Nest Emptying, Practice Cut Back to Half Time (12 Hours per Day)

My youngest child graduates from high school next week, and a couple of weeks later I will celebrate the 30th anniversary of my admission to the Georgia Bar.  With one child in line for a “full ride” at RIT in New York, and the other child going off to play football in California with hopes to earn a “full ride” as a kicker after a year or so, someone asked when I plan to retire. 

My great-grandfather was still building houses and climbing on roofs until shortly before he died at 89. My grandfather was a minister-builder who was still preaching on Sundays, developing a subdivision, and building a new parsonage almost single-handed, until he worked himself to death at 84.  My dad turns 83 in a few weeks, and until 60 years of cigarettes caught up with him a few years ago, he was about as active as I am at 56.  Of 10 great aunts on the Shigley side of the family, several have made it to 102, and most made it past 90.   When I think of retirement, I think of my friend Bobby Lee Cook in Summerville, who still has a very active and successful trial practice at 80.  And of course there was the elder Frank Winn in Douglasville, who as clerk emeritus of Superior Court, continued walking to the courthouse and putting in half a day in the office until he was 102.

However, I do hope to cut back to half time — 12 hours per day — and take more trips with my wife.  Maybe she would like to accompany me on trips like the one to Kansas City for a deposition tomorrow, or one to Toledo and Bluffton, Ohio, for a conference next week, or to Tampa for a deposition the following week.

The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks.