Martin Whitehead:
CLASS OF 1979
Columbia Central High SchoolClass of 1979
Brooklyn, MI
Grand Rapids Baptist CollegeClass of 1983
Grand rapids, MI
Martin's Story
My story after HS is a lot like many others. College. And I found out I liked studying after all. Went to Grand Rapids Baptist College and graduated in '83 with BA in History and Speech. Of course that gave me countless career options -- countless as in zero! I had started to get a teaching degree, but after getting in the classroom decided that was not for me. I worked the summer of '83 at the Kent County Courthouse processing traffic tickets, then married my college sweetheart and moved to her home state of Illinois.
We lived in Alton, IL (across the river and N of St. Louis) for about a year while Shannon worked for a marketing firm and I worked hard at failing as a life insurance agent. I hated that job. Law school had crossed my mind at one point and my dad suggested I look into paralegal school, which was an emerging profession in the mid-80's. His offer to pay for it was persuasive. I attended an ABA approved school in Philadelphia for about six months while Shannon stayed with her folks.
After paralegal school I followed the work (and Shannon's family) to Kansas City, MO. At that time I didn't even know that there were two Kansas Citys! The one across the river in KS is "Kansas City Minor." KC MO is what most people mean when they mention Kansas City. Go Chiefs!
Our first house was...Expand for more
about 32 miles N of KC in the small town of Lathrop, where we lived for eight years. These were our "lean years." Jacob was born in '86 and we had decided before we were married that she'd stay home while the kids were little. Things were tight, but we managed. Shannon homeschooled Jake through 10th grade.
I worked one year at a small law firm that no longer exists. After getting my feet wet there, I moved to what was considered a fairly good-sized firm in KC in the mid-'80's. It had 20 lawyers. It grew to 68 lawyers by 1995 when it was acquired by a truly large St. Louis firm, Bryan Cave LLP. I think we have about 1,000 lawyers and 1,500 staff in 22(?) offices worldwide. Our KC office has about 100 lawyers and 16-18 paralegals. Anyway, I've been working in the same offices for almost 23 years.
I work primarily on commercial litigation, but also in products liability, employment, environmental and wherever else I'm needed. For the last ten years I've done a lot of work with computers and databases. I go to trial 2 or 3 times a year (no, it's not like Law & Order where they're in the courtroom every week and all cases are concluded in 17 min. or less).
In 1993, the same year Ethan was born, we moved to Kearney, MO, which is only about 24 miles from the office. That's about it. Send me note.
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