Plano Divorce Attorney
Deep Roots
I've got deep roots in this community. On my dad's side of the family, I'm a 5th generation resident of Collin County. My great-great-grandfather was Josiah Nichols, who moved to Texas from Missouri shortly after Texas joined the USA. Josiah was a Texas Ranger and was paid in land in Collin County, where he was later elected Sheriff. Later he served as Justice of the Peace, and as Tax Assessor-Collector.
Still on my dad's side, my grandfather, Halsell Samuel Davis (Senior) served in World War I, and was wounded and gassed in the battle of the Argonne Forest. He returned to Collin County and was elected District Clerk of Collin County in 1928.
On my mom's side, I'm a 6th generation Texan and a 4th generation Dallasite. If you grew up in Dallas and were a member of the East Dallas YMCA, the “Y” you remember was my great-grandfather's house (my great-grandmother sold it to the Y when my great-granddad died). My maternal grandfather sailed around the world for a year of his college career, and later became the first person in Dallas to sell fiberglass-hulled sailboats.
I grew up in University Park, and my brother and I would ride our bicycles about a mile to watch them dig the hole for the foundations of what became Northpark Mall.
While in graduate school I played rugby with the Dallas Harlequins (as tight-head prop, or #3). The Harlequins were good back then, but they got really good after they got rid of me.
And I met my wife, the former Miss Ann Singleton, in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas.
Law's Not my First Career
I got a BA degree from Baylor and then an MBA from North Texas State University (now University of North Texas, and when my grandmother went there it was North Texas Teachers' College). My first job was as an Assistant National Bank Examiner with the Comptroller of the Currency, US Treasury. Later I went to work for a series of management consulting firms consulting in bank operations and cash management, culminating as a Manager in the consulting division of Arthur Young and Company, one of the Big 8 accounting firms, back when there were 8.
From there I became Vice President of Operations and Data Processing for Provident Bancorp, a 5-bank holding company worth a little less than a billion dollars. I established a centralized data processing and customer service facility for the company. Meanwhile, the Savings and Loan Crisis was upon us, Arthur Young and Company was being acquired by Ernst and Whinney to become Ernst and Young, and banks and thrifts were failing left and right. Provident Bancorp had a night of the long knives, with half a dozen senior execs being given their walking papers, including me (the second most junior cut loose).
As banks merge, the resulting company needs about as many loan officers after the merge as they did before. But economies of scale are achieved in consolidating the operations side, and folks like me were being consolidated out of jobs left and right. Things were so bad that when I started drawing unemployment, they didn't even require me to have any job interviews. Just get the business cards of two folks I had sent a letter to or had tried to call.
I drew unemployment until it ran out, and then finally answered the family calling to the law. My dad and both my paternal uncles are lawyers. I got a bachelor pad in Waco and attended Baylor Law School during the week. I came home to Dallas on the weekends and gave my wife a much-needed break from complete responsibility for taking care of our son. Law school was hard, but it was nothing like what my wife was going through working full-time and being basically a single mom during the week (to a 1-year old).
Practicing law – and developing a niche
But, I finally graduated law school, passed the bar exam, and got licensed to practice law. Having been laid off, I knew I wanted to be self-employed, so I went directly into the solo practice of law in Plano (partly because our son was about to enter first grade, and the schools in Plano are excellent).
Initially, I thought my banking and consulting background and my MBA would be the ticket to all kinds of business law. But what came through my doors were divorces, consumer protection suits, personal bankruptcies, and criminal defense cases. I wound up doing nothing but divorces by 2000, but had to figure a way to only handle the cases I could handle without going insane, so I invented what I now call Civilized Divorce. Along the way I wrote a book on how to start a solo law practice, which is still available on Amazon.com.
Music
Our son, Read, is a very talented musician, and is now enrolled at Belmont University in Nashville pursing a BBA in Music Business. I play harmonica, and my son and I have great fun playing together at blues jams, at bluegrass festivals, and in the praise band at our church. Ann has a mandolin she picks up from time to time and threatens to take lessons.
Ministry
I was heavily involved in Kairos prison ministry for a number of years, although recently I've migrated toward becoming a volunteer assistant chaplain at the Collin County Jail.
Marriage
I've had a rough time with my only child living in Nashville, but it's only drawn Ann and me closer together. We're looking forward to our 25th anniversary in October of 2009.
Martial Arts
I got my black belt in Aikido back in 1996, but stopped practicing when I ran for Justice of the Peace back then. Aikido is a Japanese martial art descended from Ju-Jitsu, and it's a sister art to Judo. It's a grappling art, and about as far removed as one can get from Karate or Tae Kwon Do. The word Aikido can be fairly translated as “the way of blending momentum,” as it tends to redirect force rather than directly countering it. I've recently started training again, and I'm really enjoying the grace, purpose, and focus that Aikido is bringing to my life.
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