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I’ve been an attorney for 37 years. I graduated from a small law school to the east of here; I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, it’s called the University of Michigan. They have a football team and everything it used to be a big deal. And over the last 37 years of my practice I’ve been, first, I was in downtown Chicago for seven years then I’ve been up here in Lake Forest since 1987. I think that I’ve had a great opportunity to really enjoy the community. I see my clients in the grocery store. I see my clients in a variety of different settings, school meetings, and boards, Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club all of which makes a very rewarding practice.
I think the most rewarding to me personally is to help people create plans that will come into effect at a time of great crisis in my client’s lives. I get the chance to not only help them craft these plans but then to help implement the plans when the time arises. And I will tell you that is very rewarding. I also enjoy the fact that I often see my clients over many years. It’s not unusual for me to write a will for a client and then 10 years, 15 years later we revisit the issues, make amendments, make changes and I get to know clients over a very long period of time. I have clients that I see occasionally since the mid ’80s and to have a 30-year relationship with clients is to me personally very rewarding.
I’m very active in the community. I’ve been president of the Lake County Bar Association, which is a thousand lawyer organization. The Lake County Bar Foundation I created it, I was the first president it’s a charitable remember. I’ve been president of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Estate Planning Council, the Optimists Club. You know, frankly, if it’s a lot of work and it doesn’t pay anything I’m all over it. I’ve had the opportunity as well to serve as an elected official on the Lake Bluff Village Board for eight years, which was a very interesting and difficult experience. It was a period of some change in our village. I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to provide some, I think, leadership in making the village the vibrant community that it is today.
Rick Lesser talks about rewarding aspects, his experience as a lawyer, and volunteering in his community.