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Gotta Find My Purpose: An Update from Skylark and Think Pink Law

One of my favorite NSFW musicals is Avenue Q, where the main character (a puppet / liberal arts graduate), spends most of the story trying to find his purpose in life.  I think it strikes a chord with me because I am constantly re-examining whether my work reflects my values.  When Attorney Trask left Kelsey & Trask, P.C. last year, I was given an opportunity to reconsider how this firm reflected what I, personally, found most important.

Throughout the last year, that self-reflection has resulted in some changes that helped us focus more on our dispute resolution work and resulted in the creation of Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. - where we help families resolve conflict.
That has become the central theme of our work and with that focus we have removed some practice areas and added others, and we have grown our staff to cover those new practice areas.

First, what have we removed?  Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. will no longer be handling bankruptcy, criminal defense or firearms cases.  For bankruptcy we recommend The Law Offices of Lee Darst; for criminal defense we recommend Cappetta Law Offices; and for firearms related work we recommend Julie Tolek of Think Pink Law.  Julie recently became an Associate at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC, and will continue to run her own practice as well.

Julie has helped me and Skylark to focus on the areas where we can best help our clients.  To expand the ways in which we help families, we have officially added adoption, prenup/postnup work, and probate mediation as practice areas.  Skyark also continues to have the staff and experience to assist with divorce, mediation, collaborative law, appeals, QDRO preparation, Guardian Ad Litem appointments, conciliation, and consulting services for family law professionals.  Our consulting services range from litigation and mediation advice, to business and marketing advice.

In short, we've found our purpose.  For Julie, she will continue to represent both individual and business clients navigating second amendment compliance, and she will join in the efforts of Skylark Law & Mediation, where we now focus all of our energy on a single purpose: helping families resolve conflict.



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