THE CHAMPAGNE MOMENT

So here it is. For nearly two years friends, acquaintances, business associates and family have been nagging me to write a blog.
I've resisted for all this time for a couple of reasons. One, I am an incredibly slow writer who writes in three paragraphs what a good writer only needs half a sentence for. Second, I tend to get people's heart rate up thereby becoming the receiving end of not-so-nice comments. Third, there are lots of good writers, bloggers and legal news sites out there - so why another one? Besides, I prefer reading over writing.

This blog's theme is everything to do with the delivery of legal services to America's middle class and the legal services industry as a whole. I don't know of any other industry that is so reflective, self-critical and in such pursuit of change. Not because it wants to change but rather because it knows that change it must.

This blog's title is 'Bona Fide' or 'good faith'. Yes, it is legal lingo but there's also a story behind it. Back in the 80s, my dad owned a print shop in Gent, Belgium. Each spring, a priest-missionary who ran a village school in (then) Zaire came by to have the new school year's text books printed. Time was of the essence, he was only in town for a couple of weeks and many times we worked well into the night to get it all done. At the end of the job, an invoice was created and every year my father said the same thing: "Don't bother, he doesn't have any money - it's bona fide." For all these years, these boxes full of books left the store, unpaid. Then one year, this priest comes in the store with a pretty large parcel. He tells us that he is now retired and back in the country for good. He also tells us that he doesn't have the money to pay us but that he wants to give us his stamp collection instead. Long story short, my father accepts this stamp collection which ends up in a stamp auction. The collection sold for many times what we were owed. In the meantime, the priest had passed away and we sent the excess money to the parish he founded in Zaire.

The background picture I used is from West-Flanders (West-Vlaanderen), where I'm from. One would expect to use photos of gavels, law books, court rooms, etc. for a legal-type blog but that's boring galore. West-Flanders, the scene of many battles, was nearly completely destroyed in World War I but today contains much beauty, tons of historical sites and is arguably Belgium's economic engine. In addition, the world's best beer (Westvleteren) is just a hop, skip and a jump from my family's home.

My next post, probably tomorrow, will be about "Ceci n'est pas une pipe.".

I look forward to everyone's bona fide comments and bona fide opinions and you can always drop me a line at dominique@legalisus.com.