Brandon Veasey

It’s safe to say that I took an unorthodox route to becoming an attorney—it’s certainly not something I grew up aspiring to be. But, I will never forget the moment I decided to pursue a law degree.

My oldest son was born the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college. His mom and I would go to classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we worked multiple jobs between us the rest of the week. I built and cleaned swimming pools Monday/Wednesday/Friday, coached high school wrestling in the evenings, and bartended at my parents’ honky-tonk on the weekends—it was a pretty wild way to grow up.

Shortly after our son was born, a brand new Lamborghini pulled up to the pump next to me as I was putting gas in my beat up old work truck. I was nineteen years-old, covered in mud from building pools, and and on my way home to get ready for work at the bar that night. I was exhausted, a little pissed off, but also pretty excited to see who was driving such an exotic car—which was rare to see even in Peachtree City at the time—and out steps the best dressed human being I’ve ever seen. Custom suit, diamond clad watch, matching suspenders, and shoes that would make Cole Haan jealous. He definitely looked like an asshole (I can say this because we’re now friends) but, more importantly, he was obviously successful. All I could think at the time was “there’s no way this asshole works half as hard as I do.” I promised myself that I would find out what he did for a living and then I would do whatever it took to pursue that same career. As fate would have it, I called a friend when I left to tell him about the rich guy in the lambo and he says to me “that’s my dad’s friend, Eric, he’s a lawyer.” And, that was that. Seven years later I graduated from law school and passed the Bar exam.

Oh, since I called him an asshole, I have to confess that I could not have been more wrong, Eric is the hardest working person I’ve ever been around. The guy is a machine. After I hounded him and forced every mutual acquaintance I know to hound him, Eric hired me as an unpaid intern during my first year of law school. I told myself that regardless of what I had to do, I would get to the office before him and leave after him every day. That happened one time during the entire summer I worked there. But, not only is he a workhorse, Eric is absolutely one of the most generous and kind people I know. On my last day as a (volunteer) intern, he handed me a paycheck and offered me a job after I graduated. I will never forget the appreciation and mentorship Eric showed me and has continued to show me since the moment I met him.