge and I told you about this. So my mother is from Baton Rouge, all my aunts and uncles. My grandfather Horace Wesley Moody Sr. Over intramural sports at seven, he coached football, coached the offensive line. He actually coached my uncle Horace Wesley Moody Jr.
• 3:16
  Who recently passed. Condolences to the family. And now the intramural complex that sits in the middle of Southern's campus is named after him. He was also one of the founding members of NRSA, which is the, and so for as long as I can remember, I was going to Southern football games, home and away every Sunday in Baton Rouge at my grandparents' house at 186270 Eighth Avenue in Southern Heights. I've lived there for quite some time and it fits.
• 3:47
  And also a lot of people don't realize I spent the majority of my adult life in Baton Rouge. I moved to Baton Rouge originally when I was 22, after I finished from Dillard University And then went ahead after Katrina, moved around a little bit, came back and went to law school at Southern University Law Center, which is the best law center on the face of the earth, has produced incredible lawyers, which include, but not are limited, which includes, but is not limited to my father, who graduated first in his class in 1979, my brother, who you know, Hunter Thomas, who graduated in 2017, my mentors, Teddy Nyshed and Dietrich Moore, a host of other people who are on the campaign committee and just people in general in the community who have really, really touted that as their alma mater, regardless of where they've gone to undergrad. So deep connection to that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Okay. All right. Very cool. Yeah. I just celebrated ten years since graduating from Southern University and I cannot believe it's been ten years.
• 4:49
  And it also feels like it was at least thirty years. Like it feels like it was so long ago. I don't know why. I feel like once you become a lawyer, everything is just different. Did you ever have that experience once you were in Baton Rouge and you're like, okay, what's this like?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing was when I opened up my office in Baton Rouge. And so I remember coming back from officer basic course and that's when Tedrick had opened up his office where mine is now, 2415 Government Street, shameless self plug for that office. And he told me, Hey, look, you know, I'm opening up this office. You need to hurry up and get in here. I'm giving you the right of first refusal.
• 5:30
  And he gave me a really sweetheart deal on rent. Another classmate of mine was already renting from It was prime real estate, prime location. And I remember calling my best friend Eddie, and I remember saying, Hey, yo, is it time? He was like, Hey man, this is the incremental progress that we're talking about that you have to go ahead and step into it and take that leap of faith. Go ahead and do it.
• 5:50
  And you'll feel way better having taken that step. That was 2013. And so from there, a plethora of things have happened. You know, my father passed multiple active duty stints, multiple mobilizations. So, yeah, it feels like an eternity since the last time we talked in 2021.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: I know. I know. So you've mentioned active duty, which was a big deal in our last recording. The whole thing was about how to be this JAG officer and this big time military attorney and what that was like. So military experience from New Orleans, went to school in Baton Rouge, have an office in Baton Rouge running for judge.
• 6:31
  How does all of this experience tie into being a judge? Like, how does it fit?
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: The experience that I've gotten from both the criminal and the civil side have been invaluable. And I think I can bring a very balanced perspective to the bench. And that's what I think people want. I think people want to see somebody who's practiced in the areas. Going back from the beginning, I've seen a lot of different experiences from a lot of different levels in both criminal and civil.
• 6:59
  When I came out, I was kind of meandering about trying to find my voice and find my space. I worked for Tender Nightshed for about a year and a half, two years. Also did some contract work for Dietrich Moore. I then got on with East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defender's Office in 2012. At the same time, I joined United States Army JAG Corps, went away to OBC in 2013 from February to June, came back, went back to the Public Defender's Office, did a year mobilization at Fort Campbell in the Tennessee Kentucky border in division administrative law for a year, came back to the public defender's office, then went on another one year active duty mobilization to Fort Bragg, the first Special Forces Command, where I was a brigade prosecutor, I prosecuted sex crimes and did a host of other things, including intel law, operational law, ad law.
• 7:56
  Came back, during that time. Unfortunately, my father passed in November, November '20 '16. And so when I got off that active duty mobilization of Fort Bragg, I came back and I took over his office in New Orleans. And in the midst of doing that, because he had a very robust civil practice, I had to figure out the whole civil practice because he had two major mass torts with about 2,504 clients apiece. He had a catalog and book of business of about 30 personal injury cases.
• 8:34
  And I had done some PI stuff. He had Will's successions that I had to complete, which were interesting in and of itself because I hadn't done those in quite a while. At that point too, also I became a law clerk for the Honorable Tracey Fleming's Davalier, who's now the Chief Judge of Criminal District Court in New Orleans. Worked there for about fifteen months, left there, became a municipal prosecutor. In the midst of doing that, 'twenty one through 'twenty four, for about a quarter, three, sometimes four, four and a half months, depending upon the year, I would leave and go to Fort Knox and be the command judge advocate for cadet summer training, which is under the United States Army Cadet Command.
• 9:18
  And so that is the largest, as we call it, CONUS training event for the entire army. So 10,000, 12 thousand cadets on the ground at any given time, lots of different issues. I was legal advisor for two zero six, which is full bird colonels, and two one star Brigadier Generals, 'twenty one, 'twenty two, 'twenty three, 'twenty four. It's a lot. And the midst of that, I wound up moving back to Baton Rouge to become a staff attorney for the Honorable Judge Colette M.
• 9:55
  Please say to M. Greggs. And I became her staff attorney in 2023. And in the midst of that, I was still allowed to keep my private practice. Some obviously wasn't in that jurisdiction.
• 10:08
  And I worked and worked and I think people want to see someone on the bench that they know can identify with them because they've lived either in the area or had some similar experiences. And then from a civil standpoint, know some of the lawyers are tired of having to explain certain things over and over and over again. So they want judges who truly, truly understand kind of what some of the legal principles are without having to always spell everything completely out. And granted the judges of the 19 JDC are phenomenal. And I've had an opportunity to learn both scholastically and administratively under two unbelievable Black female judges in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge.
• 10:53
  It's been invaluable.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So would you say that your legal experience has prepared you to become a judge or working closely with other judges, like getting that behind the scenes look?
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I think both. To understand what it is to wear the robe and to be basically the arbiter of people's either A, money or B, their freedom, Right. Depending upon what your docket is that day. It's an awesome responsibility. And I think having seen it from both a scholastic and administrative standpoint in two different jurisdictions because New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Sixty Three miles makes a complete difference in just the day to day rigors of kind of what you're doing in one place versus another place.
• 11:35
  Whereas in one place here in New Orleans, I was doing a lot more of the Scholastic things, research and the writing. In Baton Rouge, I was also doing research and writing, but I was also involved in the day to day administration of kind of how the office moved, speaking with the attorneys, speaking with people at the jails, interacting more with the clerk's office. And so it comes together in this beautiful plume of understanding, not just from the advocacy standpoint, having been a prosecutor and public and private criminal defense, but also what goes on behind the scenes. And there's a lot that goes into every decision that is rendered, every sentence that is handed down, every judgment that is levied. And it makes a huge difference when you've been able to see that multiple times, multiple jurisdictions from multiple angles.
• 12:25
  And I've seen a bunch of obtuse areas of both criminal and a little bit of civil law as well, but definitely a lot of criminal from behind the thing.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I'm listening to you and I know that this is something that you want. And I don't know a better way to say it. It just sounds like it's so much work to be a judge. I mean, I feel like you've already done a lot of hard work.
• 12:48
  Is this just the next logical step for you?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody jumps into politics as the next logical step. I'll say this. I really don't know what I'm getting into per se because I've never done this. What I can say is that I've had the opportunity to study under two wonderful judges. And I've seen the tireless effort and energy that goes into what they do with every decision that they make from how they're going to set up the docket for six weeks out to what they want me to say in a particular peculiar that I may be drafting to even what they're going to wear to an event, which conveys a particular move on down to Judge Gregg's investiture, what the menu is going to be.
• 13:34
  So there are a lot of just ancillary little decisions that go into just running the office, not the least of which is how you're going to sentence somebody. And in a lot of the certain judge's cases, how you're going to find and how you're going to rule on these particular issues. And to say that it's less work would be doing it a real disservice. Mean, I've done a lot of different work, but I mean, lot of it has been for, for lack of a better term, the betterment of my career. You know, I was able to go here and be a command judge advocate.
• 14:05
  Prosecutor. I was able to be a public defender, which was an awesome job, by the way. I was able to be a municipal prosecutor. I was able to be a staff attorney for two different judges. And so now you're dealing with not just your own career and not just your own advancement, but you're trying to do something that is driven by a desire to make sure that the people are put in the best position possible, whether that be with their money or with their freedom.
• 14:31
  The weight sometimes that I've seen both the judges that clerk for, the weight that they were under was very, very intense. Is it more difficult? Yes, because now you're making decisions that affect ancillary and tertiary individuals on down the line. One decision about a money judgment and you could bankrupt the company. Another decision about a sentence you could remove someone from their family for a significant amount of time, and nobody grapples with that easily.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: Earlier, you said you're getting into politics. Well, I feel like I've watched enough TV to see people get into politics. Okay. But there is more to it. Right?
• 15:07
  And so I appreciate that. I mean, it's
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I'm told. That's all I'm told. I'm told there's more to
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, we only can see from the outside, right? I've been to the nineteenth JDC. I went to law school in Baton Rouge, beautiful building. I never really thought too much about what happened behind the scenes. I've been to a judge's celebration when they get in.
• 15:27
  I've never really thought about who helped them pick the outfit or how that conveyed the mood. I didn't realize that all those pieces would make sense, but I feel like with your career and your training, you've already been preparing for this. You already know how to think a couple steps ahead. You already know how to make sure every detail is right. You're not going to be rude and abusing all of your clerks.
• 15:48
  I think it's good.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I know what it is to serve and I know what it is to represent someone else. And so I was keenly aware of the image that I was putting out and the work product that was coming out of the office in both of my clerkships. And I truly admire the people that I worked under, right. From the judges themselves to the staff and the relationship that you have with the clerk's office. Ladies and gentlemen that work in the 19JDC's clerk of court's office, they're amazing because they're the real rock stars.
• 16:22
  I couldn't get my job done without their help. And so they were instrumental, you know, having a relationship with them was very instrumental because I'm filing stuff all the time. You know, my judge wanted stuff filed. She wanted stuff answered. She wanted stuff a particular type of way.
• 16:37
  I'm like, Hey, however you want to do it. And so oftentimes I'm going down to file things three and four and five times a day. So when you come to rely on those people to help you get your job done, you understand, especially from now being behind the scenes, because, you know, an attorney, you come in and file stuff, but you don't see the love behind the melody, so to speak, when it comes to, okay, this person's cataloging this, this person's scanning that, this person is doing this, this person's making sure the runner has what they need to get to you if they need a hard copy file. This is filed under seal. The minute clerks, you know, they have to adjust the minutes.
• 17:14
  And so you see how it works together in a big, plume with essentially three or four organizations working under one roof in order to make sure that the dockets are run, that the jail and the transport of inmates is complete, that evidence is law correctly, and that basically the record is kept in complete order to make sure that when you get on the bench as a judge or you have a staff attorney that's looking something up, they can go right to where they believe it's going to be once they know how to use the system and find it. And it gave me such an appreciation for everybody that works in the courthouse.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: That's a really good point, right? Like it takes a team. And then I think it's important to see that you've always been serving and now this would be an additional level to the service, but also you're acknowledging that it's not just you. You might be the the judge in that courtroom, but also you still have a whole team of people behind you. So this podcast is all about humanizing lawyers.
• 18:14
  So let's talk about the fun stuff. Uh-oh. So Don't throw
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: no softball questions. To hear the real questions.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: What is this like for the military? Are you still going to be in the service? I mean, I know they can technically always call you if they need you.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: What's So I came in as a reservist. And so the active duty stints I was doing were mobilized reserve tools. And so, yes, I will continue with my service. I probably won't be able to go onto active duty mobilizations with the same frequency based on the fact that if I get elected, I'll have a doctor to run, but I'll still be there. I'll still be going to drill.
• 18:55
  I'll still be doing the annual trainings. I'll still have to keep up with the educational qualifications, which I got a long, long year of that too if I'm going to make the next rank. So I'll still be in.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Okay. And then you have a life, you have a family. How do you do all of this? Coffee? Do you sleep?
• 19:18
  How do you balance it all? Do you believe that there is balance to it or is it all just kind of integrated?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: So I do believe that flowing through all life is balance, but there are going be times when you're going to be unbalanced. For example, my son just made 17. My daughter just made 14. You have to make the time. I tend to go to bed early.
• 19:39
  I tend to get up early. I get at least an hour and a half on my heavy days in the gym. I'm in the gym or working out five days out of the week. I come, I have a very routine and regimented schedule. Some people say I'm too regimented in certain things.
• 19:54
  I like to think that discipline kind of helps me move along about my day. And you have to make sure that you make the time because those times are precious. I'm now looking at two teenagers, you know, at the point in time at which we had the prior podcast, they were younger. The conversation was different and fatherhood was important to both my father and my grandfather. And you see it as you view the legacy of those men as successive generations come behind.
• 20:23
  And I'm, yeah, balance is cool, but sometimes I got to be unbalanced. Sometimes I'm not going to bed till late. I gotta get up early, but that's the price you pay if you wanna try to have everything done at the same time in the same day while still making sure everybody gets what they need.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: I feel like I'm enjoying the fact that people are being more honest about these things. I like the fact that you're sharing these things. Like sometimes there's balance. It's very important, but also at times life isn't balanced and that's just life.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: You're going to be unbalanced. The question is, is the effort matching what it is people want from you? And is it matching what you want from yourself? And again, what people want from you, it may vary from person to person. I'm going be honest with you.
• 21:08
  I've got certain non negotiables. For one, if there's a major event and I'm in town or I can get there, I'm going to get there. Right? If I promise you that I will be somewhere, unless it's an absolute emergency, I plan on being Now, can I be at every event, be in court in this parish, be here doing that? No.
• 21:31
  And so my son figured out very, very early what I really, really want you at dad and kind of what, Hey, look, if you can make it, I appreciate it. My daughter same way. She's like, daddy, I really want you at this. So she she's going to NOCA in the fall. And I came down for cool kids collective, something that she does with video, video production because she's going to NOCA for media arts.
• 21:57
  And so she had a hand in the backstage production of a couple of short films. She was like, Dad, I want you to come to this. And so I came. But what I want for myself is to be able to at least say I made the non negotiables, right? And I was always present as much as I possibly could be with time permitting.
• 22:17
  Even rearranging some stuff to make sure that I was there for. Same way I do for clients when I go to the jail on the weekends after my daughter's eighth grade graduation.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: I I feel like as lawyers, we're taught to move that way. It's part of problem solving. If I got to do these eight things, I got to find the time for these eight things.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Learned very, very early that a lot of what I've been able to make my bones on is doing the work. Like I'll go to the house, your house at 10:00 at night, you know, and talk with you about the situation. I'll go to the jail. Know, East Baton Rouge Parish prisoners right around the corner. So I would go there on a Saturday, you know, and just say something and come back home.
• 23:03
  And so just that constant effort you get used to that as your heartbeat. And, you know, sometimes it comes off a little intense and I get, I come off a little intense at times when it comes to it, but I'm so used to the heartbeat being okay, now this, now that, now this, now that. When I'm hearing your problem, the analysis immediately goes to, okay, if it's a civil situation, have we done this, this, this, this, this? If it's a criminal situation, do we know this, this, this, this, this? What do I have access to?
• 23:32
  What is the case law that I need to think about? And then in the midst of all that, Hey man, this is about 05:00. My son got a game at seven. You know, my daughter has something she has at eight. How do I balance all of that?
• 23:46
  And sometimes I'm thinking about one thing while at another thing. Like, Hey, oh, great baby. Okay. What time can I get to the jail tomorrow? It's like, Ugh.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, that's life. That's definitely life. Being a lawyer, having our legal education is really good training for life and for doing everything in life. It's just, you got to plan it.
• 24:06
  You got to be intentional with it. Earlier in the call, mentioned being in alignment. Would you say that your life is in alignment right now?
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I think mentally, physically, and spiritually, I'm coming into that alignment. As I go through this campaign process, I think what I'm trying to do is give everybody my authentic self. And again, I can't tell you everything that I always want to say right off the cuff because that's just not how life is. And sometimes I will have to be a lot more measured. But I do think that my career, my life experiences, the people that I've worked for, the people who have vouched for me, the people who took time to give me correction and direction and mentorship have all kind of poured into me and said, Hey, look, it might be the time for you to go ahead and do this.
• 24:57
  And I've always wanted to do it. My father ran for judge, when he was in when he was about my age many, many years ago.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't tell people a lot. I was thinking about wearing a shirt from his campaign, kind of doing the same culture but I could not find the shirt. And so what I would probably do is tear my mother's house looking for it and frame it and hang it up because Baton Rouge has given me so much. It's given me really a true understanding of who I am as an adult. It's given me a huge connection to Southern University where my grandmother was actually the principal at Southern Lab at one point too.
• 25:40
  So just the deep connection that I have to just that university into that city is it's immeasurable. I remember jogging at night and I don't advise people doing that, but jogging at night through banks, you know, running by the plant on my five mile runs, you know, my iPod, just thinking about different things.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: IPod? How old are you?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. We're not gonna crack age jokes.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Do you want your kids to go to Southern?
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Sure. My son wants to go to Southern. My daughter, I think she'll probably, if she has her way, will probably go to film school. I want one of them selfishly. I want one of them to go to Southern University Law Center.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, there's not a lot of lawyers that want their children to be lawyers. So that's surprising to me.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Well, my dad wanted me to be a lawyer and he wanted my brother and I to be lawyers.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: So y'all
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: completely That's not exactly true. But my son said he wants to be a pediatrician or an actor. So he's got the acting bug. He's talented in theater. My daughter will likely go to film school.
• 26:46
  So if they touch Southern University's campus undergrad or in some sort of grad program in some way, shape, form, or fashion, I think the legacy will be continued.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So you are a regimented lawyer who raised creative children. That's kind of interesting.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I'm creative. I was talented in theater. Did some childhood acting. Trying to make me sound like I'm a stiff.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: No, I mean, from the first interview, we actually talked about the music conference that you have. Don't you guys still have that, the entertainment law?
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: So the Cutting Edge Music Business Conference was originally started by my father and my paran, Eric Hager. Now we're going 30. And it was originally designed to kind of be similar to South by Southwest where lawyers can come and get education in the television, film and music industry. And a lot of it kind of changed as digital media changed, you know, streaming, downloading, how to quantify certain things, how to make a living. Typically, what I do from the entertainment law standpoint is I deal with the ethical issues and I also deal with a lot of work for hire actors because Louisiana at one point was really bringing in a whole lot of movie productions.
• 28:04
  And so I would get a whole lot of people who have the talented and acting bug. They would kind of want to know what the work for hire contracts were and if they got featured extras and just a lot of document review and kind of telling people what their left and right limits are.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, okay. I'm just thinking about it. There is creativity within your life, right? Feel like all lawyers No, I think that all lawyers are creative.
• 28:36
  I think that the way that we put case law together, way that you can see a set of facts and you can see something completely different from someone else. I think all of that is creativity, even if it's not, you know, picking up a paintbrush and painting something. So I'm just thinking about it. You know, my kiddo likes to come downstairs and like play with the microphones and things. And I wonder if she's going go the complete opposite because she sees me here doing media production.
• 28:59
  And so she might be like, I don't want all that fluffy stuff. I want to do something strict. Right? So I'm just curious.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Well, I will say this. In the beginning of my career, it was brutal. And I'm going to send a shout out to Greg Barthard, who was actually my first client who I got from working as a night auditor at the Crown Plaza Hotel. So shout out to Greg for actually being my first client and giving me an opportunity to represent. So thank you, Greg, wherever you are, thank you.
• 29:26
  But it's difficult for a lot of young lawyers because you don't know what you don't know. And one thing Tedrick and Dietrich always taught me and one thing that my father showed me was that one, you're not a lawyer until you have a client, right? Two, you kind of need to get up under somebody to show you how to do things, right? So that you're not making the kind of mistakes that wind up getting people disbarred. And again, you're going to, it's not about making the mistake.
• 29:54
  It's about making the huge mistakes that either cost somebody their life or cost somebody a goo gob of money that winds up putting you on the back burner and winds up having people or doing something unethical like taking money and not doing the job, which is, and I've heard of stories of people doing that. And that's a huge no no for me, huge no no. So you need somebody to kind of teach you those things. And I've been blessed to have a father who I've seen have a very, very ethical and community based practice. And I've had two mentors that have really poured into me, Tedrick and Dietrich have poured into me probably more than any other lawyers out there.
• 30:34
  My time, I cut my teeth at Baton Rouge and I love every minute of it.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So my last question here, I'm going to switch it up a little bit. Will you still get to practice law once you become judge? No. Or are you practicing in a different way because you're on the bench?
• 30:52
  Like, is it, what are the details? So
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I think people forget that judges are still lawyers. So judges are still lawyers. So you are still subject to the rules of the bar association and the judiciary, but you are not actively representing a client real or juridicals interests. So now you are an arbiter of the issue that comes in front of you, whether that be criminal or civil. And so by that virtue, you're supposed to be, as a friend of mine once said, an umpire calling balls and strikes, as opposed to somebody who's actually in the game pitching war back.
• 31:30
  So now you're the ump. And so you have to know what you're doing. It's a lot of reading. Lot of the, both the judges that I worked for, they were voracious readers. Every judge that I've known personally has been a voracious reader of the law and just of just other aspects of politics and life in general.
• 31:50
  And you bring your perspective to the bench, whatever that perspective is. Hopefully, it's a balance point. You know, sometimes it may be different than somebody else's, but that's what makes it beautiful.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's a good place for us to end because you just explained how you have all of this experience. You get to bring all of that to the bench. That's pretty cool.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: So, Yaan, you cut me off. That's the end of the interview?
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Only because my next guest is here. I don't know why y'all popping up early. I thought it was at 12:30. I haven't even eaten today. Today has been bananas.
• 32:23
  Okay. So today's episode, go listen to that one. I interviewed Samora, but also I interviewed two his board members for like this dental fund that they run. Wi Fi issues and Haiti was, you know what I mean? And it was like, I've never interviewed three people at one time.
• 32:37
  I was like, damn, I'm like a professional.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: You've been a professional for quite some time. Look, you're not for nothing. The belief that I have in you and your ability, Kyla, is just, it's over and it gushes when I talk to you.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Is this gushing?
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gushing. I don't know about you. I'm gushing because I know from the first time that I met you in the library during pre law, when you were trying to read God knows how long
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Look, I was scared, man. I was scared.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, it puts the fear in you, but like pre law doesn't it didn't count till now. Yeah. Right? When you have a successful podcast that will hopefully rival Joe Rogan and the rest of the guys very, very soon.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's It's been a
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: wonderful journey. But I've been able to see the whole journey and it's awe inspiring. Because I mean, you could have quit a couple of times.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: I could have quit a lot of times. I don't really have that thought. I never really think about stopping because somebody wants to hear the story. Somebody wants to run for judge. Somebody wants to be in the military and be a lawyer.
• 33:44
  Somebody wants to live 63 miles between where they work and they wanna know how to do it. Right? Like, I created this podcast because no one was talking about this stuff and I still don't think people are talking about it. So I'll keep doing it. I'll keep doing it.
• 33:57
  You Are a Lawyer is the only task or project I have that I don't even have on my calendar because I know every Thursday there's an episode. I know I have to record. Like a lot of other things, it's like, oh, nail appointment, pick up the baby.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: It's Buy some groceries. So it's it's completely ingrained in everything and every fiber of your
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Completely ingrained. It's completely ingrained. So, it's fun. It's fun. It's amazing that it's been going for five years because, like, it's picking up.
• 34:23
  I can't even tell you when we get off of this recording, I probably have three people who just signed up to be a guest. It is unbelievable how it like rose. I am constantly recorded five months in advance.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you. Everything begins with belief.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Everything begins with belief. Like we both had belief in what we were doing. And look, I believed in you. I saw it in you when we first had that first conversation. I was like, Oh no, this is really and truly I'm paying it forward to you the same way people paid it forward to me.
• 34:50
  And I think that gets lost on people oftentimes when they think it's supposed to be just, Okay, I take off and, you know, thank you for everything, but everybody else, you don't touch other lives. And I think that does a disservice to everybody else in a particular profession and around you.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: No, it's true. I mean, because a lot of people ask me what I get out of the podcast and I'm like, besides talking to different people, I've only met maybe seven of the lawyers in real I met you. But I mean, like, even I talk to a Southern University graduate every year, I pitch to these people on LinkedIn. These aren't always people that I've met. Right?
• 35:29
  Like all of this stuff is new. And so it's amazing. I think to be able to create something out of your bare hands is like amazing. And so you've done that with your career. I'm doing that with the podcast.
• 35:41
  We're both doing it with our lives. Like you're creating every day.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I will say this, I will push back on that. I didn't do it with my bare hands necessarily. Some people gave me direction and materials and a plan and said, all right, this is a blueprint. You can do it however you want to. However, right, this worked for me, this may not work for you, but if you do at least these five things, read, pay attention, observe, keep your mouth shut when people who are talking to you know more than you, and then accept constructive criticism when things happen and somebody's taking the time to kind of pull you aside as many people have done for me, pull me aside and say, Hey, look, this was good.
• 36:25
  Work on this, read this, do that, and maybe you may shift. Or, Hey, join the JAG Corps. Like it may be a great opportunity for you to learn the practice of law from another perspective. I feel like the spirit of my grandfather, Horace Moody, my grandmother, my father, my mother, the whole Moody clan at Southern, and then a product of a lot of fine education and tutelage from Southern graduates and Southern professors. Because it really is the greatest lost world on the planet.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: It is, it is. I mean, we knew you were going to be successful. Your dad is from Ohio. I'm from Ohio. Was preordained.
• 37:06
  Thank you so much for everybody who's listening who is in East Baton Rouge Parish, who knows someone in East Baton Rouge Parish, please share the podcast episode and let them know there is a judicial race coming up. Everybody get And if you're in New Orleans and you know somebody, you know, share it. Tell tell a friend that tells a friend. Right? I'm in Ohio.
• 37:24
  We're talking about it. Everybody is connected in one way or another. So thank you so much for sharing your story.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for giving me video time too instead of just audio.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Alright. Alright. You. Bye. Bye.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to You Are A Lawyer. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and leave a rating of this podcast. New episodes are released every week. So keep taking risk in your legal and I will talk to you on the next episode. Bye.