-: My name is Raymond Lubus
and I am an attorney.
Over the 35 years, it's encompassed
simple things from, you know, doing someone's will
or doing probate when someone passes away,
real estate transaction to
more
traditional lawyer practices,
such as criminal defense and family law,
divorce, personal injury cases,
breach of contract lawsuits,
juvenile delinquency matters,
and neglect and abuse petitions,
so it's a very diversified practice.
Well, I think that, you know,
the most important thing is
when you initially meet a client,
you know, no one's asking you,
"Where did you go to school?",
but they are going to judge whether
or not you are the right fit for them
as their attorney based on that interaction,
that initial interaction that you have with them
when you are interviewing them
and having your first consultation.
That's probably the most important thing
because if it's not a good relationship,
either from the attorney looking to the client
or the client, especially, looking towards the attorney,
then it's probably not the best one
that's going to go forward.
After that,
and once you are formally retained,
you then begin the discovery process.
Sometimes, that includes hiring private investigators,
sometimes that includes
making them produce documents.
There's a whole laundry list of discovery,
including taking people's depositions
and statements from witnesses,
so you wanna be able to have a complete picture.
Because of the diversity of the types
of matters that I handle,
I am in a courtroom
probably three out of five times a week.
If you do family law at all,
you're in the court having hearings,
and in fact, I keep that family law aspect
of my practice because it keeps your trial skills sharp.
Just this past
week on Tuesday, I was in a courtroom
for a three-hour hearing where there
were three witnesses,
where you were doing direct examination
and cross examination,
so it's good because when you get
into a real serious case, you know,
I've had serious felony cases where
that person's livelihood of whether
or not they go to jail,
or whether or not they're found innocent,
rests on your ability to effectively try a case
and you need to be prepared,
you need to be able to go forward,
and you need to do it with confidence,
and so, getting into the courtroom,
for me, is important.