i'm almost nervous because i have a celebrity attorney sitting here with me today she was born and raised in camden new jersey and came to be a prosecutor a criminal attorney she owns her own practice for thirteen years covering divorce house she's a leader in her community in her church a member of alpha kappa alpha sorority and a proud mother i am so excited to have my friend i'm not going to say daughter because you know you don't know how old i am but anyway absolutely right then let's do it so listen i've read that you wanted to be a lawyer you knew you want to be a lawyer in the fourth grade yes really yeah how did you know that and why did you want to be a lawyer ok so i grew up in camden as you stated and there were not a lot of role models in the community i was the first in my family to actually go to college really so i didn't really know a lot about careers that required college and law school and i overheard two adults talking about lawyers and i said well what is that and they said well that's too hard as to my school you don't need to know about that really i don't even know what a lawyer did they said that lawyers make a lot of money and that was it was yeah so but the the part that enticed me is when they said oh it's too hard you have to go to school for a long time so i like a challenge and i said you know what i'm going to do it and would do that and that's what i did and so did you find the mentors at that yes and that's very important so like i said i didn't have anyone in my family who would have been to a me to say ok this is what college is going to be like this is what you need to get into law school so i was a receptionist in high school at this company called the harbor league club and it basically was established for professionals where they came and have meetings in different events and one particular day i saw that there were a lot of judges that were there so in my mind i'm like ok this is my opportunity to actually get to find someone who can help me so there was one particular judge judge allen bogus and you actually just passed away this year and he was a mentor from age sixteen for me was i was sixteen so i approached him and i said you know listen i want to go to i to become a lawyer and i know that judges are lawyers and can you give me some advice on how to do it and he said you know i'm busy right now but right now your question and give it to my wife his wife was at the event as well and i'll answer your forget the actually you know when you have eleven pages yes and that's why i agree with you we need people who give back and who don't my help another player and i do an internship program in my office also every semester i have at least remember that i'm going to remember that too and send people to you yes i want one so now you've been a prosecutor worked in a prosecutor's office in a federal prison tell us briefly a little bit about how that prepared you for opening your own firm which i want to get to ok so my stepfather was a correction officer so i grew up seeing in the world of corrections and it was so interesting when i started out as a prosecutor let me back up i always said i wanted to do law enforcement type of practic career prosecutor was my goal when i apply for a scholarship through new jersey it was the new jersey prosecutor's scholarship and the i believe they only gave out maybe three for all applicants and i was selected as one and after getting that scholarship i was offered a job with the bergen county prosecutor's office in hackensack new jersey and i did that for a year and then i decided to start looking at federal jobs and i saw those job positions for an attorney at the bureau of prisons so i'm like oh my goodness this is like you know it is a bruise no so beautiful as you are you going to step into prison i think i know right and my stepdad did not want me to die but you're he didn't you didn't go to law school to work in a prison i said but i'm going to be the attorney for the and it was interesting it was it was just fascinating to see the psychological as big the ministry of aspect of corrections and i did that for a few years but i missed the court room and you did end up helping some of the inmates with issues right yeah like so they had grievances against staff members i would be the ones to respond to those grievances or if they're now if they sued the government i represented the government you know but i did have to do rounds through the special housing unit to make sure everything was ok there were no legal issues so that was interesting with all of that all those different types of law what's your favorite i would say family which is where i am now so let's go to your firm is called the law office l c and the funny part about that is this wasn't a plan i thought i was going to stay and corrupt and criminal law for the my entire career but then i found out i was pregnant with my daughter  born three months early so i was fortunate enough to have time off to be able to be with her about three months she was in the hospital for five and a half months yes and when i eventually went back to work because you know i had to pay bills and i didn't you know i planned not to have a job right it was hard for me to leave her every day and so that's when i decided you know what let me look into started my own practice and i researched i prayed and then when i got the confirmation that you need to do it i left my job and i started my own practice and that was in two thousand and thirteen years all right yeah yeah yeah so you handle divorce and custody issues and father's rights and things so do you ever get emotional with these cases or on one side or the other how do you how do you hear and i think that's what makes a good family law attorney a good attorney is when you have  and sometimes i care a little bit too much like i think of how i would feel if i was a my client shoes and even when i'm preparing a motion certification i feel like an actor because they're actors because i actually put myself in their lives in their shoes and as i'm writing i write how i would feel and when i'm done i feel exhausted i'm like oh my goodness you know how am i gonna raise these four kids tell my clients i give it my all but it's something that i feel compassionate about and i'm passionate about what i do so it's a hard area family law some attorneys will not touch family law because of the emotional part and clients are at their worst they're very needy angry you know so much going through a divorce have to be married for twenty something years or you know losing custody of their child so it's a hard area but i think i've finally develop some balance you know where i'm able to do an effective job in care but when i need to i have to shut it all and take care of myself i'm trying to picture you i mean i've known you for several years and i'm trying to picture you as this st and i'm like ok i think i live you a pope yeah but anyway so how long did it take to build up your practice to the successful as it is today well for the first year i worked out of my home office because my daughter then she came home and she was little and the whole purpose was to be there for her right so then it started to grow and grow and i said ok i can't have family law clients come into my home and then i bought an office around the corner and just by word of mouth it kept growing and people i have a good reputation with in my field judges respect me and i just truly care and it's just represent over almost fifteen hundred clients at this point making decisions that affect people's lives at least i'm arguing it and if it doesn't work it doesn't work but in a caring compassionate considerate judge i know i just i have no desire and mean like i said i have the utmost respect  but he talked about no lawyer is going to win every case i don't like to lose so the first time i lost a custody case i cried the whole ride home and i feel like i felt my client so my friend at the time said do you feel take yourself out of the lawyer position do you feel that your client deserved to have the children and i said no and that's when it hit me i said you know what i have to just do the best that i can i'm very honest with my clients and i feel that the chances are slim and i still want to go forward and i have to say you know what it's not about my ego it's about was best for the children that was hard though difficult because i still even when i lose now like you know certain cases one of my client doesn't  pay alimony but they make a significant amount and i'm telling them you're going to have to pay alimony they pay me to still fight it still you know a hard pill to swallow when i don't win because i don't like to this point my clients you know like lose i know are not a sore loser the people that i thought were right right now let's jump over on to t v because i know you're representing or you're giving legal counsel on these big new shows i think we have a clip of that i want to see a clip of of the new show what a new show that  on so tell me how did that come to be ok so it's a very interesting story about a year after i started my own practice i received a call from one of the booking managers at fox news channel and she asked if i was interested and give a legal commentary and i thought it was a friend of my play and like play and and she's like no i'm serious so i said well how did you get my name and she said i came across your website and she was like i like your career path and you never i didn't know anything about the field and the first time i was very nervous i'm not a nervous person but because it was so unfamiliar for me and then i did it for a few times and then i realized you know what just be yourself and know what you're talking about be prepared yeah and then i've been doing it for what twelve years now i don't even know was that long but i tried to find you couldn't find me though i was doing something and i know i like what i was talking to my son the other day and i said and so i'm going to interview then you know i'm telling you i didn't know until i started to like was you very good with that if not good so are you a regular now in all the stations so i'm not contracted with either network and because i still practice in my own practice right and that's my focus right so i go on as a guest legal commentator so i do fox news like you say h l n c n n i've done all the networks the most for the most part i'm off fox because i am not afraid to take the liberal side and they usually have their conservative you know representation once and i saw you on with i'm not going to mention his name getting giving him any credit but i was so upset with him he he has like a bad ring personality so you know i'm talking about right right he was badgering each of you when you try and answer your question right very like is very the first time that happened i'm like ok and you know we're taught to be polite i don't cut someone  i realize you know what they're going to come for you so you've got to come for them back right and i'm just not afraid to take the position of what i feel is right in you know it's not always what that particular network was like what happened here believe what other tourney is saying yeah or when the anchor questions me almost like my answer is considered to be wrong before i even answer the question so i get a little heated and you have mentioned something about seeing me as a so what's a typical day in the life of kesha my goodness a crazy day so as you stated i'm a mom so first and foremost i get my daughter ready for school and then i take her to school she's in high school now she's meeting the watch on thursday and then i either run the court or i go to the office and prepare for core papers that i need to prepare then i go pick her up i start my day take roughly forty five and then we come home work from home most of the time a fter i pick her up then i make dinner and then she sits on a couch she does her homework i sit next to her i do my work and she has a lot of homework i have a lot of work up to about twelve in the morning and lately i've been t actually she didn't realize this until recently she keeps me up she motivates me when i have a lot of work i see she's still working like very go and i said to her the other day i said what am i going to do we go to college she's going to keep me out and yeah you know you' miss kayla everyone's life is not like that i'm sure a lot more parents would love to be able to do that i know and i had wonderful it's a blessing yes and i said to her i work a lot but i'm so fortunate and blessed that i can work from home when i'm working on things that require me to say good right i'm not at another facility and she's with a nanny and i never wanted a nanny i always said i had a child she's first lawyer second right so i'm able to have the best you know i was one of if you had so do you feel that i call you celebrity lawyers so do you feel that being a celebrity lawyer now that it affects your practice in any kind of way good or bad in a good way and i think it does because a lot of times clients look me up before they come in for a consultation and when they see what i've done it gives me more credibility as a professional and then some one guy actually said to me this is were kind of her he said i was hesitant to call it because i thought i couldn't afford to and i said why would you say that he said because you're on t and i'm like no i'm a very smart business woman i'm not there to get five high pay and low clients i rather have a reasonable retainer and have a bunch of clients good quality ones i mean as you know so i'm not i'm still humble and i do know my worth so that's why i set my hourly rate but you do any pro bono work i do and there are times where i have a consultation and i just feel in my heart that ok this person can afford me but i really want to help this person and a new jersey requires you to do pro bono one case a year but beyond that i still get if there's a voice case of something like that and you feel that the person is not going to win in your consultation do you tell them that and still take on the case oh no i do i'm very honest i've had people leave my office because i told them the truth i just cannot sit there and say oh you will have to pay child support oh you're going to have the kids one hundred percent of the time so i'm brutally honest because i rather a person know what they're getting into instead of being surprise in and her year and that to use it with family law it's not as hard to take a case if they're not going to get what they want criminal cases i do very little criminal defense work because of that right i just can't it bothers me to know my clients don't go to prison i can't lie and say oh you know get probation right you know this is a life changing event so that when you train lawyers to be lawyers because we need more lawyers i know what that's where i remember i mention the meant in terms of yeah so i would say maybe thirteen of them now are practicing law and their lawyers and they always say i remember watching what you do you know and that's helpful and even a collie you know there's a woman that just started her own practice and she asked if i could give a quarters and i'm like sure you know do this do that and you need template to graduate appointment so i'm going to jump past the rapid mix and we're going to come back there for a minute so give me three tips this show is about information motivation information i need you to give me three tips to someone who's watching who wants to go out and be a lawyer what should they do what are the steps they should take a first three things that they should do ok so the first thing is to have a goal to say i want to be a lawyer i want to be this type of lawyer that lawyer and find out what you have to do to achieve that goal so that's how i did my life i wrote it actually before a vision for the writing on a random erosion of paper said it in my desk in hollywood so have the goal find out how you reach that goal and one of the biggest things is having a mentor you know i will people say why no one taught me i don't have anyone go find someone and i was very bold as you heard this very logical good and you have to want it so bad that you go and say ok re books about it talk to people and then finally when you finally reach it one of my biggest things is to give back you know to make sure you're doing it but you're helping someone else because it's the career is a very important career where you are affecting lives so you want to make sure there's ethical attorneys people who care the one looking out for the community that's under represented is like i said i came from camden right so i do have a soft spot for people who i know they just can't afford that good representation so i would say those three things and you practice in a state of new jersey all of the yes would you ever move somewhere else you know i've purposely only you know there are new jersey yeah when i was thing if we do have time let's double back to a need you to sum up for me your passion driving determination for what you do ok so i think what drives me is this wanting to have a better life  grew up in a helpful where we struggled you know in in my environment that we can then it was very crime infested poor so i wanted to be better and what continues to motivate me is my daughter and i know i can't fail because it's not just about me anymore i have her on my back and then i want her to go even higher than i am and also was big for me and my success is my faith and i know that everything's carved out from the moment before we have been born you know i don't know if i'm able to talk about god on the show but ok so i trust and truly believe god's plan for my life and even when it doesn't make sense or it hurts i say you know i trust you tell me what i need to do and that's i mean i'm divorced and i'm able to keep the life that i had and make sure my daughter has the life that she has because of my faith in god and him providing so that's very important for me it's been such seven three two eight seven three six four six four and my website gives all that information as well and if you need to get in touch me you can find that of course venus knows how to get how much you're going to see yeah oh my god leigh such a show make sure you tell somebody to tell somebody to tune in watch the show and spread the word we want to do more for you in two thousand one thing you can find me a lot of social media and i'll be looking forward to talking to you tell us what you feel about the show all right thank you and come