First Jobs, Hard Lessons, and a Lucky Break – Stan’s Story Part 2

Stan’s Beginnings

My passion for helping new attorneys plot their own courses in the legal profession has its roots in my childhood, years before I became an entrepreneur myself. I’ve worked hard most of my life, starting with a string of childhood jobs — delivering newspapers, washing dishes, working retail, hauling away trash — and, in college, waiting tables and tending bar.

While I worked those first jobs, I studied my bosses: how they conducted business and how they managed their employees. The lessons I learned in my youth planted the seed that grew into my interest in entrepreneurship and management. Those early work experiences also built my confidence in myself and gave me an appreciation for what good customer service can accomplish.

Finding My Way During And After College

In college, I began my studies in pre-med before considering following the family tradition and becoming a lawyer. But the prospect of working long hours as an associate at a huge law firm, with no control over which clients I represented or what my schedule looked like, did not appeal to me.

After graduating from college at the University of California, Berkeley, I applied to law schools but also pursued a career in sales. My experience with cold-calling quickly focused me on the law. Still, I worried about how I could afford to take on three more years’ worth of student debt just after finishing college.

Then fate intervened. A college friend called me. His father and uncle were J.W. Hughes and Jerry Denna, successful businessmen based in Issaquah. As my friend explained, Hughes and Denna were offering to pay the tuition for my first year of law school if I could get accepted into the University of Puget Sound Law School in Tacoma, Washington (now Seattle University School of Law). They would also lend me a car and help pay my rent. Stunned at their generosity, I gratefully accepted.

My own career as an attorney and entrepreneur was made possible by the help of my elders. That’s why I try to pass the knowledge and wisdom I acquired over the following decades on to the next generation — and my work with the incubator program at Seattle University School of Law makes that possible.

Read more about Stan’s story

• Stan’s Story Part 3 ➤
• Stan’s Story Part 4 ➤
• Stan’s Story Part 1 ➤
• Stan’s Story Part 5➤