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When Lemons Won’t Make Lemonade
How I Failed to Turn Being Disbarred and Reinstated into a Legal Specialty
It was March of 2003. Effective the first of that year, the Oregon Supreme Court had made me the only lawyer in Oregon who had been disbarred and then allowed to practice law again. In the small pond where Oregon lawyers swim, I was briefly famous for having taken on the Oregon State Bar—an organization that had tried hard to ensure I never practiced again—and single-handedly beaten it before the state’s Supreme Court.
I quit my job driving forklifts and rented a building with an office downstairs and living quarters on the second floor. I had a sign painted and, using a rented posthole digger, designated the building the office of Orrin Onken, Attorney at Law.
I settled into my new office and waited for the phone to ring.
Which it did not.
Being the most disgraced practicing attorney in the state, no reputable firm was going to take me on as an employee, and, having worked blue-collar warehouse jobs for close to ten years, I didn’t know anyone who could afford to hire a lawyer even if they needed one.
I picked up a little research work from some attorneys willing to overlook my past and use my desperation to seriously underpay me. I got a…
