“When I was 9 or 10, I’d overhear my mom counsel her divorce clients on the weekends in the dining room. I found it fascinating. She’d say, ‘Don’t throw away $100k on legal fees. Instead of shrinking the pie you’re splitting, come up with a figure you can both live with and pocket an extra $50k each.’ You could hear them talking it over, ‘Maybe she has a point here. Maybe we should stop paying her the money and agree to something even if it’s not exactly what we had in mind.’”
For Jonathan Levy, law was his South African family’s profession. His mom was an attorney, as were his grandfather and uncles, and Mr. Levy followed suit.
Upon finishing law school, he clerked for a judge, joined a big firm, and stuck it out for 4 or 5 years ‘hanging on as long as I could.’ In short, he did not enjoy it. So for the next 20 years, Mr. Levy did other things – ran businesses, owned restaurants – and he was looking around for the next thing when his wife suggested he go back to law but not at a big firm. She was right.
In the trust, estate, and guardianship practice areas, Mr. Levy enjoys helping people through a tough time. Either they’ve lost someone and have to tangle with a greedy grieving partner over the estate, or a once-trusted trustee has made off with the assets, or a sibling has been left out of the will and the siblings are squabbling. So often, his advice is a variation on the theme of his mother’s advice all those years ago – ‘Why throw away $100k when you can pocket an extra $50k each?”
